Job description
Who We Are:
Ethena Labs is at the forefront of the next wave of DeFi, dedicated to building products for modern finance. Ethena is a synthetic dollar protocol built on Ethereum that provides a crypto-native solution for money, USDe, alongside a globally accessible dollar savings asset, sUSDe.
Our core mission is to provide truly crypto-native financial solutions that are globally accessible and bridge the gap between TradFi and the digital asset economy. We believe in transparency, efficiency, and empowering both individuals and institutions with greater control over their assets.
What we are Doing:
Ethena Labs is actively building and deploying a suite of groundbreaking products designed to address key challenges and unlock new opportunities within the digital finance landscape.
Our flagship product, USDe, is a synthetic dollar backed by digital assets, and takes the novel approach of using a delta-neutral hedging strategy to maintain its peg. This provides a truly scalable and censorship-resistant digital dollar.
Building upon USDe, we offer sUSDe. sUSDe provides crypto-native rewards generated from funding rates in derivatives markets, offering an alternative to existing products tethered to the traditional financial system.
Furthermore, we are actively developing solutions to facilitate institutional adoption of digital assets. In partnership with Securitize and Blackrocks BUIDL fund, USDtb provides a more traditional, asset-backed stablecoin option, leveraging established financial infrastructure to appeal to institutional clients. Expanding on this, iUSDe is designed specifically for traditional financial institutions, incorporating necessary compliance features to enable them to access the crypto-native rewards our protocol generates, in an institutional-friendly manner.
Finally, our most ambitious undertaking to date is Converge, our joint blockchain initiative with Securitize. This hybrid blockchain is designed to be the nexus where DeFi meets the needs of CeFi and TradFi. Converge aims to be a primary issuance layer for tokenised assets, integrating seamlessly with existing DeFi protocols to provide institutions with an environment to participate in the decentralised economy.
Through these offerings, Ethena Labs is not just creating new financial products; we are building the foundational infrastructure for a more open, efficient, and interconnected global financial system.
Join us!!
The Role
As Ethena’s Head of Product Design you will take ownership of both design strategy and vision, but also some Product Management responsibilities. You’ll lead the design vision and product execution, establish uncompromising UX standards and product development processes across all user-facing products.
This is an ideal role for a current Lead or Head of Product Design that has motivations to expand their personal scope into more Product Management ownership and tasks.
For Ethena it’s a pivotal role that will elevate the protocol’s user experience in an increasingly professionalised crypto landscape. You will report directly to the CEO and manage 1 Senior Designer. You will collaborate closely with our Product Engineering team of 5 engineers to enhance UI/UX, as well as Marketing and BD. By building product & design capacity and leadership, this role will enable the team to deliver polished, user-centric features, reduce development cycle time, and free up engineering focus for core technical priorities.
What You’ll Do
- Oversee both big-picture design strategy while at the same time be hands-on in creating high-fidelity designs, wireframes, prototypes, animations, and videos.
- Develop and execute a holistic design strategy and vision that aligns with business objectives and user needs across the entire product ecosystem.
- Build and enforce uncompromising UX standards by auditing and refactoring existing designs, improving usability and consistency across frontend interfaces, dashboards, and user touchpoints.
- Manage and scale design resources by leading engagements with external consultancies and sourcing freelancers from platforms like Dribbble and Behance.
- Drive product management frameworks, including defining and implementing lightweight product management processes, roadmap planning, and stakeholder communication frameworks.
- Establish detailed project management infrastructure including Gantt charts, milestone tracking, and resource allocation systems using tools like Linear and Notion.
- Foster a user-centric culture through user research, usability testing, and leveraging data to inform design decisions, iterating based on feedback from crypto users and stakeholders.
- Lead and mentor the design team, including the Lead Designer, to elevate skills, delegate tasks, and foster a more autonomous design function.
What We’re Looking For
- Expertise in Design Leadership and Strategy, with a proven ability to set strategic design vision, influence executive decision-making, and translate business objectives into design strategies.
- Project Management and Execution skills, including Gantt chart creation, resource allocation, and milestone tracking, with proficiency in tools like Linear and Notion.
- Exceptional Hands-on Design Excellence in visual design, UX/UI, interaction design, and brand development
- In addition to Figma and other modern design systems/ tools. Experience in a variety of others like Adobe, Sketch, Spline, Three.JS, TailwindCSS, WebGL, and animation tools.
- Strong leadership skills with a track record of hiring, mentoring, and scaling design teams, managing both hands-on designers and strategic design functions.
- Extensive User Research experience conducting usability testing and leveraging data to inform design decisions, including A/B testing and user interviews.
- Advanced Web3/Crypto Domain Expertise, with a deep understanding of crypto user behaviors, protocol design patterns, DeFi interfaces, wallet integrations, and blockchain-specific design considerations.
Why Ethena Labs?
Join a forward-thinking, crypto-native company with a mission to revolutionize decentralized finance.
Work alongside a passionate and innovative team that values collaboration and creativity.
Enjoy a flexible, remote-friendly work environment with opportunities for growth and learning.
If you subscribe to the mission of separating the dollar from the state, then we want to hear from you!
We look forward to receiving your application and will be in touch after having a chance to review.
In the meantime, here are some links to more information about Ethena Labs to help you check us out:
Website
We may use artificial intelligence (AI) tools to support parts of the hiring process, such as reviewing applications, analyzing resumes, or assessing responses. These tools assist our recruitment team but do not replace human judgment. Final hiring decisions are ultimately made by humans. If you would like more information about how your data is processed, please contact us.
