Design Lead

We're a mission-driven, well-funded startup on the cusp of launching a game-changing climate-tech platform, backed by three global banks . Our goal? To simplify complex challenges and help businesses build for the future. SMEs drive a significant share of global emissions but often lack the tools, resources, and support to respond. We're delivering bold, practical solutions that enable them to operate smarter, stay ahead of regulation, and meet rising expectations from customers, investors, and partners.

Our platform empowers financial institutions and large organisation to work directly with their clients and supply chain partners to reduce operational risk, mitigate their climate impact, and drive real cost savings. We deploy through major institutions, enabling deep decarbonisation across global supply chains, fuelled by powerful data and automation. If you're looking to build something that truly matters at the intersection of technology, sustainability, and impact, this is your chance to get in early and help shape a category-defining company.

We're looking for a creative and intuitive Design Lead to shape the user experience and visual identity of K423's products. This person would be pivotal in create intuitive, user-centric designs that align with the company's strategic goals.

• Define and execute the design vision, strategy, and roadmap for the company's SaaS products, ensuring that all designs align with business objectives and user needs.
• Leading, mentoring, and inspiring the cross functional teams from a design perspective will be a core responsibility.
• Foster a culture of creativity and collaboration, overseeing the end-to-end design process from research and ideation to final implementation.
• Conducting user research and usability testing to inform design decisions, creating wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs that deliver exceptional user experiences, ensuring the products are both functional and visually appealing.
• Working closely with product managers, engineers, and other stakeholders will be essential, advocating for design best practices and user-centred principles, ensuring designs are feasible and aligned with technical constraints.
• Developing and maintaining a scalable design system will be a key focus, ensuring consistency across products and staying up-to-date with industry trends and emerging design technologies to keep the company at the forefront of design innovation

It would be great if you have the below experience, but even if you're not ticking all the boxes, we'd still love to hear from you!

• Proven experience as a Design Lead or Senior Designer, preferably in a SaaS and/or climate-tech environment.
• Strong portfolio showcasing expertise in UX/UI design and user-centred design principles.
• High proficiency in design tools such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, or similar and experience in creating and maintaining design systems.
• Excellent leadership, communication, and problem-solving skills.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams and managing stakeholders.

It'd be even better if you have:

• Climate / ESG expertise.
• Worked in an early-stage start-up funded by institutions.

If you've read this far, hopefully you're already very keen on this opportunity and confident that it aligns with the kind of company you'd like to be a part of. As a last step before reaching out, please take a moment to review these points to ensure they align with your own career and personal preferences.

• London based role: easily accessible near Euston Station.

• Four-day in-office rhythm: We work from the office four days a week, with one fixed WFH day to recharge and focus.

• Real-time, in-person culture: As a fast-moving startup, we value face-to-face collaboration, quick huddles, and spontaneous problem-solving.

• Collaborative energy: From coffee-fuelled brainstorms to whiteboard sessions, we're a team that thrives on sharing ideas in the moment.

• Up to £100,000 (depending on experience)
• We offer a path to generous equity for all of our employees.
• Private Healthcare
• 33 days holiday (including bank holidays)
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Advanced parental leave
• A chance to make a genuine, practical impact on building a more sustainable future
• Large financial institution backing, and a small yet driven team of experts.