---
title: 'Head of Design at Allocate'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/head-of-design-allocate-palo-alto-53nfjqfs2cj7'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-07'
---

# Head of Design at Allocate

- **Company:** Allocate
- **Location:** Palo Alto, CA
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-08-18
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-07
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/allocate/1b7d63da-215d-478b-b7a0-4bc5e76a977d

## Job description

## ABOUT ALLOCATE

Allocate is building the operating system for private markets — wealth advisors and their clients use the platform to access, transact in, and manage private market investments. The platform supports 350+ advisory firms and 1,500+ GP relationships, with $ 5B+ in assets on the platform.

## ABOUT THE ROLE

This position owns and builds the design function at Allocate, reporting directly to the CEO and working in lockstep with product and engineering leadership.

This is a build role, not a caretaking one. A small team, a working design system, and a live product are already in place. The mandate is to take all three further: set the standard, grow the team, and decide what design owns and how it earns that ownership.

The role stays hands-on by design. At this stage, the person leading design is still in the work: shaping the hardest flows, prototyping the ideas that must be seen to be understood, sitting in the details when the details matter.

One thing is non-negotiable: this role starts from the client and works backward. Engineering constraints are inputs to negotiate, not the frame to design inside. The right person asks what will provide advisors and fund managers a great product experience.

Private markets are dense — funds, co-investments, capital calls, distributions, portfolio reporting. This is the one area where the company isn't hiring someone to learn on the job. Candidates need to already speak this language, because “the difference between a good interface and a great one is knowing what the numbers actually mean to the person reading them.”

Design currently runs on Figma, Magic Patterns, and Anthropic, moving fast from idea to interactive prototype, validating with stakeholders and users, and cutting engineering risk before development starts. Fluency with this workflow is expected, not optional.

## WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS

Design is where Allocate's complexity becomes either clarity or friction. In a space this nuanced, a great interface isn't polished on top of the problem — it's “the difference between a client trusting the platform with real capital and bouncing off it.”

The same is true of the brand. Allocate's clients are advisors and family offices deciding whether to move real money through the platform, and every surface either earns that trust or spends it. One person holding a product, system, and brand is how those surfaces start telling the same story.

Impact compounds here — in the quality bar set, the system strengthened, and the designers who level up because of who was leading them.

## WHAT YOU’LL OWN

- Product design across Allocate — the advisor and GP experience, unified and end-to-end
- Private markets knowledge, applied directly and deepened continuously, so decisions are grounded in understanding rather than assumption
- The quality bar, held with real mechanisms, not vibes: a clear definition of done, pre-launch usability gates, a standing view of friction in the live product
- The hardest problems, end to end — research, framing, prototyping, handoff
- The team — hire, define levels and growth paths, coach through feedback, reviews, and 1:1s
- The roadmap, alongside product and engineering leadership — defining problems well, forcing tradeoffs early rather than at handoff
- A seat in product strategy, not just product execution — design's voice in executive conversations, framed around client value and business outcomes
- The design system — consistency as the default, speed as the byproduct
- Brand expression across the marketing site, campaigns, launch moments, and client-facing collateral
- A validation habit built for this size: fast, evidence-led, prototype-first, actually used
- AI-assisted tools for research synthesis, exploration, and prototyping — freeing the team for the judgment, taste, and craft only people bring
- How design works with the rest of the company — rituals, tooling, process, added only where they earn their keep

## WHO YOU ARE

- 10+ years in product design, several of them leading and managing designers
- Have built or substantially grown a design function — hiring, leveling, coaching, setting practice, not just running a queue
- Led distributed designers and held craft and cohesion high without needing to be in the same room
- Still hands-on, and want to stay that way — looking for a role where leading and making are the same job
- Strong systems thinker, with a design system carried through real growth
- Comfortable across product and brand — may lean one way, but can hold both and know when each is the lever
- Direct experience designing for private markets, or an adjacent institutional finance domain dense enough to demand real mastery — fund structures, capital calls, distributions, and portfolio reporting are already familiar ground
- Prototype-first: fluent in Figma and Magic Patterns, ready to build in Claude when code is the fastest path — not an engineer, but rarely blocked by code
- Pragmatic and experiment-friendly — multiple options, early validation, evidence over opinion
- Strong collaborator with engineers, PMs, and stakeholders — clear and flexible
- A strong communicator and storyteller — in a 1:1, an exec room, or in front of clients
- Based in the Bay Area, or ready to be — this role is in the Palo Alto office

## WHY THIS IS WORTH YOUR TIME

This is the role for someone who wants to own design at a company building something new: leading the work, shaping the system, defining the brand, and building the team — while turning one of finance's most complex corners into something people actually want to use. And at this stage, the person who owns how clients experience Allocate has a real voice in what Allocate becomes.

## ESSENTIAL VALUES & CULTURE

- Providing our clients with a world-class experience is our number one priority. We obsessively search for ways to improve the experience for our clients and partners. This requires extraordinary response times, proactivity, and ensuring that everything we do — from product strategy to offline communications — reflects a top-tier client experience.
- Challenge convention: Instead of detailing all the reasons why an idea may not work, we constantly question things to determine how a viable idea may be put into motion.
- Commitment to continuous improvement: We find ways to personally scale each day by pushing ourselves up the learning curve.
- Meritocracy, not politics: We place the utmost value on results and rewards through merit, not reward actions driven by political agendas or behavior.
- Civil Discourse is embraced: We believe open, intellectually curious conversations are required to consistently arrive at the best decisions. Respect is paramount in our dealings with one another, but our mission is always to get the right answer collectively, not to be right.
- Embrace technological change: We adopt tools and techniques that make us faster, smarter, and better. We stay open to innovation, especially around AI and automation, and drop outdated methods without hesitation. This includes actively integrating AI-assisted tools into your daily workflow and staying current as the landscape evolves. Complacency kills progress — we value adaptability and curiosity.

## ADDITIONAL DETAILS

- Hybrid Position - 3 days/week in Palo Alto office required
- Travel may be required for company offsites
- Broadband internet connection required
- Location: All I-9 eligible candidates will be considered
- Salary: $225,000 - $260,000+ base, with bonus and equity eligibility
- Benefits: Medical, dental, and vision; 401(k); and responsible vacation time (PTO)
- Employment: Full-time
- Reports to: CEO and Co-Founder

The base pay offered will be determined based on the candidate's experience, location, skills, training, certifications, education, internal equity, and market data. Total compensation may also include a discretionary performance-based bonus. We do not anticipate that candidates hired will begin at the top of the range or above, though this may occur on a case-by-case basis.

## About Allocate

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Allocate builds the operating system and infrastructure layer that connects wealth advisors and asset managers for private markets investing.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Funding Stage: Series C – $60.8M total raised)
- **Headquarters**: Palo Alto, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2021
- **Founders**: Samir Kaji (Co-Founder, CEO & President) and Hana Yang (Co-Founder, CXO)

## Core Business
- **Primary industry**: Financial Services / Private Markets Infrastructure
- **Target customers**: Wealth advisory firms (RIAs from $500M to $250B+ in AUM) and institutional asset managers operating in the wealth channel.
- **Mission or purpose**: To build the private markets operating system for the wealth channel – bringing an end-to-end institutional-grade solution around structure, controls, and reporting.

## Products & Services
- **Allocate Platform (Operating System for Private Markets)**: A unified technology platform that handles subscriptions, capital flows, portfolio operations, and AI-powered workflows. Enables wealth advisors to curate opportunities, create white-labeled feeder vehicles, and track performance across their entire private markets program.
- **Integration Layer**: Works alongside existing reporting platforms (e.g., major wealth advisor reporting systems) rather than replacing them, minimizing disruption and operational lift.
- **AI-Powered Workflows**: Extracts data from fund documents, structures comparisons, and updates portfolios from manager reports automatically.
- **Curated Investment Opportunities**: Allocate offers a vetted selection of private markets offerings that meet platform eligibility criteria, augmenting advisors’ own diligence efforts.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metric**: $4.5B+ assets on platform; 1,500+ private asset manager relationships; 370+ wealth advisory firms trust Allocate (as of mid-2026). Estimated annual revenue of $1.0M (per LinkedIn data – likely a proxy estimate; not officially confirmed).
- **Total Funding**: $60.8M from institutional investors including top-tier VCs (specific lead investors not named in provided materials, but described as “long-term institutional investors”).
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Not individually listed in source, but backed by institutional investors; leadership includes alumni from First Republic, J.P. Morgan, SS&C, Carta, Morgan Stanley, Fidelity, AngelList.
- **Growth Signals**: 73 employees as of 2026 (+16.7% YoY). Serving 370+ wealth advisory firms (up from 325+ at end of 2025, per February 2026 news). Co-founder Hana Yang named to Inc.’s 2026 Female Founders 500 List. Presence in Canada and Brazil.

## Competitive Advantages
- **Dual-sided platform**: Serves both wealth advisors and asset managers – complete capital flow coordination rather than a one-sided tool.
- **Infrastructure layer**: Focuses on automating manual processes (subscriptions, vehicle administration, portfolio tracking) that create bottlenecks in private markets.
- **Integration-first approach**: Does not require replacement of existing reporting systems, reducing friction for adoption.
- **Scale**: Built for firms from $500M to $250B+ in AUM, with institutional-grade compliance (SOC 2 Type II), role-based permissions, and audit trails.
- **Founder expertise**: Samir Kaji (26 years in private markets, hosted “Venture Unlocked” podcast) and Hana Yang (15+ years, former Managing Director at First Republic, Kauffman Fellows) bring deep domain knowledge.

## Strategic Focus
- Continue scaling the platform to capture the $3T projected wealth channel capital into private markets by 2029.
- Deepen AI capabilities to automate repetitive fund document processing and portfolio updates.
- Expand integration partnerships with major wealth advisor reporting platforms.
- Grow relationship management team (open roles in RIA relationship management across East/West Coast) to onboard more advisory firms and asset managers.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Emphasizes “relentless problem-solving” and “extreme client service” – described as builders who care deeply about client experience, operational rigor, and systems thinking.
- **Work Environment**: Flexible remote/hybrid policy (some roles fully remote, e.g., Information Security Lead; others based in Palo Alto office). Offers responsible time off (RTO) and comprehensive health, dental, and vision plans.
- **Growth & Impact**: Join a fast-growing fintech with institutional backing and a clear mission to fix infrastructure in a huge market. 73 people scaling rapidly – opportunity to shape engineering, product, and operations.
- **Diversity & Inclusion**: Co-founder Hana Yang is a prominent female leader in venture; the company likely values diverse perspectives (Women In Venture initiative founder).
- **Benefits**: Parental & family leave, flexible work environment, and a focus on professional development.

## Sources
1. [allocate.co/about](https://allocate.co/about)
2. [allocate.co/careers](https://www.allocate.co/careers)
3. [allocate.co](https://allocate.co/?tpcc=NL_Marketing)
4. [linkedin.com/company/allocateco](https://www.linkedin.com/company/allocateco)
5. [jobs.ashbyhq.com/allocate](https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/allocate)

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