Head of Product Design

About Stellic

Remember the days when you were navigating your academic path — the feeling of being lost, unsure of which courses to take, or uncertain about your graduation timeline? At Stellic, we get it because our journey started just like yours. Born out of the challenges faced by international students at Carnegie Mellon, we’ve grown into a movement that’s reshaping the future of education by addressing one of higher education’s biggest challenges: the $200B dropout crisis.

Today, we are partnered with universities across 7 countries — including top institutions like Cornell, Columbia University, and Ohio State University — to empower 1M+ students to take control of their academic journey with clarity, confidence, and purpose. Our platform gives students the tools they need to plan ahead, stay on track, and succeed, from day one through graduation.

At Stellic, we believe in the power of personalized education, and our culture thrives on collaboration, innovation, and the passion to solve meaningful problems. Your ideas will have a real-world impact, as you work alongside some of the brightest minds in the industry to reimagine what education can be. Join us; together, we’ll help millions of students worldwide own their educational future.

Don’t take our word for it, see it for yourself!

• "Stellic cut down 2 hours of brainpower before registration to just 30 minutes!" – Rising Senior
• “I noticed that when I was in meetings with my advisor after we got Stellic, we could spend more time talking about career paths, the future, and what made sense for me from a professional standpoint" - Rising Senior
• “One of the key things about Stellic is that I can have it open, my advisor can also have it open and see exactly what I’m looking at. And I don’t have to hope and pray that they remember who I am." – Rising Junior
• "Just had the most AMAZING advising session...a student was changing majors and they built a new plan to show her parents within minutes. She was beaming (and so was I!)...this is incredible to use" - Advisor
• “Stellic has caused us to be more inspired about the work that we do. Having a platform that is agile, responsive, flexible and shows potential for moving forward - and a collaborative team approach - has been remarkable." - Administrator

About the Role

Are you a design leader who can float easily between vision and hands-on design work? Are you a creative genius who is passionate about consumer-grade user experiences AND the synthesis, transformation and simplification of complex data? Do you gravitate towards mission-centric products that change the lives of every day people? The Head of Product Design role at Stellic is an opportunity to shape the future of the student experience in higher ed. As leader of our product design team, you’ll own the end to end design process — work closely with the founders, PMs, engineers from concept to delivery. You’ll do this at a fast pace, high-growth, mission-driven series A startup in enterprise SaaS.

We have found true product/market fit and we are now taking it to the next level. As a player-coach, you will own the end to end design experience for large product areas — work closely with the PMs to define and design experiences, and turn it into reality with our engineering teams in the US and Pakistan. 

This role is hybrid remote and located in San Mateo 3 days per week.

What you'll do:

• Lead, manage and mentor a small team of talented, passionate designers, providing guidance on projects, career development, and fostering a culture of design excellence.
• Own significant product design initiatives while balancing individual contribution with team leadership responsibilities.
• Drive the evolution of our design system, processes, and best practices across the organization.
• Work closely with Product and Engineering leads to align design strategy with business goals and technical capabilities.
• Guide the team in tackling complex product design challenges by synthesizing business, technology, and user needs into simple, holistic solutions.
• Build and maintain strong partnerships across departments to elevate design's impact throughout the organization.
• Manage resource allocation and project prioritization across the design team while maintaining high quality standards.

What you'll need:

• 8+ years of product design experience, with at least 3 years of design team management experience.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating end-to-end design leadership for complex enterprise products.
• Ability to execute on end-to-end complex design projects in collaboration with engineering and product.
• Experience building and mentoring high-performing design teams while remaining hands-on with design work.
• Track record of establishing design processes, systems, and standards that scale.
• Proven ability to lead user research initiatives and translate insights into strategic design directions.
• Excellence in visual design with the ability to guide others in creating cohesive, delightful experiences.
• Strong communication skills and experience presenting to executive stakeholders.

Why Join:

• Be part of a customer-centric team that is addressing the core issues in higher education via an expandable platform that is overwhelming loved by students and valued by administrators
• The opportunity to join at the ground level of a promising and developing organization, and build/lead a team critically responsible for its growth
• Work and learn from some of the most prominent thought leaders in higher education and SaaS
• Be part of a culture where ownership, new ideas, and creativity is celebrated
• Generous stock options in a Series A stage startup
• Flexible, outcome-based culture
• Medical, dental, vision, and life insurance
• 401K and commuter benefits
• Annual international retreats in some of the most beautiful cities & towns

Salary: $175,000 - 215,000 base salary, plus equity

Stellic is an Equal Opportunity Employer

Our company values diversity and believes diverse teams make innovation possible. We encourage all qualified applicants from any race, color, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or other characteristics to apply.