---
title: 'Design Lead at Modern Life'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/design-lead-modern-life-new-york-4epmcny3rfby'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-18'
---

# Design Lead at Modern Life

- **Company:** Modern Life
- **Location:** New York, NY
- **Compensation:** $180k–$220k
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-05-21
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-18
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/modernlife/36f54654-7eeb-44e6-9409-6274a5535154

## Job description

Join our team and accelerate your career. Life insurance is a complex and consequential purchase that impacts hundreds of millions of Americans. With our powerful and integrated digital tools, expert support, and leading insurance products, we empower advisors to better serve their clients, grow their businesses, and bring the future of the industry to life. We are a high-growth, AI-driven brokerage backed by $35M from top-tier investors, including Thrive Capital (major investors in OpenAI, SpaceX, Stripe, Instagram, Spotify, and Slack), New York Life, and Northwestern Mutual. Join a passionate team of product-minded technologists and insurance professionals who are at the leading edge of a massive industry. Make a tangible difference in people's lives and help deliver our mission to help everyone protect what matters most through advanced technology and tailored advice. This is a senior individual contributor role with leadership scope. Depending on the person, the role can grow into a design leader over time or work in support of design leadership as we scale the team.

What You'll Do:

- Drive design and user experience across Modern Life’s product and brand presence
- Define, launch and iterate solutions that are clear, usable, and elegant
- Translate complexity into clarity in everything you touch, from research to pixels
- Push the bleeding edge of your approach and tools as AI capabilities continue to evolve
- Collaborate closely with cross-functional team from early concept through execution
- Direct and get the most out of work from other designers where needed, including external design freelancers — scoping, briefing, reviewing, and shipping

Your Impact:

- Enable our customers—life insurance advisors—to serve their clients more easily by delivering user experiences which improve the process of buying and selling insurance
- Influence product and company direction by driving design decisions that align user needs with business priorities, working closely with a tight-knit, fast-moving cross-functional team
- Raise the quality bar through thoughtful critique, high standards, and attention to detail across product, brand, and marketing touchpoints
- Contribute to building a culture of customer-centricism across the organization which results in consistently high customer satisfaction rates
- Continue to develop the design practice and approach in a scalable way

About You:

- 6+ years of experience in digital product design, ideally including time on an in-house team
- A portfolio showing your ability to define, execute and iterate impactful design solutions
- Curiosity and experimentation mindset; actively exploring how new tools can help your work
- Driven by tenacious problem-solving, deliver viable, desirable, feasible solutions
- Leadership experience or clear leadership aptitude; comfortable directing the work of other designers (including freelancers) and giving them what they need to be productive
- Systems thinker comfortable applying a defined system and seizing opportunities to evolve it
- Experience working with a refined brand; able to execute with visual finesse, uphold guidelines and apply good taste to design solutions
- Highly collaborative work style with stakeholders and peers
- Driven to build life insurance domain expertise through self-study, user research, pairing with internal subject matter experts
- Based in NYC and open to working from our SoHo office - in person 4 days a week

Bonus Points:

- You have experience and interest in working with complex B2B workflows and systems
- You are familiar with Service Design methods; experience working cross-channel
- You have formally managed or mentored other designers, or led freelance/agency partners

## About Modern Life

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Modern Life is an AI-powered life insurance brokerage that enables financial professionals to serve their clients’ protection needs with faster quoting, expert support, and a digital platform.
- **Entity Type**: Private, Series A ($20M raised November 2025, total $35M)
- **Headquarters**: New York, NY, USA
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Michael Konialian (CEO) and Ryan Pripstein (Board Member)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Life insurance brokerage (financial services)
- **Target customers**: B2B – financial advisors, insurance agents, brokerage managers
- **Mission**: Help everyone protect what matters most

## Products & Services
- **Platform (AI-driven brokerage)**: SaaS-based quoting, case management, and underwriting tools that integrate with 30+ national carriers. Includes features like an online client fact finder, e-HIPAA, digital trial app, and integrated case management.
- **Term Life Insurance**: Fixed-period coverage (10–30 years) for income protection, mortgage, and key person insurance.
- **Permanent Life Insurance**: Lifetime coverage with a tax-advantaged savings component for estate planning, retirement, and wealth transfer.
- **Long-Term Care Insurance**: Protection against care expenses due to old age or disability; available as standalone or as a rider.
- **Disability Insurance**: Income replacement in case of disability.
- **Annuities**: Fixed, variable, or indexed products for retirement income and wealth transfer.
- **Express Decision**: Proprietary capability that delivers instant coverage decisions (quote to approved in minutes).

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not disclosed
- **Key Metric**: Total funding $35M (Seed + Series A); 35 employees
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Thrive Capital (led both Seed & Series A), New York Life Ventures, Northwestern Mutual
- **Growth Signals**:
  - November 2025: $20M Series A announced, building on rapid progress since seed.
  - Platform delivers +30% higher placement rate and +20% average cost savings for advisors.
  - Licensing in all 50 states.
  - Expanding strategic partnerships nationwide and accelerating product development.

## Competitive Advantages
- **AI-driven underwriting and quoting** that reduces friction and speeds time-to-approval (Express Decision).
- **Concierge expert support** from advanced planning specialists, underwriters, and case designers – especially for impaired risks, jumbo cases, and complex scenarios.
- **30+ carrier partnerships** providing broad product selection and competitive pricing.
- **Data analytics** for thorough risk assessment, helping advisors find the best offer for the right coverage.
- **Integrated platform** that cuts quote-to-approval time by up to 50% vs. traditional processes.

## Strategic Focus
- Expand distribution network and deepen partnerships with national carriers.
- Continue to develop proprietary AI/ML capabilities for underwriting and client matching.
- Grow headcount (currently 35) and scale operations to serve a larger advisor base.
- Enhance end-to-end agency management features on the platform.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Impact-driven, curious, entrepreneurial, with an ownership mindset. Described as “a team of entrepreneurs, technologists, and insurance experts.”
- **Hybrid office**: 4 days/week in-office in New York City (per current job listings); balance of modern office environment with flexibility.
- **Perks**: Unlimited PTO, quality health/insurance benefits (including life insurance), team meals, events, happy hours, and offsites.
- **Mission-oriented**: Opportunity to transform a massive industry and help people protect what matters most.
- **Growth stage**: Well-funded Series A – early enough for high impact, with strong backing from top-tier investors.

## Sources
1. [modernlife.com](https://www.modernlife.com/) – Main site, product descriptions
2. [modernlife.com/careers](https://www.modernlife.com/careers) – Careers page, culture, benefits
3. [modernlife.com/about](https://www.modernlife.com/about) – About, founders, mission
4. [modernlife.com/press-kit](https://www.modernlife.com/press-kit) – Press kit with Series A announcement, headcount, funding total
5. [jobs.lever.co/modernlife](https://jobs.lever.co/modernlife) – Current job openings, office policy

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