Product Design Director - Lead Design at Midnite UK in Columbus
Career & Market Insight
This is a Director-level design leadership role at a fast-scaling consumer tech company in the competitive igaming/sports betting space — a sector with significant UX investment and strong compensation. Without a stated salary, candidates should benchmark: UK Product Design Director roles typically range from £90,000–£140,000+ depending on stage and funding, with senior gaming/tech firms at the top end.
Green flags for career development:
- High ownership model with direct line management of five designers — meaningful team-building experience at a real scale.
- Cross-functional influence across Product, Engineering, Brand, and Growth is excellent for building a full-stack leadership profile.
- Hands-on craft is explicitly valued, which is rare at Director level and prevents the common "all strategy, no making" trap.
- Design systems leadership is a highly transferable, in-demand skill across the industry.
- AI integration in design workflow positions you at the frontier of evolving tooling.
Considerations:
- "High-performance team at pace" and "no hiding behind processes" can signal a demanding culture — assess work-life balance carefully at interview.
- Midnite is a growth-stage company (400K users), meaning role scope could expand rapidly — high upside but also high ambiguity.
- No equity/options mentioned — worth clarifying if compensation includes long-term incentives given the startup stage.
Overall, this is a strong career accelerator for a senior designer ready to move from IC or Lead into a true directorship with P&L-adjacent influence.
Why Midnite?
Midnite is a next-generation sports betting and gaming platform built for a new wave of players.
We combine sharp product thinking, bold brand, and fast execution to create experiences that feel modern, intuitive, and built for how people actually play today.
Over 400,000 players have already made the move, and we're only just getting started.
We're a high-performance team operating at pace. High ownership. Constant iteration. No hiding behind processes. We move quickly, test relentlessly, and turn ambitious ideas into real impact. If you're driven, creative, and thrive in fast-moving environments where you can shape meaningful outcomes — keep reading.
Not your granddad's bookie.
The Role
Title: Product Design Director
Team: Design
Location: Remote, UK
Experience quality is one of the clearest ways Midnite differentiates in a category that too often settles for functional and familiar. As a Product Design Director, you will ensure craft, quality and ambition remain central to how we build, as we scale. You will lead Product Design, shape company-wide experience direction, and embed Design in the most important product decisions. This is a role with real influence, accountable for how Midnite feels across every surface and responsible for raising the bar as we grow.
You will:
- Lead and develop our Product Design team, line managing five designers and setting a clear standard for craft, judgement and ownership.
- Define and uphold the experience bar across all product surfaces, from customer-facing native and web to back-office platforms.
- Ensure coherence across squads and journeys so Midnite feels like one joined-up system rather than a collection of features.
- Shape the long-term experience direction and codify principles that guide teams toward a shared north star.
- Mature and drive adoption of our design systems to enable both speed and consistency at scale.
- Partner closely with Product and Engineering leadership on strategy, early problem framing and complex trade-offs.
- Contribute hands-on to Midnite's most complex and high-impact initiatives, elevating outcomes through strong visual and interaction design.
- Collaborate with Brand, Creative, Growth, CRM and Games to ensure the end-to-end customer experience is cohesive and well crafted.
- Explore and integrate emerging technologies, including AI, where they meaningfully improve how we design and build.
- Strengthen the structures and standards that allow experience quality to scale as the company grows.
The next Midniter:
- Sets and defends a high bar for visual and interaction design, with exceptional taste and strong product instincts.
- Has operated at scale, shaping design direction across multiple teams and surfaces.
- Has built or matured design systems that improve consistency and enable teams to move faster without sacrificing quality.
- Brings hands-on craft capability and is comfortable directly contributing to high-stakes initiatives.
- Is a trusted strategic partner to Product and Engineering leaders, contributing meaningfully to roadmap direction and key decisions.
- Develops designers through thoughtful feedback, coaching and hiring, steadily raising overall team capability.
- Communicates clearly and practically, influencing across disciplines and levels of seniority.
- Is curious about emerging technologies, including AI, and thoughtful about where they add real value.
- Cares deeply about building well-designed digital products, from simplifying complex systems to refining interaction, motion and hierarchy.
Winnings (Benefits)
- Private health insurance with zero excess, including optical cover and optional dental.
- Income protection to protect your earnings and give you peace of mind.
- Tenure holiday policy: after three years you receive an extra two days leave, increasing to 30 days annually after five years.
- Flexible working and a fully supported home office setup so you can do your best work from home.
- Nursery salary sacrifice scheme helping parents save thousands each year on nursery fees.
- Salary sacrifice schemes for tech and holidays so you can spread the cost of the things you want.
- Retail discounts and subscription perks across a wide range of brands.
- Quarterly team socials to connect, celebrate and have fun together.
At Midnite, we are committed to creating equal opportunities for everyone. We actively strive to build balanced teams that reflect the diversity of our communities, including ethnic minorities, people with disabilities, the LGBTQIA+ community, and all genders.
We aim to provide an inclusive and supportive interview experience for all candidates. If you require any reasonable adjustments, please let us know in advance so we can ensure you feel comfortable and set up for success.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Is this role fully remote or does it require office attendance?
How many designers would the Product Design Director manage?
What is the salary for this Product Design Director role at Midnite?
Do I need experience in sports betting or gaming to apply?
Does Midnite offer any equity or long-term incentives?
