Product Design Director

Director Product Design 

Europe / Remote 
Reports to the Chief Strategy and Product Officer 

About Velsera 

Velsera builds software that turns complex biological data into research insight and clinical answers. Our platforms work across multi-omic and multi-modal data: genomics alongside proteomics, transcriptomics and other omics, together with imaging, clinical and real-world data, at the scale of some of the world's largest biomedical programs. Pharmaceutical companies, biotechs, public research initiatives and diagnostic laboratories use our products to advance precision medicine. 

We run like a scale-up: small teams with real authority, fast decisions, and AI woven into how we work day to day. We measure ourselves on impact for our customers and, ultimately, for patients. 

The opportunity 

You'd be joining as the design authority for our Seven Bridges Platform and the leader of design at Velsera, just as we rebuild how we design, validate and ship. You report directly to the Chief Strategy and Product Officer, and decisions that take quarters elsewhere happen here in days. Our product managers have already started turning ideas into working, on-brand prototypes with AI and put them in front of customers within weeks. The design foundations that make that speed safe are yours to build and own: design tokens, a component library, and the patterns everyone works with. 

That's the shape of your influence here. Product managers prototype with the system you build, you review what customers will see, and once a concept is validated, production design belongs to you: journeys that hold up across every state, edge case and installation. This is a product bioinformaticians, scientists and clinicians rely on every day, and you set its bar. 

This is a hands-on leadership role. You'll manage our product designer working on the clinical side of our portfolio, you'll build the design function as it grows, and you'll keep doing the craft yourself. There's no large design team to inherit; there's one to create. 

The product is changing as fast as the craft is. Our users increasingly work alongside AI in research and diagnostic workflows, with dense, high-stakes data from many sources. Someone needs to rethink the journeys, trust models and information design of software like ours for that reality. That is a key remit of this job. 

This role won't suit everyone. If you're looking for a mature design organization with settled processes, you won't find that here yet. If you want to build the system a whole company designs with, lead design for products with real clinical stakes, and do it at scale-up speed, we should talk. 

What will you do?

• Own the user journeys, flows and interaction design of the Seven Bridges Platform: partner with product managers on problems, outcomes and scope, then own how the experience actually works, from structure and states down to the number of clicks. 

• Build our design system from the ground up: design tokens, a component library aligned with our front-end code, and the standards that bring our product surfaces together under one visual language. The whole organization will prototype with what you build. 

• Keep rapid prototyping fast and safe: maintain the foundations PMs build with, review prototype quality before customers see it, and take validated prototypes through to production-ready design. 

• Manage our product designer on the clinical side: set goals, develop their craft, give honest feedback, and answer for the quality of design across both businesses. As the team grows, you'll hire and shape it. 

• Design for AI in the product itself: assistant and copilot experiences, AI-generated results that scientists and clinicians can trust and verify, and workflows where automation and human judgment work together. 

• Work closely with front-end engineers so the design system lives in code, not only in Figma. 

• Use product analytics to see where users struggle, make experience debt visible, and give product leadership a clear case for what to fix first. 

• Bring design judgment into strategy conversations at the leadership level. 

Your first few months 

The first version of the design system is live, with tokens and core components in Figma and in code, and product managers are actually prototyping on top of it. You've reviewed working prototypes before they went in front of real customers, and what we shipped is better for it. You and the designer you manage have a real working rhythm, with clear goals and honest feedback, and it shows in the work. And your map of our experience debt is on the leadership table with a clear case for what to fix first. 

Requirements

What do you bring to the table?

You've spent seven or more years in product design, with senior ownership of user journeys on complex, data-heavy or scientific software. 

• You've built or led at least one design system that engineering genuinely adopted, and you know what it takes to keep one alive. 

• You've managed designers formally, not just mentored them, and the people you've managed got better and would work for you again. 

• You're comfortable having your biggest impact through a system other people build with, not only through screens you designed yourself. 

• You've chosen fast, ambiguous environments before, and you're looking for another one. 

• You already use AI tools to design, prototype and produce working software (we work with Claude, from design exploration through design-to-code), and you have well-formed opinions about where these tools help and where they mislead. 

• You've designed AI-powered product experiences, or you have a clear point of view on trust, transparency and human oversight in AI interfaces. 

• You're an expert in Figma, including variables and design-to-code workflows such as Code Connect. 

• You know enough front-end to collaborate credibly with engineers on components and constraints. You don't need to write production code, but you do need to understand how your designs become it. 

• You can operate as the most senior design voice in the company: comfortable with ambiguity, generous as a coach, and clear whether you're talking to executives, engineers or scientists. 

Nice to have: experience with genomics, multi-omics, imaging, clinical or other life sciences data products, or another regulated domain; products delivered across multiple environments or installations; familiarity with component documentation tools like Storybook; experience establishing design practice in an engineering-led organization. 

Why this position?

You get real authority over a core product and the design function itself, from day one, with a direct line to the Chief Strategy and Product Officer. You join a company that works the way it's asking you to work: AI-assisted, fast and hands-on. The work ends in research results and patient outcomes, which makes the pace worth it. And you won't inherit a design practice here; you'll build the one everyone after you inherits. 

Benefits

• Flexible Work & Time Off - Embrace hybrid work models and enjoy the freedom of unlimited paid time off to support work-life balance.
• Health & Well-being - Access comprehensive group medical and life insurance coverage, along with a 24/7 Employee Assistance Program (EAP) for mental health and wellness support.
• Growth & Learning - Fuel your professional journey with continuous learning and development programs designed to help you upskill and grow.
• Engaging & Fun Work Culture - Experience a vibrant workplace with team events, celebrations, and engaging activities that make every workday enjoyable.
• & Many More...