Application as Lead Product Designer (Connectivity)

Dear Hiring Team,

I am applying for the Lead Product Designer role on Deel's Connectivity platform. The split — 30% vision, 40% hands-on design, 30% team leadership — describes exactly how I work best: shaping direction, doing the craft, and building the team that carries it forward.

Platform and systems design is what I do. As founder and CEO of ShiftDigital, I built a multi-sided platform for municipal government — a no-code workflow engine where administrators, citizens, and third-party systems interacted through APIs and configurable process layers. I designed the system architecture from the user side, maintained the design system for six years, and scaled it to seven pilot municipalities with 400+ active users. The company was acquired in 2023. Complex, interconnected systems with multiple user types and developer-facing surfaces are where my design thinking is strongest.

I build design teams, not just designs. At ABS Safety, I led seven product designers across three cross-functional teams. I built the infrastructure from scratch — design system, UX debt backlog, research repository, career framework — and restructured the team into a hybrid model with a central design pool. Managing up to five direct reports while staying hands-on in the product is the operating mode I know and prefer.

AI is integrated into my practice. I introduced AI enablement at ABS Safety through weekly sessions on AI-augmented prototyping and research — the first initiative of its kind in the company. In my own work, I use AI daily for prototyping, workflow automation, and knowledge management. This is not a bullet point on my CV; it is how I work.

What draws me to Deel: building the connectivity layer of a platform at this scale — APIs, integrations, developer experience — is a design challenge where technical depth and user empathy need to coexist. Doing that at a company growing as fast as Deel, with a small team and real ownership, is the kind of environment where I deliver the most value.

I look forward to a conversation.

Best regards
David Latz