Staff User Experience Designer

ABOUT US Sydecar is on a mission to transform the world of private markets. Our goal is to make these markets more accessible, transparent, and liquid, and we're achieving this by revolutionizing the way investment vehicles are created and executed. At Sydecar, we're not just a platform; we're a trusted partner in venture capital. We're dedicated to simplifying and standardizing the private investing experience, empowering capital allocators to discover and support visionary entrepreneurs who are shaping the future. Our platform is designed with ease and efficiency in mind. We take care of all the behind-the-scenes tasks, from automating banking, ensuring compliance, handling contracts, managing taxes, to streamlining reporting. This leaves investors the freedom to concentrate on what matters most: making valuable deals and nurturing meaningful relationships. Join us at Sydecar, as we lead the charge in revolutionizing private investing. ABOUT THE ROLE We’re hiring a Staff User Experience Designer to help redefine our product experience as we scale. This is a high-ownership, high-execution role for a design leader who moves fast, makes strong decisions, and drives work to completion while maintaining an exceptional bar for craft and customer understanding. You’ll operate as a player coach and a mentor, working alongside a team of 2-3 Product Designers while remaining deeply hands-on. This role may grow into formal people management over time, but the immediate focus is hands-on design leadership and mentorship. You’ll play a central role in shaping product strategy through deep user research, strong design judgment, and close partnership with Product and Engineering. Our product operates in a regulated environment, serving a broad range of customers from first time investors and deal organizers to large venture capital firms. Success in this role requires balancing compliance and regulatory constraints with delivering a best-in-class, intuitive experience for complex financial workflows. WHAT YOU’LL DO Own and Evolve the End-to-End UX - Lead the evolution of the entire user experience for deal leads, investors, and internal operations teams - Personally drive design on high-impact initiatives, from discovery through delivery - Simplify complex, regulated workflows into clear, intuitive, and experiences that create trust for our customers - Set and maintain a high bar for design quality while operating with startup speed Research-Led Design Leadership - Lead user research as a first-class input to product strategy and design decisions - Partner closely with Product Managers to define problems, test assumptions, and validate solutions - Act as a strong voice of the customer in roadmap and prioritization discussions as well as on specific initiatives - Synthesize qualitative and quantitative insights into clear, actionable direction Design Systems & UI Foundations - Lead the adoption and evolution of design systems, shared UI components, and design libraries - Partner with Engineering and Product to ensure consistent implementation across the product - Define standards, guidelines, and best practices that enable speed without sacrificing quality - Balance systemization with flexibility as the product evolves Design for Impact in a Regulated Environment - Work with SMEs to balance regulatory, compliance, and operational requirements with excellent UX - Design systems and flows that support trust, accuracy, and clarity for investors and deal organizers - Make confident tradeoffs when constrained, and communicate them clearly - Use data to inform decisions and optimize for outcomes such as conversion, activation, and retention Support the Growth of the Design Team - Act as a coach and mentor for more junior Product Designers - Provide direct feedback and clear creative direction to keep work moving and maintain quality. - Foster a culture of trust, collaboration, speed, accountability, and continuous improvement - Help designers gro