Head of Brand Design

Special

$180K — $300K *
Consumer Technology
Less than 5 years of experience
Job Overview by Ladders

Qualifications

  • Proven experience in brand design or product feature delivery in web/mobile.
  • Strong commitment to user experience and design quality.
  • Ability to thrive in fast-paced and evolving environments.
  • Interest in practical industries such as healthcare and services.
  • Familiarity with AI-assisted design tools and workflows.
  • Excellent communication skills for cross-discipline collaboration.

Responsibilities

  • Design comprehensive user experiences across all brand platforms.
  • Engage closely with users in the field to understand their operational needs.
  • Rapidly prototype designs using traditional and AI-enhanced tools.
  • Collaborate with engineering teams to ensure high-quality implementation.
  • Develop and manage a scalable design system for multiple ventures.
  • Enhance and define the company's visual identity as it evolves.

Benefits

  • Meaningful equity participation.
  • Comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage.
  • Access to a 401(k) plan.
  • Short and long-term disability insurance.
  • Life insurance options.
Full Job Description
About The Role

You'll be the lead designer across the entire holding company, from Special's own brand surfaces (special.co, marketing materials, announcements), SpecialOS (our operating system that runs our companies), and Figure Health (our first vertical). You'll work directly with founders, engineers, and operators in the field to turn messy operational processes into beautiful experiences.

Design is a top priority at Special. This role is for a designer who wants range: one week you're refining a clinician workflow, the next you're designing a brand system for a new vertical launch.

Responsibilities
  • Design end-to-end experiences across Special's brand, SpecialOS and Figure Health brand surfaces
  • Deeply understand the operators who use our OS every day - including time in the field at our vertical companies
  • Rapidly explore and prototype using both traditional and AI-assisted design tools
  • Partner closely with engineering to ship polished, production-quality experiences
  • Build and maintain the design system that scales across the holding company and every vertical we enter
  • Shape Special's external brand and visual identity as the company grows


Basic Qualifications
  • Have shipped meaningful brand design work and/or product features on web/mobile
  • Care deeply about craft, clarity, and user experience
  • Are comfortable working in fast-moving, ambiguous environments where the org and the product are both being built in real time
  • Are interested in real-world industries - healthcare, services, the physical economy - not just consumer software
  • Embrace new design and engineering workflows, including AI-assisted tooling
  • Communicate clearly and collaborate well across disciplines, including with non-technical operators


Preferred Skills and Experience
  • Front-end development skills; ability to turn your designs into production
  • Strong portfolio demonstrating product thinking, execution, and range across product and brand
  • Experience translating design requirements from non-technical users
  • Familiarity with modern design and prototyping tools, including AI-native ones
  • Brand and visual identity work alongside product design
  • Experience working closely with engineers and founders in early-stage environments
  • Video editing experience


Location

In-person in NYC.

Compensation and Benefits

$180,000-$300,000 USD

Base salary is one part of our total rewards package at Special, which also includes meaningful equity, comprehensive medical, vision, and dental coverage, access to a 401(k), short and long-term disability insurance, life insurance, and additional benefits.

Similar Jobs

More Jobs at Special

More Consumer Technology Jobs

Find similar Head of Brand Design jobs: