Senior / Lead Product Designer · Fintech & Banking · London

Creating elegant design for complex and regulated financial services.

15+ years turning complex workflows into experiences people trust and want to use. End-to-end product design across private banking, mortgage processing, and national-scale digital services.

View Case Studies
15+
Years of Experience
4,000+
Banking Users Designed For
3
Regulated UK Sectors
London
ILR / Settled Status · Hybrid-Ready
Photo
coming soon
The person behind the process

Hi, I'm Maria.

I work at the intersection of design thinking, user research, interaction design, and product strategy in regulated environments. Over 15 years, I've led design for 4,000+ banking managers at a major Swedish bank, shaped card management for the UK's oldest private bank, and contributed to digital transformation at Royal Mail — alongside consumer mobile and web apps with millions of users.

I care about agile delivery, research and evidence-based decisions, accessible design by default, and staying long enough to see the real impact of my work. I combine UX craft with product thinking and elegant interfaces, and bring genuine curiosity and problem-solving to every team I work with.

I'm looking for a stable, design-mature fintech or bank where I can build something that lasts.

Previously Head of UX & Product at Hyron AI (£30M, seed) · Expert UX Designer at Zühlke Engineering, working with major banks, Royal Mail, and other financial institutions · Based in London · Open to Senior & Lead UX/Product roles.
Discovery & Research Design Thinking Design Systems Prototyping iOS & Android Accessibility AI Products Product Strategy Agile Delivery
Selected Work

Case studies from
the front line of fintech.

01
Alpha to Release · Internal · Discovery
End-to-End Redesign

Rebuilding a decade-old mortgage system so 4,000 advisors could trust their own tool again.

Led end-to-end UX redesign of a complex mortgage system for 4,000+ banking managers across the UK branch network. Discovery through production release over a 2-year embedded engagement.

Client
Major Swedish Bank, UK
Year
2022–2024
Role
Lead UX Designer
Sector
Mortgage Banking
View Case Study
02
Discovery · Prototype · MVP
Consumer iOS App

Card management for the UK’s oldest private bank. Designed for discretion.

Co-led discovery and designed the iOS card management MVP for C. Hoare & Co. Key insight: wealthy customers prioritise payment discretion over feature richness. Expanded into a continued Zühlke engagement.

Client
C. Hoare & Co
Year
2022
Role
Expert UX Designer
Sector
Private Banking
View Case Study
03
Mobile · Usability · Research
Usability Research

Where is my parcel?

Planned and ran moderated usability testing across multiple cadences, synthesised findings, and designed the Parcelforce redirect flow. Navigated a three-way tension between user experience, cookie compliance, and stakeholder preference.

Client
Royal Mail
Year
2023
Role
Expert UX Designer
Sector
Logistics · Public Sector
View Case Study
What I Bring

Four capabilities for
a design-mature team.

The skills that have actually earned their keep across fifteen years in regulated environments — not a generic process, but the specific things I do well and the evidence for each.

01
Regulated UX
FCA-adjacent work across mortgage processing, private banking, and national-scale digital services. Consumer Duty, KYC/AML flows, and WCAG 2.2 AA accessibility treated as baseline — not afterthought.
Evidenced across cases 01, 02, 03
02
Evidence-Based Research
Moderated usability testing across multiple cadences, embedded SME programmes, contextual enquiry. Eight rounds of testing shaped every major feature in the Swedish bank mortgage redesign.
Evidenced in case 01
03
AI-Augmented Design
Product strategy for AI platforms. Translating machine-learning capability into trustworthy, actionable interfaces. Most recently led UX and product for an AI recruitment platform at Hyron AI.
Head of UX & Product, Hyron AI
04
Systems & Service Thinking
Cross-channel journeys, scalable design systems, stakeholder navigation in complex orgs. From Royal Mail's digital estate assessment to aligning with a Swedish-managed component library across three agile teams.
Evidenced in cases 01, 03
Beyond the Pixels

The things that
inform the work.

What I do when I'm not designing isn't separate from the work — it's where a lot of it begins. Observation, patience, and learning to see abstractly are the same skills, just in different rooms.

Ritual & Routine
Every design day starts slowly. Coffee, ten minutes of freeform sketching, no screens. Rituals create the mental space where good questions surface before the answers.
Sketching & Thinking
iPad and Apple Pencil — ideas get messy before they get clear. Wireframes, abstract compositions, and the occasional Kew Garden orchid. It's where design thinking meets muscle memory.
Balance & Breath
Five years on the mat. Yoga is design thinking for the body — consistency over intensity, showing up imperfectly. It's the patience fintech work demands.
Abstract Seeing
Marble textures, unexpected colour pairings, botanical geometry. Abstract collage and mixed media taught me that constraints breed creativity, and white space speaks volumes.
Botanical Inspiration
Kew Gardens reminds me the best design systems exist in nature. Orchid petals, fern fractals, light through the Palm House — these shapes find their way into interfaces.
See more of the visual side @maria.sign on Instagram
Let's Talk

Let's make something
you're proud of.

Currently speaking with UK banks and established fintechs about Senior and Lead UX/Product Design roles. Based in London — hybrid preferred. ILR / Settled Status. I respond within 48 hours.

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