Staff Product Designer

Company Mission

Relay is fundamentally reshaping how goods move in an online era. Backed by Europe’s largest-ever logistics Series A ($35M), led by deep-tech investors Plural (whose portfolio spans fusion energy and space exploration), Relay is scaling faster than 99.98% of venture-backed startups. We're assembling the most talent-dense team the logistics industry has ever seen.

Work Alongside Industry Leaders

Rob Ladbrook – Director of Engineering

Rob was Deliveroo’s first IC to be promoted to Principal Engineer, renowned for building ultra-low-latency, fault-tolerant systems at global scale (Deliveroo, Meta). His platforms handle hundreds of millions of real-time transactions with four-nines uptime. At Relay, Rob champions innovation, consistently seeking and supporting new ideas that redefine what's possible.

Relay’s Mission

Relay exists to free commerce from friction. Today, high delivery costs act as a hidden tax on e-commerce, quietly shaping what can be sold online and limiting who can participate. We envision a world where more goods move more freely between more people, making the online shopping experience seamless and accessible to everyone.

In this future:

• Delivery feels invisible—free shipping is the default, and logistical friction disappears from consumers' minds.

• Retailers of all sizes thrive equally online, whether selling a £5 item or a £500 one, as delivery becomes universally efficient and cost-effective.

Just as the internet eliminates friction from communication, Relay removes friction from the movement of goods, enabling broader participation and creating new opportunities for merchants and consumers alike.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Staff Product Designer to take a leading role in shaping the user experience across Relay’s multi-sided logistics platform - spanning First Mile, Middle Mile, Last Mile, Sortation, Pitstops, Clients, and Consumers.

This role is tailored for a senior IC who thrives on complex systems and cross-functional influence, and who is also eager to mentor junior designers and contribute to a strong design culture. You’ll balance hands-on product design work with people leadership for 2+ direct reports, helping scale our impact as the team grows.

You’ll collaborate closely with peers in Product, Engineering, and Data to design high-leverage user experiences, champion UX thinking in product strategy, and contribute to the evolution of our design system and practices.

What You’ll Do

• Drive end-to-end product design across key areas of our logistics platform (mobile and web).

• Take on complex, ambiguous problem spaces, translating them into clear, intuitive, and elegant user experiences.

• Partner with Product and Engineering to shape product direction, balance user needs with business goals, and prioritize effectively.

• Lead user research initiatives and embed insights into product decisions.

• Maintain and extend our design system in collaboration with Engineering.

• Contribute to our culture of design excellence through critique, documentation, and experimentation.

• Provide mentorship and light management for 2+ designers, helping grow their craft and confidence.

• Help shape how design works at Relay - from process and tooling to values and rituals.

What We’re Looking For

• 7+ years of product design experience, with a strong track record as a senior or staff-level designer.

• Experience mentoring other designers and an interest in team-building or line management.

• A portfolio that showcases your ability to solve complex problems with clarity, craft, and systems thinking.

• Fluency in end-to-end product design - from research to wireframes to high-fidelity UI and design specs.

• Ability to lead design work independently while driving alignment across stakeholders.

• Experience in operationally complex domains (e.g. logistics, marketplaces, fintech, etc.) is a strong plus.

• Comfort working in fast-paced, evolving environments with autonomy and initiative.

• Deep collaboration skills and a clear, user-centered point of view.

Who Thrives at Relay?

Relay engineers share core traits, captured in our guiding principles, "The Relay Edge":

• Aim with Precision: You define problems clearly and measure your impact meticulously.

• Play to Win: You chase bold bets, tackle the hard stuff, and view constraints as fuel, not friction.

• 1% Better Every Day: You believe that small, consistent improvements lead to exponential growth. You move quickly, deliver results, and learn from every experience.

• All In, All the Time: You show up and step up. You take ownership from start to finish and do what it takes to deliver when it counts.

• People-Powered Greatness: You invest in your teammates. You give and receive feedback with care and candor. You build trust through high standards and shared success.

• Grow the Whole Pie: You seek out win-win solutions for merchants, couriers, and our customers, because when they thrive, so do we.
  
  If these resonate, and you combine strong technical fundamentals with entrepreneurial drive, let’s connect.

Compensation & Benefits

• Generous equity, richer than 99% of European startups, with annual top-ups to share Relay’s success.

• Private health & dental coverage, so comprehensive you’d need to be a partner at a Magic Circle law firm to match it.

• 25 days of holidays

• Enhanced parental leave.

• Hardware of your choice.

• Extensive perks (gym subsidies, cycle-to-work, Friday office lunch, covered Uber home and dinner for late nights, and more).

The qualifications and experiences above act as a loose guide to what we’re looking for. We’d still love to hear from you if you have more or less experience, so long as the core skills can be demonstrated.

Fast and Focused Hiring Process

• Talent Acquisition Interview - 30 min

• HM Screen & Portfolio Review - 1 hour

• Live Case Study - 1.5 hours

• Operating Principles & Impact - 1 hour

• Decision and offer within 48 hours, our process mirrors our pace of work, typically completed in a week.

Relay is an equal-opportunity employer committed to diversity, inclusion, and fostering a workplace where everyone thrives.