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Head of Design
Fishbrain
Source: Headcount Labs · original listing ↗
Job data: Headcount Labs, ODbL 1.0. Job descriptions belong to their employers.
Source date: 11/5/2026
About this role
If you love making things happen, winning together, and continuously pushing boundaries while having fun along the way, Fishbrain is the place for you! The Fishbrain Team has built and maintains the #1 fishing app in the US, designed for people who are passionate about fishing and outdoors. Our mission is to deliver an incredible experience that helps anglers achieve their fishing dreams, today and tomorrow. Want to take the #1 fishing app in the US with millions of users to the next level? Now's your chance! We're currently recruiting a Head of Design to join our team at Fishbrain. Why this role, why now We want to give anglers a better Fishbrain experience, and design is at the center of that. We're looking for the design leader who makes it happen. The pieces are in place: three product teams with a designer in each, AI built into both our product and how we design, and a clear mandate to grow. What's missing is the leader who raises the bar on what we ship, and builds the team, design system and research practice to keep it there. The role As Head of Design, you lead product design and research across Fishbrain. You report to the Product Director and lead a team of three product designers, potentially expanding over the course of time. You work in three contexts: • Craft excellence: You have exceptional taste and a passion for a high bar. You care about the details, raise the creative ambition of everyone around you, and won't ship work that's merely good enough. • Product leadership: Together with the Product Director and VP of Engineering you shape product strategy, plan long term, and staff and scope the teams. • The design function: You build and lead it: the team, the design guild, the design system and how we do research. This is a player-coach role. Expect to spend up to 50% of your time hands-on, in addition to the work on strategy, coaching and planning. You lead from the trenches, and the team sees you raise the bar through what you make, not just what you say. What you'll be working on Ensure Business and Customer Impact • Elevate the product experience: Drive significant improvements in the user experience and brand quality. Bring creativity, strong product judgment, and attention to detail to everything we build. Help define, champion, and evolve clear design principles in alignment with Product leadership and company objectives. • Drive business impact through design: Tie design work to the numbers that matter to us: DAU, Conversion, Day 1–30 retention, logged catches and community engagement. • Understand anglers, end to end: Design for the holistic experience, not single features. Make research a core design skill in the product trios' continuous discovery work, and bring the whole company along so we all understand anglers. • Lead by example: Drive concept work and hands-on contribution to ensure business impact. Shape and Grow the Design Guild • Lead the design guild: Set a long-term strategy for design at Fishbrain and execute on it. The foundation is in place. Keep developing the guild's shared standards, rituals and quality bar, so designers across teams work as one. • Raise the bar: Through your passion for design you raise work quality. • Shape the team: Anticipate the skills and capabilities Fishbrain needs as it grows, and shape the team through thoughtful hiring and resourcing. • Empower the team: Support designers in reaching their potential through coaching, instant feedback culture, and map opportunities for growth. • Lead how we work with AI: Our designers already use AI to code. Push that further to make the team more efficient and help us ship faster, and shape AI-powered experiences like personalization and Fishing Intelligence. Provide Senior Product Leadership • Shape product strategy in a peer group : Plan long term with the Product Director and VP of Engineering. Help set the product team structure and help them scope the right problems. What we are fishing for • High personal design capability, with a portfolio that demonstrates craft, judgment and range. • 8+ years in design, including 3+ years managing designers, ideally as a design leader at a tech product company. • A player-coach style. Senior designers see you as credible because you still do the work. • A track record of data-driven design. You're at home with analytics and experiments, and you tie design to measurable outcomes. • Experience building or scaling a design function, including research practice and a design system. • Hands-on experience using AI in design, from discovery work and prototyping to code. • Peer-level standing with product and engineering leaders, and the communication skills to align them. • A growth mindset, for yourself and for the people you lead. Bonus, but not required • Fishing experience. You don't need to fish (but always a bonus), but you are eager to learn. Where you’ll work We operate in a hybrid work environment, with all team members expected to work from our Stockholm HQ , The Lighthouse, located at Hötorget , at least three days a week. Please submit applications in ENGLISH , those that are not will not be reviewed. Our Bait We’re a product-focused startup, and every individual is important. That means you get to contribute to the direction of the company and the impact we have on millions of anglers. We at Fishbrain work with the latest tech and challenge ourselves every day. We have a work culture that encourages innovation, passion and teamwork. And most importantly, we want you to enjoy coming to work every single day. In addition, Fishbrain also offers: 🌴 30 days annual vacation Each year you’ll get 30 days vacation to use however, whenever 🤸♀️ Wellness bonus 5000 sek annual allowance to put towards anything in the realm of health and fitness 🧑🎓 Learning & development days Fishbrain provides five paid Learning & Development days per year to its employees 💻📱 Technology of your choice Mac or PC, you decide 🌎 Commitment to sustainability Our global data set, among the largest in the world, is selectively provided in a managed and controlled manner to scientific research partners in both North America and Europe to better understand and improve fisheries research 🤧🫷Flu vaccination To support your health and well-being, we’ll be offering complimentary flu vaccinations every year 🎣 Fishing rods in the office Grab one and go fishing. We have fishing guides and experts working among us that can help you catch your dream fish 🐕 Dog friendly Feel free to bring your furry friend to the office 🥳 Social activities Quizzes, virtual escape rooms, parties, regular fikas, fishing tournaments and much more! 🥪 Breakfast Every Wednesday we start the day with a breakfast together 🍭 Candy, soda, fruits & snacks ☕️ Coffee and tea 🎮 Gaming corner 🏓 Ping pong Feeling hooked? Throw us a line! Department Product Location Stockholm, Sweden Remote status Hybrid Fishbrain HQ About Fishbrain Fishbrain is a tech startup with a global user base of over 20 million anglers. Fishing is not only the world’s no. 1 hobby - it's a passion for people worldwide. Even if you don't personally love fishing, you definitely know someone who does. But Fishbrain thinks there’s a way for technology to improve this age-old tradition. Fishbrain works with the latest tech, from AR to machine learning. And Fishbrain is backed by the investors behind some of the most successful social networks and apps. Founded in 2012 Co-workers 60+