About the Role
Title: Lead Web Experience Designer
Location: San Mateo United States
Job Description:
The Team
As a small-but-mighty Creative team, we touch every corner of the growing Upstart business. We sit within Growth, writing and designing for impact across all channels and verticals, elevating the brand, and seeking to be thought-leaders in our industry and beyond. We are currently working hard and fast to meet the company’s needs while building a culture of creativity that will empower the continued evolution of our work. In short, we’re darn good but we’re looking for teammates to help us rise to greatness!
As the Lead Web & Experience Designer, you will co-own and define how Upstart’s website engages users, converts visitors, and communicates our brand story. You’ll combine design excellence with strategic thinking, ensuring our site is not just aesthetically engaging but also structured for SEO, content clarity, and performance-driven conversion.
You’ll be hands-on with designing, prototyping, and optimizing the site, but also play a critical strategic role in how we scale and evolve our web experience. Working in a high-impact tiger team, you’ll help identify new opportunity spaces, push creative boundaries, and rethink how Upstart’s website can be a powerful tool for both brand storytelling and business growth.
Position Location – This role is available in the following locations: Remote, USA
Travel Requirements – As a digital first company, the majority of your work can be accomplished remotely. The majority of our employees can live and work anywhere in the U.S but are encouraged to to still spend high quality time in-person collaborating via regular onsites. The in-person sessions’ cadence varies depending on the team and role; most teams meet once or twice per quarter for 2-4 consecutive days at a time.
How you’ll make an impact:
- Own & Evolve Upstart’s Website – Lead the design, structure, and experience of our website, ensuring it is high-performing, conversion-optimized, and aligned with our brand
- Blend Strategy & Execution – Shape the site architecture, content hierarchy, and UX flows, balancing design excellence with SEO and performance marketing needs.
- Be Hands-On with Design – Execute high-quality web design, UI, and interaction design, bringing our brand to life through compelling layouts, motion, and storytelling.
- Optimize for Conversion & Growth – Use data, testing, and UX best practices to ensure every page serves a purpose and drives business impact.
- Navigate Ambiguity & Identify Opportunities – Work autonomously to uncover gaps and opportunities within our web experience, proposing and executing solutions proactively.
- Collaborate Cross-Functionally – Partner closely with Product, Marketing, SEO / Content, and Engineering teams to execute initiatives that drive meaningful impact.
- Push Creative Boundaries – Think beyond traditional web experiences, exploring new ways to use interaction, motion, and emerging web technologies to elevate our storytelling
What we’re looking for:
- Minimum qualifications:
- 8+ years of experience in Design, preferably in-house
- 5+ years focused specifically on digital experiences (marketing sites, brand sites, or conversion-driven experiences)
- Expert in Figma, Webflow (or equivalent CMS), and modern web design best-practices
- Strong understanding of SEO, content strategy, page hierarchy, and UX flows
- Experience optimizing sites for conversion (A/B testing, CRO, data-informed decisions)
- Ability to work independently in ambiguous environments, identifying opportunities and executing against them without needing explicit direction
- Preferred qualifications:
- Background in designing for both brand and performance marketing needs
- Experience working closely with growth marketing teams on conversion-driven pages
- Strong motion/interaction design skills (using tools like Lottie, GSAP, or Framer Motion)
- Familiarity with front-end development principles and how design translates into code
- Experience with user research, analytics, and behavioral data to inform design