Founding Designer

Company:

SimpleStudy is a consumer AI platform for students.

We help them stay motivated to study their subjects - everything from Biology and Mathematics to Literature and Art.

Our small team has already helped +1.5 M students worldwide (UK, Ireland, Brazil, South Africa, and Australia) study better, and ~40–50k new students join us every week.

We are a remote team with a Lisbon office, having recently raised ~$4M seed round with incredible investors from Strava, OpenAI, and Meta.

Team:

Two current designers - both very strong in execution.The new hire would be the first founding/staff-level design partner. Reports directly to Oisin.

Responsibilities and key results:

Own the full design process end-to-end - from understanding ambiguous problems to shipping solutions, without needing the problem framed in advance

Partner directly with Oisin on product direction, roadmap priorities, and design philosophy - bring a point of view and defend it

Drive consumer experience design: onboarding, social/viral loops, retention, growth surfaces

Work in a PLG/A/B testing environment - ship features, measure impact, iterate fast

Eventually help shape the broader design team a new hires (~3 total planned)

Must-haves:

Strong product thinking - takes a vague brief and frames + solves the problem independently. Shows "why" before "how"

Consumer product background - has designed for B2C audiences at scale

Opinions and backbone - has a design philosophy, can defend it under pushback, willing to disagree with a founder

Chemistry and personality - interesting hobbies, curiosity, authenticity

Ownership mindset - end-to-end, from problem definition to shipped solution

Comfortable with experimentation, A/B testing, data-led iteration

Early-stage or founding designer experience

Nice-to-have:

Experience with social/viral product mechanics

Background at Duolingo, Spotify, Strava, Notion, Monzo, or similar consumer PLG products

Some craft/taste for visual design (not just process)

Hobbies: Enjoys the outdoors, sports, or some other physical activity

Conditions:

Remote in Europe (preference: Western/continental Europe)

Portugal/Lisbon relocation sponsorship possible

Salary: no fixed budget, flexible

Stock options: yes

Contract type: full-time employment, independent contractor