Lead Product Designer

About Very (Remote – USA) Very is a fully distributed technology firm led by expert problem-solvers who create efficient, scalable solutions that move commercial, industrial, and consumer products from pilot to production in record time. We believe that real innovation happens in the grind, working shoulder to shoulder with clients who are building the future. Our team thrives on that energy. When we’re not helping clients deliver business-critical outcomes, we’re refining our craft and celebrating what it means to do hard things well. We’ve built a collaborative, tight-knit culture that thrives in both remote and in-person settings. We’ve won numerous workplace awards over the years, including Great Place to Work certification and recognition from Parity.org as a Best Company for Women to Advance. Our clients include well-known brands like Vizio, Peloton, Clear, iHeart Radio, and Fellowes — all determined to leverage connected devices and AI to drive meaningful impact. Our job is simple: help them win. About This Role A lead owns the design on a project, end to end. You run the full arc, from the fog of an undefined problem through launch, and you set the design direction for everyone working alongside you on that project. You're the one the client works with through execution, the one who keeps the work coherent when the brief is ambiguous and the target keeps moving, and the one who makes sure the other designers on the project are pulling in the same direction. You go deep and you own the outcome. This role reports to the Director of Design. We're embracing AI and figuring out where it actually belongs. Using it everywhere isn't the goal, and using it doesn't mean we stop doing craft. We think AI is good at expanding on patterns, not creating them, and at giving us specific tools to design more fluidly across design and code. We pick our spots, and we never take human judgment out of the process. We want someone who has started folding AI into their own workflow and is eager to learn from, and push on, what we're building. What You’ll Be Working On Own the project. Run the full arc of design, from problem definition through launch. Set the design strategy and keep the other designers on the project aligned to it. Own the design relationship with the client through execution. Do the work. UX, UI, interactive prototyping, research, data visualization, and design systems. Run discovery workshops and alignment sessions. Facilitate feedback with clients and their users. Partner closely with engineering. Make sure design QA happens. Work the way we work. Adopt and apply our team standards for AI-enabled design, and contribute back to the tools and processes that come out of them. Help the designers around you grow. Minimum Qualifications Experience At least 5-7 years of relevant design experience A track record of launching real products, not just polished concepts. Zero-to-one and incremental work both. Experience leading design on a project and setting direction for other designers. This isn't a people-management role; it's about owning the design outcome. Communication above all. Writing matters, but what matters more is your ability to speak, articulate your thinking, and carry a room. Self-direction and ownership. You scope your work, manage its blast radius, and know when to push back or say no. Comfort with ambiguity, at both the design and business layer. Design systems thinking as a core competency. Someone already integrating AI into their practice, and energized rather than threatened by it. Technical Capabilities UX and UI design Interactive prototyping User research Data visualization Design systems Nice to Have IoT and connected-product experience React, HTML, and CSS (our team does this; we can teach it) Experience designing for data-heavy or analytical products, where the challenge is making complex information feel clear and actionable Experience designing agentic or AI-driven products, you understand how to design for systems that act, not just respond. Location and Residency Must be authorized to work in the United States of America without sponsorship. How we’ll evaluate you A portfolio is required, alongside your resume. We want your best work, and only you can decide what that means for a team like Very. We're looking for two things at once. Breadth: a quick read on your range and craft across a body of work. And depth: be ready to take us deep into two projects, walking us through the audit, the goals, the collaboration, the outcomes, and what you'd do differently. We'll spend most of our time there. How you present it is up to you. We care more about the thinking than the packaging. Be ready to go deep live, in the moment and without prep. You should know your work front to back. And while you'll use AI on the job every day, our interview focuses on your ability to design, communicate, and facilitate without it. We want to see the fundamentals. Skills In addition to experience, these a