Head of Product Design

About the company

Kindred is a members-only global home-swapping platform that lets travelers exchange primary residences through a give-to-get credit system instead of paying nightly rent.

About this role

Kindred is a members-only home swapping platform that unlocks the ability to live a travel-rich lifestyle through the power of community. By exchanging primary residences with trusted peers, renters and owners alike can match with Kindred spirits and explore new destinations without breaking the bank. Kindred is revolutionizing the “third option” of travel accommodation, compared to short-term rentals and hotels. Since launching in 2022, Kindred has grown to a global community of 300,000 members across 150+ cities and puts home swapping on the map as a radically more affordable, responsible, and connected way to travel. To support that momentum, Kindred has raised over $150M in capital from some of the most credible investors in Silicon Valley, including Index Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, New Enterprise Associates, Bessemer Venture Partners, Caffeinated Capital, Elad Gil, and founders of companies like Opendoor, Figma, ClassPass, and more. Kindred’s co-founders are proven leaders from the early team at Opendoor ($15B+ exit), who have each built and scaled products that today generate $1B+ annual revenue combined. We’re looking for the world’s top builders, executors, and believers to help us make travel more meaningful. You can learn more about us in Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/francescawalton/2026/02/03/home-swap-startup-kindred-raises-125-million-in-fresh-funding-as-travelers-seek-creative-ways-to-save-money/ and The New York Times https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/16/realestate/is-your-apartment-nice-enough-for-this-home-swapping-app.html. THE ROLE Kindred is looking for a Head of Product Design to lead our product design team through its next phase of growth. You'll own the end-to-end member experience across web and mobile, lead and grow the design and research team (currently a team of five), and work directly with cross-functional leaders to shape where the product goes next. This is a hands-on design leadership role reporting to the Co-founder & President. You'll set the vision, direct the team, and raise the bar. We’re looking for an AI-native leader to spend time prototyping and building alongside your team on the projects that matter most. WHAT YOU’LL DO People & team leader - Lead, coach, and grow a cross-disciplinary design team spanning product design, research, and content/UX writing - Run the rituals, feedback culture, and career paths that make this a team people do their best work on Strategy leader - Set the design vision and strategy for Kindred, and align it tightly with company strategy as a key thought partner to product, engineering, marketing and operations - Champion member-centric thinking across the company, grounding decisions in both qualitative insight and quantitative data - Lean into strategic growth design: activation, conversion, and the loops that turn members into evangelists Craft bar raiser - Own the quality bar for the member experience, from big swings on new surfaces to the fit-and-finish details that make Kindred a design-forward and trusted platform - Build and scale the systems that let great design ship fast — design systems, tooling, rituals, and process that hold up as the team grows - Lead an AI-native design practice: set the standard for how the team uses AI across prototyping, research synthesis, and production, and evolve the workflow as the tools do Brand & trust steward - Partner deeply with marketing and brand to ensure product and brand operate as one system, from acquisition through the in-product experience YOU MAY BE A RIGHT FIT FOR THIS ROLE IF YOU - Have 12+ years in product design, including 5+ years leading and managing design teams - Have managed cross-functionally across product design, research, and content/writing, and know how to make those disciplines stronger together - Have a proven track record partnering with marketing and brand - Have deep experience with design systems: building them, scaling them, and using them to raise both quality and velocity - Have designed for trust between people (marketplaces, communities, or products where members take real-world leaps of faith) - Are AI-native and you have a point of view on how AI changes what a design team is and how it works - Are a strong operator: you run tight rituals, give sharp feedback, and build teams people want to stay on - Are a true player-coach, you still love the craft, and you ship work yourself when it counts BONUS POINTS IF - Have been the most senior design leader at a company, owning the function end-to-end (Head of Design, Director+, or equivalent) - You have experience with marketplace or community-driven consumer products - You've built or led both consumer and brand/marketing design work - You've shipped production features or internal tools built primarily with AI (e.g., Claude Code, Cursor, or similar) - You've taken products from 0→1 and from 1→10 and know how the playbooks differ OUR BENEFITS: At Kindred, we know that good things happen when we look out for one another. We offer a thoughtful, human-first benefits package designed to support health, wellbeing, and connection. Our openings may span more than one career level. The base salary offered depends on factors such as experience, transferable skills, business needs, impact, and market data. - Competitive cash compensation and equity - Comprehensive health benefits - Flexible time off, plus 12 paid holidays per year - 21 credits per year to stay in Kindred homes - $4,000 annual travel stipend to help offset travel-related costs - Remote-first and remote-flexible work environment, with opportunities to work from anywhere and gather in person, including at Kindred HQ in San Francisco - Regular team and company offsites to connect, collaborate, and build together - A vibrant, inclusive, and highly skilled team that ferociously protects team chemistry - A culture of high standards, feedba