Founding Creative Director / Design Lead

Founding Creative Director / Design Lead Location: San Francisco, CA or Phoenix, AZ | Work Style: Full-time In-Person The Role & Mission Our client is building the financial infrastructure for the next generation of education finance, specifically targeting the $1.5T of Education Funds currently available in the US. They are enabling families to access the $900B US public education budget, which is being opened up so parents can control an average of $7,500 per child per year through state-funded Education Savings Accounts (ESAs). The product is a high-trust system consisting of a charge card, reimbursement engine, and education vendor marketplace. As the Founding Creative Director, you will be the first design hire at a company that has raised $16M from top-tier VCs and angels. You won't be executing a roadmap handed to you; you will be building the design function from zero, establishing the visual identity, and shaping the core product experience alongside the co-founders. The Design Challenge:

The Benchmark: Think Stripe (trust through clarity) meets Duolingo (warmth and engagement), rather than traditional fintech UI. Low Digital Literacy: You must design for families who are not digital natives, distilling compliance-grade complexity into an experience that feels as intuitive as a consumer app. Systems Thinking: You will own every external-facing touchpointfrom the mobile app UX and design tokens to film, social content, and investor decks. High Intensity: This is an in-person company where the team works together in the office six days a week