Brand & Product Designer

Job Description

Job Description

About Piston

Piston (PistonPay) is a payments company, starting by changing how trucking fleets pay for fuel. We run a cardless, closed-loop payments network that connects fleets directly with fuel retailers. Fleets get a more secure alternative to legacy fuel cards plus access to fuel discounts, and fuel merchants get more predictable sales.

We were founded by logistics industry veterans and are a Series A company. In September 2026 we raised a $15M Series A led by FPV Ventures, with Spark Capital and Pear VC participating, the same firms that backed companies like Anthropic, Dropbox, DoorDash and Canva. Piston is accepted at more than 2,000 fuel stations across 48 states, and our point-of-sale integrations reach systems that cover more than 95% of U.S. merchant fuel sites.

We're building the financial backbone for the trucks and fleets that move the economy, and we're just getting started.

Role Overview

We are looking for a Brand & Product Designer to build and scale Piston's visual identity across every marketing channel, and to carry that brand into the product our customers use every day. This is a full-time, mid-level individual contributor role on our Marketing team, reporting to the Head of Marketing and based in our Cupertino, California office five days a week.

About 80% of your time will go to brand and marketing design: brand identity, campaign creative, the marketing website, design systems and performance-driven creative testing. About 20% will go to product UI/UX design, working with Product and Engineering on the screens and flows that fleet operators, drivers and fuel merchants use.

You will work directly with the Head of Marketing to develop a distinctive, scalable brand, create high-impact marketing assets, and keep improving creative performance through testing and experimentation. You will also partner with Product so that the brand, the website and the product feel like one experience.

Key Responsibilities 1. Brand Identity & Visual Design

• Drive the development and evolution of the brand's visual identity, working closely with the Head of Marketing.
• Design and refine logos, typography, color palettes, iconography, imagery and graphic elements.
• Translate brand strategy and creative direction into a cohesive visual language.
• Develop visual concepts that communicate trust, innovation and differentiation.
• Build a flexible identity that scales across audiences, channels, the product and future markets.
• Create and maintain comprehensive brand guidelines.
• Ensure visual consistency across all customer-facing materials, in marketing and in the product.

2. Creative Strategy & Execution

• Own creative design across paid media, organic social, email, landing pages, presentations, events and marketing campaigns.
• Develop compelling visual concepts and campaign creative.
• Translate messaging and value propositions into effective visual communication.
• Design creative variations for different audiences, channels and campaign objectives.
• Establish creative standards that balance quality, consistency and performance.
• Manage creative projects from initial concept through final production.
• Collaborate with Marketing on creative direction, campaign execution and optimization.

3. Creative Testing & Optimization

• Develop and run structured creative testing programs.
• Design A/B test variations across imagery, messaging presentation, layouts, calls to action and creative concepts.
• Partner with Marketing to analyze campaign performance and conversion data.
• Identify creative elements that improve engagement and conversion rates.
• Apply quantitative and qualitative insights to design decisions.
• Document experiment results and build learnings into future creative.
• Keep improving creative effectiveness while maintaining brand consistency.

4. Website Design & CRO

• Support the visual design and ongoing optimization of the marketing website.
• Design landing pages, page layouts, visual components and conversion-focused assets.
• Apply CRO principles to improve engagement and conversion.
• Create and test variations of page layouts, visual hierarchy, imagery and calls to action.
• Review heatmaps, session recordings and analytics to find design improvements.
• Work with web developers and external agencies to implement designs.
• Ensure responsive, accessible and consistent digital design.

5. Product UI/UX Design (about 20% of your time)

• Partner with Product and Engineering to design user flows, wireframes, prototypes and high-fidelity UI for Piston's apps and web dashboards.
• Design onboarding, sign-up and activation flows that connect the marketing site to the product.
• Bring the brand into the product through visual design, UI components, icons, illustration and in-product moments.
• Contribute to a shared design system that serves both marketing and product, so the brand and the product look and feel like one company.
• Run lightweight usability testing with fleet operators, drivers and fuel merchants, and turn findings into design improvements.
• Hand off clean, well-documented designs and specs to engineers, and review what ships for quality and consistency.

6. Design Systems & Creative Operations

• Build and maintain scalable design systems and reusable component libraries for brand, web and product.
• Develop templates for presentations, social media, campaigns, advertising and other materials.
• Establish organized asset libraries, naming conventions and design documentation.
• Create efficient workflows for creative production, iteration and approvals.
• Explore AI-powered creative tools to speed up ideation, production and testing.
• Ensure all creative follows established brand standards.
• Help establish the design function's processes and best practices as the team grows.

7. Research & Visual Exploration

• Research competitive brand identities, product experiences, visual trends and emerging creative approaches.
• Develop mood boards, creative territories and visual explorations.
• Take part in customer feedback sessions to evaluate design effectiveness.
• Test visual concepts and product flows with target audiences.
• Translate research and performance insights into stronger design.
• Proactively find ways to improve brand recognition, differentiation and design quality.

8. Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner directly with the Head of Marketing on brand development and creative priorities.
• Collaborate with Marketing on campaign design, experimentation and optimization.
• Work with Product and Engineering on product UI/UX priorities, sharing ownership of the user experience with the product team.
• Work with website agencies and developers to maintain visual quality and consistency.
• Present creative concepts, design rationale and testing results to leadership.
• Manage multiple design initiatives independently and meet deadlines.

What We're Looking For Experience

• Professional experience in brand, graphic, visual or creative design.
• Professional experience designing UI/UX for web or mobile products, shown in your portfolio alongside brand work.
• Experience contributing to the development or evolution of a brand identity.
• Strong portfolio showing visual identity systems, creative campaigns, digital marketing design and at least one shipped product experience.
• Experience building scalable brand guidelines and reusable design systems.
• Experience designing and optimizing digital marketing assets.
• Familiarity with creative experimentation, A/B testing and CRO.
• Experience in high-growth technology, fintech, payments, B2B SaaS or consumer brands preferred.
• Ability to independently manage design projects from concept to execution.

Design & Technical Skills

• Advanced proficiency in Figma, including components, auto layout and prototyping, and in Adobe Creative Cloud, especially Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign.
• Solid grasp of UX fundamentals: information architecture, user flows, interaction design and usability.
• Strong understanding of typography, color theory, composition, layout and visual hierarchy.
• Solid skills in logo development, visual identity and brand systems.
• Strong understanding of responsive web design, mobile UI patterns and accessibility.
• Experience designing marketing websites, landing pages and digital advertising.
• Familiarity with Webflow and working alongside web and product engineers.
• Experience with motion graphics, animation or video editing is a plus.
• Familiarity with AI-assisted design and creative production tools.

Analytical & Creative Optimization Skills

• Understanding of A/B testing and creative experimentation methods.
• Ability to interpret campaign performance, engagement, conversion and product usage data.
• Familiarity with Google Analytics 4, Microsoft Clarity, Hotjar or similar tools.
• Experience designing creative variations and evaluating their effectiveness.
• Ability to connect design decisions with measurable business outcomes.
• Strong understanding of visual communication and customer psychology.

Collaboration & Ownership

• Strong creative judgment and attention to detail.
• Ability to explain and defend design decisions.
• Comfortable building creative processes and systems from scratch.
• Self-directed, organized and able to manage multiple priorities across Marketing and Product.
• Open to feedback, experimentation and iterative improvement.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Ability to balance creative ambition with speed and execution.
• Excited to work in person with the team, five days a week.

Why This Role Matters

This is a chance to build a brand from the ground up and own its visual evolution as Piston scales.

You will shape how Piston looks, feels and communicates across every marketing channel and in the product itself, while building the creative systems and experimentation practices that drive long-term growth.

We are looking for a designer who combines exceptional craft with analytical thinking, ownership and a desire to build something lasting.

What We Offer

• Base salary of $130,000 to $155,000, depending on experience
• Early-stage equity
• Medical insurance
• All the hardware and software you need to do your best work