Signal Watch — Send Before Friday

Scan range: Through July 3, 2026, COB Shelf life expires: July 10, 2026. Act Now entries decay before then.

Two roles need outreach before the holiday weekend. Two more are worth preparing for so you can move the week of July 7. The rest: hold, verify, or drop.

Holiday timing analysis is in the companion sidebar. Below is the queue, ranked by window decay and portfolio fit.

Act Now

Capital One — Director, Product Design - AI in Experience Design

• What changed: Posted May 28, now 33 days old. The role sits in Experience Design's "top of house" team, reporting to the SVP/Chief Design Officer. Capital One shows a new AI research hub launched within the past week and an "Agentic Systems in Industry" workshop at University of Maryland in the past month.

• Why it matters: Read the posting language. It emphasizes AI in experience design but never mentions "team building" or "hiring." That absence is diagnostic: they want someone who can architect AI-native design patterns across the org. The people-management gap isn't the problem they're solving. Your Alibaba work maps to the enterprise scale. Your agentic AI work maps to the actual mandate. Use both.

• Confidence: High on the role being active (verified posting date, structural CDO reporting line). The CDO is likely Daniela Jorge, who joined Capital One from PayPal, but her current title and LinkedIn profile were not independently verified in this scan. Confirm before sending.

• Window: Back half. Enterprise Director-level searches typically run 6–8 weeks. At 33 days you're past the midpoint. Send before the holiday.

• Move:

  • (a) Who: Daniela Jorge, likely SVP and Chief Design Officer based on prior reporting. She came from PayPal and owns the Experience Design org this role reports into. Confirm her LinkedIn URL before sending; her profile was not independently verified in this scan.
  • (b) Warm path: Check PayPal and fintech design network connections. Capital One's XD org draws heavily from financial services design leadership.
  • (c) Opening message:
  “

  "I saw Capital One's AI research hub launch and the Agentic Systems workshop, both of which signal that XD is building real infrastructure for AI-native experience design. That's the problem I've been working from two directions: at Alibaba.com I led the B2B platform redesign across a $50B+ GMV marketplace where trust architecture drove a 20% transaction lift, and at Agentic Labs I've been designing agentic systems where the core challenge is the same — earning user trust when AI makes consequential decisions. I'd welcome the chance to discuss the Director, Product Design - AI in Experience Design role."

  • (d) What not to say: Do not frame this as a step down from Head of Design. Capital One's Director level in XD carries real scope. Treat it as a peer conversation about the design problem.

Suno — Head of Product Design

• What changed: Jack Brody posted publicly that Suno is hiring a Head of Design covering Product Design, Design Engineering, and UX Research. The Ashby listing has a publishedAt date of April 21. That's 70 days. Suno simultaneously closed a $400M+ Series D at $5.4B.

• Why it matters: At 70 days, this posting would normally land in Deprioritize. Brody's public hiring post and the Series D reset the clock on timing relevance, but they do not reset the candidate pipeline. Be prepared for the possibility that a finalist slate already exists and you're entering late. Worth a message this week precisely because the funding gives you a fresh hook, but don't invest deep prep until you get a response. Brody's language is specific: designers who "ship directly to production," a team that uses AI to "rewrite what a design team can be." Lead with the essay. Back it with the shipped products.

• Confidence: High that the role is real and actively promoted. Moderate that the window is still meaningfully open given posting age.

• Window: Ambiguous. The funding event creates a reason to surface now. Move before the holiday so the message lands while the Series D news is still current.

• Move:

  • (a) Who: Jack Brody. LinkedIn. His public post frames the role around AI-native design craft, around building, around shipping. Title not confirmed in this scan, but he's the person who publicly promoted the search.
  • (b) Warm path: Check AI-native design community connections. His public post functions as an open door if you're going cold.
  • (c) Opening message:
  “

  "Jack — your post about building a design team at Suno where designers ship to production is the clearest version of the mandate I've been working on at Agentic Labs. Brand Pulse, Retail Velocity, and Carrier IQ are all live agentic products where the design challenge was exactly what you described: earning trust when AI acts autonomously. I wrote about the architecture this requires in 'Trust Is the New Interface' earlier this month. I'd welcome 20 minutes to talk about the Head of Design role and how I think about scaling design engineering alongside product design."

  • (d) What not to say: Skip enterprise scale narratives. Skip team-size numbers. Brody wants a builder who understands AI-native craft. Manage-40-people stories will read as wrong frequency.

Act Soon

Ramp — Director, Product Design

• What changed: Posted June 8 per the Ashby API publishedAt field, roughly 22 days old. The posting language stands out: "building tools and agents," "designing memory," "shipping PRs." Eric Glyman announced he and Karim Atiyeh became co-CEOs within the past week, framing the transition around AI reshaping systems design.

• Why it matters: Freshest confirmed posting in this queue. "Designing memory" is language that tells you this team thinks at the systems level. Your Agentic Labs work fits. The problem: no design leader surfaced at Ramp in this scan. The co-CEO transition may mean design leadership is being defined in real time. The posting says the Director will "own a product area and team with room to take broader leadership over time," which reads as a function-building mandate.

• Confidence: High on the role being active (Ashby API date confirmed). Moderate on contact path — no VP or Head of Design was publicly identifiable.

• Window: 2–3 weeks. Pipeline is still forming.

• Move:

  • (a) Who: Eric Glyman, co-CEO. LinkedIn. No VP or Head of Design was publicly identifiable. Glyman's post provides the hook.
  • (b) Warm path: Check fintech or YC network. Otherwise cold to Glyman.
  • (c) Opening message:
  “

  "Eric — your framing of AI reshaping systems design at Ramp maps to the design leadership problem I've been solving at Agentic Labs, where we shipped three agentic products that required designing for autonomous decision-making. I'm interested in the Director, Product Design role. Who's the right person to speak with?"

  • (d) What not to say: Don't over-explain to a CEO. The first message is a routing question. Let him direct you.

Headway — Design Director, Provider Experience

• What changed: Posted June 4 per the Ashby API publishedAt field, 26 days old. The role owns design vision for Headway's EHR: scheduling, telehealth, clinical documentation, outcome measurement, insurance verification, billing. The posting names an "AI-first design team" using Claude, Cursor, and MagicPatterns. Andrew Adams posted publicly about spending most of his time on AI, Headway's acquisition of the Tezi team, and hiring at the AI-healthcare intersection.

• Why it matters: Healthcare EHR plus AI-first design team plus regulated complexity. Your agentic work is the secondary pillar here. Lead with Thermo Fisher ($20M+ margin, pharma, 100% adoption) and Red Cross ($847K disbursed, 6 systems→1).

• Confidence: High on the role. Moderate on Adams as the direct hiring manager. His title was not publicly verified in this scan, but his post about AI-healthcare hiring and the Tezi acquisition makes him the strongest named executive contact.

• Window: 2–3 weeks.

• Move:

  • (a) Who: Andrew Adams (title unverified; his LinkedIn activity positions him as an executive involved in AI and team-building strategy). LinkedIn.
  • (b) Warm path: Check healthcare design or healthtech connections.
  • (c) Opening message:
  “

  "Andrew — your post about Headway's AI-healthcare hiring and the Tezi acquisition caught my attention. I led design for Thermo Fisher's mySupply platform in pharma — regulated, multi-partner, $20M+ margin — and more recently built agentic AI products at Agentic Labs. The Design Director, Provider Experience role sits at that intersection. Who should I speak with?"

  • (d) What not to say: Don't lead with Alibaba. This is a healthcare conversation. Thermo Fisher and Red Cross earn trust here. Enterprise scale stories will sound off-topic.

Watch

Anthropic — Pre-posting cluster developing: multiple IC-level design roles have appeared without a corresponding design leadership posting. No Director+ or Head of Design role is live. Full analysis in the companion sidebar. Escalation trigger: a Director+ design posting appears, or a design leader publicly posts about hiring. Battlecard candidate.

Aurora Solar — Confirmed live signal in clean energy vertical. The 0→1 pillar (Thermo Fisher, Red Cross) maps if the role involves building design for a regulated or partner-heavy platform. Escalation trigger: role-level and location details confirm Director+ scope and geographic fit. Battlecard candidate.

Kiddom — Confirmed live signal in edtech. Narrower vertical scope than your other targets. Escalation trigger: posting language reveals AI-native or platform-complexity mandate that maps to your pillars. Battlecard candidate.

Hiive — Confirmed live signal. Role level needs verification before committing outreach time. Escalation trigger: title and scope confirm Director+ design leadership, not senior IC. Battlecard candidate.

Deprioritize

Headway — Design Director, Core Insurance & Design Systems. Ashby API shows publishedAt of October 7, 2025. Nine months old. Do not prep. Pause.

OpenAI — Product Design Manager. Posted April 15, 76 days old. The posting explicitly asks for 5+ years managing teams of 5–10 designers and calls the hire an "early team leader." Scope is Foundations across consumer and enterprise, including Payments, Identity & Access, and developer tools. At 76 days with no repost, and with no Director Product Design or Head of Design posting visible on OpenAI's Ashby board, this needs level verification before you invest Director-level prep. If an OpenAI design contact confirms it maps to your target level, it jumps to Act Now. Until then: hold.