Design Lead

Design Lead We’re building the next generation of employee benefits infrastructure. We help global teams design, manage, and scale benefits that actually work for their people by using AI, across flex allowances, benefits, insurance, recognition, and wellbeing, all in one intelligent platform. Happl is backed by leading investors such as YCombinator, 6Degrees Capital, and more, known for backing leading companies such as Deel, Rippling, Airbnb, Coinbase, Dropbox, and most recently was awarded a place in the UK’s top 100 startups for 2026. About the Role As a Design Lead at Happl, your mission is to define and shape how Happl looks, feels, and is remembered. This goes beyond our platform, you'll be owning anything design across the company, including social, website, platform, app and more. As the first member in our design team, you’ll obsess over craft and detail, building a distinctive, recognisable brand that resonates with HR leaders, People teams, and senior stakeholders. You’ll sit at the intersection of design, product, and technology, using AI and modern tools to prototype fast, ship often, and continuously raise the bar on quality. You’ll work closely with Product and Engineering to deeply understand customer needs and reimagine how users interact with our platform, while owning everything beyond the product too: website, socials, campaigns, events, and brand moments that make Happl stand out. This is a high-impact, high-ownership role for someone who thrives on challenge, brings bold ideas, moves quickly, and cares deeply about how things are made, not just that they ship. What you’ll be doing - Owning UX/UI across the Happl product, from concept to shipped experience - Prototyping and shipping ideas quickly using modern tools and AI-assisted workflows - Working closely with Product to deeply understand customer problems and turn them into elegant, intuitive solutions - Shaping and evolving Happl’s visual identity to be instantly recognisable to HR leaders and senior stakeholders - Designing and building our website, landing pages, and marketing surfaces - Creating assets for socials, campaigns, launches, and events - Designing and shipping prototypes to test new ideas, flows, and interactions - Maintaining and evolving design systems, patterns, and standards across product and brand - Bringing new ideas, tools, and approaches to how we design, build, and ship - Raising the overall quality bar What we’re looking for - A strong design craft with taste, range, and attention to detail - 4+ Experience working across UX/UI, brand, and digital experiences - Comfort operating in product teams and collaborating closely with engineers - A bias toward shipping — you like getting things live, not just perfect - Experience using modern prototyping tools and AI to move faster and explore more - Someone who enjoys ownership, ambiguity, and being challenged - Strong opinions, loosely held, you care deeply but stay flexible - Ability to think in systems while still sweating the small details - A portfolio that shows shipped work across product, brand, or both If you don’t tick every box but this role excites you, we’d still love to hear from you. Why join Happl - Help shape the future of employee benefits - Competitive base salary and commission - Meaningful equity in an early stage growing business - Flexible hybrid working from day one - Access to your own Happl benefits platform - Optional enrolment in Private Health Insurance - Optional enrolment in Dental insurance, including family cover - A flexible Wellbeing budget to spend on whatever wellbeing means to you - Learning & Development (L&D) allowance - Work From Home (WFH) setup allowance (for remote roles) - Home office setup budget - Pension scheme from day one #LI-BS1