Head of Design, Global Expansion
About Nu
Nu is the leading digital bank in Latin America, serving 135 million customers across Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia. The company has been leading an industry transformation by leveraging data and proprietary technology to develop innovative products and services.
Guided by its mission to fight complexity and empower people, Nu caters to customers’ complete financial journey, promoting financial access and advancement with responsible lending and transparency. The company is powered by an efficient and scalable business model that combines low cost to serve with growing returns.
Nu’s impact has been recognized in multiple awards, including Time 100 Most Influential Companies, Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies, and Forbes World’s Best Banks.
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Location: East Coast of U.S./Canada or Brazil (Eastern timezone for Europe-compatibility)
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The Role
We're launching a brand-new global account into dozens of markets at once - multi-currency holdings, yield, diversification across digital assets, and a suite of debit cards, built for people whose work and family span borders. The infrastructure underneath is powered by stablecoins and open financial services, but that complexity is fully abstracted. What the customer feels is a delightful, magical consumer product - as simple and effortless as anything Apple makes.
This is the project where every new thing at Nu lands first: the Magic App, the next evolution of the design system, new components and patterns. You'd have unusual room to experiment, iterate, and push the system forward rather than just consume it. The benchmark isn't the domestic market - it's global leaders like Revolut and Wise, and we're building to raise the bar past them.
As Head of Design for this initiative, you'll own the design function for the entire project. This is a player-coach role: you'll manage a team, but you'll also stay deeply in the craft - prototyping, refining, and setting the standard by doing, not just by directing. We need someone whose work itself is the bar.
What You'll Do
* Lead the design function for Nubank's most ambitious global expansion - a multi-currency, multi-market account launching to 40+ countries simultaneously.
* Set and hold the craft bar at a global standard, benchmarking against the best fintech products in the world (Revolut, Wise, and beyond).
* Stay hands-on. You manage people, but you're also in the work - shipping design, prototyping, and elevating every surface and interaction.
* Push the design system forward. This product is the proving ground for new components and patterns that flow back into Nu's global design system. You don't just use the system; you evolve it.
* Navigate the balance between creative freedom and organizational maturity - earning autonomy by influencing and persuading the central design organization, contributing patterns back to the system, and building bridges rather than working in isolation.
* Collaborate closely with engineering, product, and the broader design organization to ship experiences that feel magical and effortless to customers across China, Italy, Spain, and dozens of other markets.
What We're Looking For
* Craft first. Extreme attention to detail and a portfolio that demonstrates world-class product design - the kind of work that stands out against Revolut, Wise, or Apple.
* A hands-on manager. You've led teams, but you still design. You set the bar by doing, not just by directing.
* Fintech-adjacent domain experience. You've worked in or around financial products - payments, cards, banking, digital assets, consumer finance. If you come from outside finance, you should have extraordinary craft and a track record of making complex products feel dead simple.
* A system-level collaborator. You know how to operate within a mature design organization - influencing the global system, contributing patterns, and partnering with central teams rather than working around them.
* A bar-raiser. You're not satisfied with "good enough." You push your team and yourself to the next level, especially when competing against the best in the world.
About the Product
A global account designed for people with cross-border lives - those who work across markets, have family in different countries, or need to move money internationally with ease. It offers multi-currency holdings, yield, diversification across digital assets, and a set of debit cards. The underlying technology is powered by stablecoins and open financial services, but that's invisible to the user. What they experience is a consumer product that feels as simple and delightful as anything Apple makes.
The product is launching nonlinearly into 40+ countries simultaneously - customers in China, Italy, Spain, and beyond. This is Nubank's most ambitious global expansion to date, and the design bar must match the ambition.
Why This Role, Why Now
The current Head of Design is transitioning to a new role, and this is a long-term replacement for someone who can take the project through its next chapter. The previous leader struggled with the tension between creative autonomy and working within a maturing, centralized design organization. We need someone who thrives in that complexity - who earns creative freedom by influencing the system, not by circumventing it. Someone who sees the connection to the global design team as an opportunity to shape the system, not a constraint.
This is an urgent hire. The role is open now.
Interview Process
1. Async portfolio review with Ethan Eismann (CDO).
2. Live portfolio presentation (1 hour) - walkthrough of your best work with the design leadership team.
3. Hiring manager interview (45-60 min) with Thomaz Fortes and Thais Burin.
4. Final conversation with Ethan if needed.
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Hiring managers: Thomaz Fortes & Thais Burin · CDO: Ethan Eismann
Our recruitment process may involve the use of artificial intelligence-enabled tools, such as automated interview transcription and analysis, to support the evaluation process. Artificial intelligence is not used to make final hiring decisions; all decisions are made by human reviewers.