Senior Lead Designer, Trust & Safety
New York, New York
Hinge – Trust & Safety /
Full-time /
Hybrid
Hinge is the dating app designed to be deleted
In today's digital world, finding genuine relationships is tougher than ever. At Hinge, we’re on a mission to inspire intimate connection to create a less lonely world. We’re obsessed with understanding our users’ behaviors to help them find love, and our success is defined by one simple metric– setting up great dates. With millions of users across the globe, we’ve become the most trusted way to find a relationship, for all.
About the Role
Join Hinge's Trust & Safety group as a Senior Lead Product Designer to drive impactful work across Hinge’s most strategic product areas. We're seeking a highly experienced design leader who thrives on navigating complex, nuanced, and ambiguous problem spaces. This role is for someone with a passion for creating elegant, user-centered experiences that empower people to make meaningful connections with confidence, helping to create a less lonely world.
You’ll lead design for multi-quarter initiatives, mentor peers, prototype bold ideas and work closely with partners in Product, Engineering and User Research. Define the future of what it means to date safely, owning the design strategy for user-facing safety—from designing solutions for our most vulnerable daters to crafting systems to facilitate user-to-user trust. As the design lead for the group, you will guide peers and help Hinge set the standard for safe, human-centered dating experiences.
Responsibilities
- Lead mission critical design projects from discovery through launch across multiple product teams.
- Rapidly unpack ambiguous problem spaces and synthesize insights into bold, effective design solutions.
- Translate strategic direction into exceptional user flows, prototypes and final UI.
- Uphold a high bar for visual, interaction and motion design, especially when creating experiences for vulnerable users.
- Champion and evolve Hinge's design system and visual language to ensure a cohesive and high-quality user experience across all safety touchpoints.
- Leverage and improve design systems in ways that scale craft quality and speed for safety-related features.
- Mentor other designers, lead design critiques, and elevate design quality across the group.
- Model effective collaboration and proactive problem solving.
- Foster a culture of curiosity, experimentation and emotional intelligence.
- Work closely with a team of Product, Engineering, Research, Data Science, Operations, and Policy partners to define vision, build consensus, and deliver measurable outcomes.
- Confidently present work to senior leadership, connecting design decisions to user needs and business goals .
- Help contribute to org-level design vision and ensure team initiatives ladder up to broader strategy.
- Use advanced prototyping methods—including GenAI tools—to explore new paradigms, quickly validate concepts and unlock differentiated experiences.
- Advocate for experimentation, helping establish new patterns and rapid testing workflows.
- Champion design led innovation for emotionally complex spaces like dating, connection and trust.
Design Leadership and Execution:
Craft and Systems Thinking:
Mentorship and Influence:
Strategic Collaboration and Impact:
Prototyping and Innovation:
Experience
- 8+ years in product design, with a track record of leading complex initiatives and setting a high bar for quality. Your experience should demonstrate expert product thinking in solving challenging user problems, especially those involving nuanced social dynamics.
- Prior success leading design in fast paced consumer mobile environments (social, wellness, community, or similar preferred).
- A portfolio that demonstrates exceptional systems thinking, user-centered design in sensitive problem spaces, strategic problem solving, and the ability to deliver innovative design solutions.
- Proven ability to develop and drive design vision and strategy that has influenced product roadmaps and business outcomes.
- Advanced proficiency in Figma, prototyping tools and design systems.
- Deep expertise across the product design lifecycle: research synthesis, IA, visual design, prototyping and testing.
- Strength in workshop facilitation, stakeholder management and executive communication.
- Sharp understanding of design systems and accessibility best practices.
- Recognized subject matter expert with a calm, empathetic and adaptable leadership style.
- Strong cross-functional instincts—able to jump into new teams and align diverse stakeholders with clarity and confidence.
- Passionate about helping others grow and contributing to a high-functioning, joyful design culture.
- Experience designing for Trust & Safety contexts, user identity, or building trust mechanics in a consumer product.
- Work in dating, social or emotionally nuanced domains.
- Experience with AI or advanced prototyping workflows.
- Active contributor to the design community through writing, speaking, or mentorship.
Skills & Capabilities
- Design Craft & Mastery: Mastery across the product design lifecycle: advanced research synthesis, information architecture, interaction design, visual design, and prototyping for novel experiences.
- Complex Problem Solving: Ability to rapidly unpack nuanced, sensitive challenges (like user safety) and orchestrate partners to align on insights and design strategies.
- Mentorship & Influence: A history of successfully mentoring other designers and providing actionable feedback that supports their growth and elevates team-wide craft.
- Communication & Presence: Exceptional communication, presentation, and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to influence and align at all levels of the organization.
- Mindset: A proactive, empathetic, and adaptable mindset, comfortable driving change and making complex decisions with little precedent.
Nice to Haves
- Direct professional experience designing for Trust & Safety contexts, user identity, or building trust mechanics in a consumer product.
- Experience designing for social connection, dating apps, or community-based products.
- Proven track record of launching innovative features that have measurably improved user safety and trust.
$230,000 - $276,000 a year
Factors such as scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/training, job-related skills, internal peer equity, as well as market and business considerations may influence base pay offered. This salary range is reflective of a position based in New York City. This salary will be subject to a geographic adjustment (according to a specific city and state), if an authorization is granted to work outside of the location listed in this posting.
As a member of our team, you’ll enjoy:
401(k) Matching: We match 100% of the first 10% of pre-tax 401(k) contributions you make, up to a maximum of $10,000 per year.
Professional Growth: Get an annual Learning & Development stipend once you’ve been with us for three months. You also get free access to Udemy, an online learning and teaching marketplace with over 6000 courses, starting your first day.
Parental Leave & Planning: When you become a new parent, you’re eligible for 100% paid parental leave (20 paid weeks for both birth and non-birth parents.)
Fertility Support: You’ll get easy access to fertility care through Carrot, from basic treatments to fertility preservation. We also provide a stipend towards fertility preservation. You and your spouse/domestic partner are both eligible.
Date Stipend: All Hinge employees receive a $100 monthly stipend for epic dates– Romantic or otherwise. Hinge Premium is also free for employees and their loved ones.
ERGs: We have eight Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)—Asian, Unapologetic, Disability, LGBTQIA+, Raices, Women/Nonbinary, Parents —that hold regular meetings, host events, and provide dedicated support to the organization & its community.
At Hinge, our core values are…
Authenticity: We share, never hide, our words, actions and intentions.
Courage: We embrace lofty goals and tough challenges.
Empathy: We deeply consider the perspective of others.
Diversity inspires innovation
Hinge is an equal-opportunity employer. We value diversity at our company and do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. We believe success is created by a diverse workforce of individuals with different ideas, strengths, interests, and cultural backgrounds.
If you require reasonable accommodation to complete a job application, pre-employment testing, or a job interview or to otherwise participate in the hiring process, please let your Talent Acquisition partner know.
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