---
title: 'Principal Product Designer at Smarkets'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/principal-product-designer-smarkets-london-4s43q126byyt'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-09'
---

# Principal Product Designer at Smarkets

- **Company:** Smarkets
- **Location:** London, United Kingdom
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Work type:** hybrid
- **Posted:** 2026-06-26
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-09
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/smarkets/00b6eeb6-4378-481d-ad2e-2d1541638b90/application

**Skills:** Figma, iOS design, Android design, Web design, Cursor, v0, Typography, Grids, Prototyping, User Research, Fintech experience, Crypto experience, Data-intensive product experience

> Smarkets is seeking a Principal Product Designer to define product direction and build core experiences from the ground up. The role involves autonomous design, prototyping, user research, and enhancing the design system for a global prediction market platform.

## Job description

Smarkets: Predicting the Future of Betting Smarkets runs one of the world’s most sophisticated prediction markets, handling over £29 billion in volume since 2010 and engaging 200,000+ traders globally. We’re a technology company that happens to revolutionise betting - from sports to political markets, to delivering the sharpest prices and the fairest odds. At the heart of our success are our people. We create a high-performance environment where exceptional talent can thrive, blending deep business experience with a commercial mindset to drive strategic growth. If you’re ready to help shape the future of prediction markets with cutting-edge technology and a customer-first philosophy, Smarkets is where you belong.

## About The Role

We're hiring a Principal Product Designer to join Smarkets. It's a role with real weight and real freedom behind it: you'll help set the Smarkets products direction and build their core experience from the ground up. Roadmaps don't get handed down here, and specs don't arrive carved in stone. We want someone who's at their best in open, undefined territory — a designer who treats a blank space as an invitation rather than a void to be feared, and who brings structure, insight and a sense of craft to genuinely hard problems. You'll work hand in hand with the leadership, product, and engineering teams, owning design end to end: getting to know our users, shaping the narratives the product tells, and shipping precise, carefully considered interfaces. What you will do:

- Design autonomously. You’ll define and drive design work from scratch - identifying what needs to be done while raising the quality bar. You’ll be working closely with execs, product, engineering.
- Simple interfaces. Designing products that solve problems in a simple and elegant way while taking care of every small detail, from wire-framing to designing end-to-end flows and prototypes
- Design for clarity and depth. Our product touches prediction and betting markets across many categories e.g. sports, politics, current events, technology etc. Your job is to make these powerful tools feel accessible, intuitive, and engaging.
- Prototype quickly and test ideas. You’ll use tools like Figma, Cursor, and light code to explore concepts, validate assumptions, and refine interfaces based on real feedback.
- Develop insights through research. You’ll talk to users, analyse behaviour, and extract meaningful patterns that inform product direction.Running guerrilla and customer testing workshops
- Enhance our design system for both of our products. You’ll redefine the standards and systems that keep our products cohesive as they grow.
- Act as a force-multiplier. You’ll raise the bar - not just through your own work, but by modeling great thinking, process, and collaboration across the company.

## About You

- 6+ years designing consumer products, ideally at early-stage companies.
- A portfolio demonstrating systemic thinking and attention to detail.
- Expertise in iOS, Android, and web design.
- Strong visual/interaction skills and fluency in Figma and AI-coding tools (Cursor, v0, etc.).
- Clear, thoughtful communication — whether you’re sharing work, making a case, or putting together a presentation
- Strong sense of ownership and ability to navigate ambiguity.
- Strategic product thinking and the ability to articulate design logic.
- Understanding of the technical implications of your design choices.
- A focus on UX and an understanding of human behaviour
- Clean visual aesthetic with a mastery of typography and grids.
- Skills in typography and grids
- Passion for complex problem-solving.
- Bonus: Experience in fintech, crypto, or data-intensive products.
- Bonus: Formal design education.

## Our Values

Our values are at the heart of everything we do - guiding how we work, collaborate, and innovate. They reflect what we expect of ourselves and each other to deliver the best results, while fostering a positive, high-performing environment:

- Push to Win: We set ambitious goals and relentlessly pursue them, always striving for excellence.
- Make Others Better: We lift each other up, share knowledge, and celebrate team success over individual achievement.
- Give a Shit: We care deeply about our work, our users, and the impact we make.
- Be a Pro: We take ownership, act with integrity, and consistently deliver to a high standard.
- Bring the Energy: We bring positivity, curiosity, and enthusiasm to everything we do, inspiring those around us.

Culture Fit: These values define how we succeed as a team. If this isn’t you, this may not be the right place. We hire people who thrive in a fast-paced, collaborative, and ambitious environment.

## Perks & Benefits

We offer a competitive salary and benefits package, alongside a dynamic, collaborative environment where your work truly makes an impact and your voice is heard. Our team is diverse, driven, and ambitious - united by a strong work ethic and a hunger to innovate and win. Our benefits are designed around Health, Wealth,and Development, supporting you both professionally and personally. These include:

- Stock Options: Vest over 4 years - your success is our success.
- Pension Scheme: Competitive plan via Aviva, with up to 6% matched contributions if you opt in.
- Health Insurance: Comprehensive coverage to keep you and your family healthy.
- Enhanced Parental Leave: Enhanced maternity and paternity leave to support you through life’s most important moments.
- Stay Fuelled: Enjoy fresh, chef-made breakfast and lunch every day, plus a constant supply of fruit, snacks, tea, coffee and soft drinks — because great work starts with great food.
- Cycle-to-Work Scheme: Support for sustainable commuting and staying active.
- Learning & Development: £1,000 annual education budget for courses, conferences, books, or training.
- Holiday: 25 days paid leave + bank holidays, with the option to carry over 5 days.
- Flexible Working: Hybrid model with 3 days in the office and 2 days from home to fit your lifestyle.
- Team Energy: Regular socials, hackathons, and events — because collaboration and fun go hand-in-hand.

Diversity & Inclusion We’re an equal opportunities employer and celebrate diversity in all its forms. If you need any adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know — we’re happy to accommodate your needs.

## About Smarkets

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Smarkets operates a peer-to-peer betting exchange and prediction market platform that allows users to back and lay outcomes on sports, politics, and current events with low commission and sharp pricing.
- **Entity Type**: Private (multiple funding rounds including Series B)
- **Headquarters**: London, United Kingdom
- **Founded**: 2008
- **Founders**: Jason Trost (CEO), Hunter Morris, Donald Trost

## Core Business
- Primary industries: Financial Services, Betting & Prediction Markets, Exchange Technology
- Target customers: B2C (retail traders and bettors) and B2B (institutional market makers, algorithmic traders via API)
- Mission or purpose: "To revolutionise the betting industry by building a more fair, customer-focused betting experience" and "to build the infrastructure for how the world prices uncertain events."

## Products & Services
- **Smarkets Exchange**: A peer-to-peer betting exchange where users bet against each other rather than a bookmaker. Charges a default 2% commission on net winnings only (no commission on losses). Covers sports, politics, current affairs, and entertainment. Offers a full REST/Streaming API for algorithmic traders.
- **SBK Sportsbook App**: A sportsbook product launched in 2022 that provides a traditional fixed-odds betting experience alongside the exchange model.
- **Prediction Market Infrastructure**: The underlying platform processes billions in annual volume and is built on a modern tech stack (Linux, Kafka, Postgres, Kubernetes) with performance-critical systems in Rust and C++.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Key Metrics**: 
  - Annual Revenue: GBP 11.9 million (source: LeadIQ)
  - Total Funding: Conflicting reports – LeadIQ states USD 3.7 million (over 5 rounds), while Wellfound states USD 33.7 million (Series B led by Susquehanna Growth Equity in 2021). 
  - Lifetime matched volume: Over £20 billion (source: pm.wiki)
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Passion Capital (seed), Susquehanna Growth Equity (Series B), SailGP (three-year sports trading partnership)
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Headcount grew 20.2% YoY (76 employees per LeadIQ, but firm claims 100+ team)
  - Actively pursuing a US CFTC Designated Contract Markets license to enter American prediction markets (announced March 2026)
  - Operates in 6 countries (UK, Malta, US, Costa Rica, Brazil, Portugal)
  - 1M+ customers worldwide

## Competitive Advantages
- **Low commission model**: 2% on net winnings only – significantly lower than rivals like Betfair (5–7%).
- **Proprietary market-making technology**: Consistently delivers sharper prices through deep liquidity and proprietary algorithms.
- **Modern tech stack**: Built on Linux, Kafka, Postgres, Kubernetes, with performance-critical components in Rust and C++20, and product surfaces in Python and React.
- **Longevity and resilience**: Founded in 2008, has survived multiple market cycles and competitors.

## Strategic Focus
- **US expansion**: Filing for CFTC license to enter the regulated US prediction market space.
- **Infrastructure for truth discovery**: Positioning itself as the infrastructure for pricing uncertain events across sports, politics, and emerging markets.
- **Continuous platform improvement**: Enhancing scalability, performance, and usability for both retail and algorithmic traders.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture highlights**: "Intelligent, diverse individuals committed to making things better" – strong engineering culture with high autonomy for teams.
- **Remote/Hybrid policy**: Hybrid with a London HQ and Malta office; some roles listed as remote on Wellfound.
- **Notable perks**:
  - In-house chefs providing fresh, sustainable meals daily (rooftop kitchen, "lunch al fresco" encouraged)
  - Annual training budget of £1,000 per employee
  - Private health insurance (comprehensive)
  - Up to 6% pension match
  - Stock options
  - Enhanced parental leave
  - Cycle-to-work scheme
- **Engineering culture**: "High-performing teams that have control over the features they ship and the code they write" – modern tech stack and active hiring for senior engineers.

## Sources
1. [smarkets.com/careers](https://smarkets.com/careers/)
2. [linkedin.com/company/smarkets](https://uk.linkedin.com/company/smarkets)
3. [wellfound.com/company/smarkets](https://wellfound.com/company/smarkets)
4. [leadiq.com/c/smarkets](https://leadiq.com/c/smarkets/5a1d9348540000540077bdc2)
5. [pm.wiki/projects/smarkets](https://pm.wiki/projects/smarkets)

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