# Head of Design at Allocate

- Company: Allocate
- What the company does: Backed by Pear VC.
- Company website: https://www.sage.com
- Type: Startups
- Level: Principal and up
- Location: Palo Alto Office (Hybrid)
- Work setup: Remote
- Pay: $225K to $260K base salary per year (USD)
- Posted: 2026-08-18
- Apply by: 2026-10-12
- Apply: https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/allocate/1b7d63da-215d-478b-b7a0-4bc5e76a977d
- Page: https://www.1752.vc/careers/jobs/allocate-head-of-design/

## About the role

This position owns and builds the design function at Allocate, reporting directly to the CEO and working in lockstep with product and engineering leadership. This is a build role, not a caretaking one. A small team, a working design system, and a live product are already in place. The mandate is to take all three further: set the standard, grow the team, and decide what design owns and how it earns that ownership.

## What they're looking for

- 10+ years in product design, several of them leading and managing designers
- Have built or substantially grown a design function — hiring, leveling, coaching, setting practice, not just running a queue
- Led distributed designers and held craft and cohesion high without needing to be in the same room
- Still hands-on, and want to stay that way — looking for a role where leading and making are the same job
- Strong systems thinker, with a design system carried through real growth
- Comfortable across product and brand — may lean one way, but can hold both and know when each is the lever

Tags: Design