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Hire theTop 3% ofFreelance Design Leads
Toptal is a marketplace for clients to find top design leads from around the world. Each Toptal freelance design lead is thoroughly vetted and trusted by top companies for their most critical design projects.
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Trusted by leading brands and startups
Hire Freelance Design Leads
Daniel T Wood
Daniel is a UX design and strategy expert with 25+ years of experience bringing products, apps, eCommerce, and websites to life. By molding ambiguity, asking hard questions, and championing data, he helps teams design more usable, accessible, and delightful products. Daniel has worked with many of the world's top brands (including Adidas, Walmart, Samsung, and Capital One), B2B SaaS (Salesforce, HP, Asana), and early-stage startups, helping them find better ways to meet and exceed expectations.
Show MoreWarren Lebovics
Warren is a product designer with a decade of design leadership and consulting experience. Warren has led design in-person and remote teams and projects at companies large and small, including LinkedIn, Sony, Blackberry, Jumpstart, and more. Warren also has experience co-founding companies and taking companies through funding and acquisitions. He communicates extremely well and can lead and execute with teams of all sizes.
Show MoreAdam Rotmil
With over 15 years of experience, Adam brings a wealth of product design and strategy insights to any challenge. He loves to lead by example and has design expertise in finance, wealth and trading, digital transformation, process and culture change, and digital health. He has led design at biotech AstraZeneca and Fjord Accenture. Adam studied at SCAD, Art Institute Boston, Basel HGK Switzerland, and Harvard University and teaches product design at MICA.
Show MoreAntonija Skugor
With 15+ years of experience, Antonija is a seasoned graphic and UX/UI designer known for turning complex ideas into stunning, user-friendly designs. She blends creativity with strategic thinking, excelling in everything from logo design to responsive web interfaces. Her research, prototyping, and operations ensure each project is aesthetically pleasing and aligned with client goals. Passionate about innovation and collaboration, Antonija is dedicated to delivering impactful design solutions.
Show MoreLevi Csanyi
Levi has over 27 years of experience in user-centered design, from high-level processes to design delivery. He has a proven track record of driving highly complex projects across many business units and disciplines and solid expertise in implementing cutting-edge technology in fast-moving and highly innovative Agile or Lean environments. Levi's strong leadership and organizational skills span coaching and mentoring designer teams in UX and UI design with excellent business partnering skills.
Show MoreHannu Salonen
Hannu is a designer with 15+ years of experience ranging from UI and UX design to design leadership. His strong side is B2B and data-heavy, business-critical web apps. Hannu loves learning new domains, dissolving complex problems, and creating enjoyable experiences for serious use. In addition to his primary design skills, Hannu has a software development background with Adobe Creative Suite studies at the university level. He has pushed web projects into Java, PHP, and even Perl.
Show MoreGertruda Fon Narcco
Gertruda is a highly skilled principal product and UX designer with over 13 years of experience in UI/UX, including eight years in product design and art direction. She has a proven track record of creating successful product strategies, enhancing the user experience, and improving product communication to end audiences. Gertruda mentors early-stage startups and medium-sized businesses to guide them through product development and ensure a highly functional and winning product.
Show MoreChristopher Barklem
Christopher is one of the most experienced creative minds in the industry, with over two decades in product design. Over 25 million users utilize his interactions on a day-to-day basis. His award-winning work is integrated into over 700 banks worldwide (100 million users), in small to enterprise companies, as seen in SaaS, B2B, B2C, C2C, government, and education. Christopher is a creative leader with over a decade of experience building and managing creative teams.
Show MoreCarrie Webster
With over 20 years of experience in user-centered design and a master's degree in information architecture, Carrie has worked in startups through to complex B2B environments. She has a web design and development background and experience in all facets of the UX design process, having worked from inception to delivery and beyond across many projects. With strong stakeholder and team leadership experience, her passion lies in enabling teams to deliver design solutions that hit the mark every time.
Show MoreAdrien Castelain
Adrien is an award-winning product designer and digital art director specializing in strategy, user experience (UX), user interface (UI), brand identity, and interaction design. For the last 17 years, Adrien has been crafting and delivering unique digital experiences for global companies and startups. Adrien's clients hire him for his UI/UX expertise, user-centered approach, strategic mindset, collaborative leadership, creativity, and effectiveness.
Show MoreDiscover More Design Leads in the Toptal Network
Start Hiring98% of Toptal clients choose to hire our talent after a risk-free trial.
Toptal's screening and matching process ensures exceptional talent are matched to your precise needs.
Start Hiring98% of Toptal clients choose to hire our talent after a risk-free trial.
Toptal's screening and matching process ensures exceptional talent are matched to your precise needs.
Start Hiring... allows corporations to quickly assemble teams that have the right skills for specific projects.
Despite accelerating demand for coders, Toptal prides itself on almost Ivy League-level vetting.




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How to Hire Design Leads Through Toptal
Talk to One of Our Client Advisors
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The Right Fit, Guaranteed
Find Experts With Related Skills
Access a vast pool of skilled designers in our talent network and hire the top 3% within just 48 hours.
FAQs
How quickly can you hire with Toptal?
Typically, you can hire design leads with Toptal in about 48 hours. For larger teams of talent orManaged Delivery, timelines may vary. Our talent matchers are highly skilled in the same fields they’re matching in—they’re not recruiters or HR reps. They’ll work with you to understand your goals, technical needs, and team dynamics, and match you with ideal candidates from our vetted global talent network.
Once you select your design lead, you’ll have a no-risk trial period to ensure they’re the perfect fit. Our matching process has a 98% trial-to-hire rate, so you can rest assured that you’re getting the best fit every time.
How do I hire design leads?
To hire the right design lead, it’s important to evaluate a candidate’s experience, technical skills, and communication skills. You’ll also want to consider the fit with your particular industry, company, and project. Toptal’s rigorous screening process ensures that every member of our network has excellent experience and skills, and our team will match you with the perfect design leads for your project.
How are Toptal design leads different?
At Toptal, we thoroughly screen our design leads to ensure we only match you with the highest caliber of talent. Of the more than 200,000 people who apply to join the Toptal network each year, fewer than 3% make the cut.
In addition to screening for industry-leading expertise, we also assess candidates’ language and interpersonal skills to ensure that you have a smooth working relationship.
When you hire design leads with Toptal, you’ll always work with world-class, custom-matched design leads ready to help you achieve your goals.
Can you hire design leads on an hourly basis or for project-based tasks?
You can hire design leads on an hourly, part-time, or full-time basis. Toptal can also manage the entire project from end-to-end with ourManaged Delivery offering. Whether you hire an expert for a full- or part-time position, you’ll have the control and flexibility to scale your team up or down as your needs evolve. Our design leads can fully integrate into your existing team for a seamless working experience.
What is the no-risk trial period for Toptal design leads?
We make sure that each engagement between you and your design lead begins with a trial period of up to two weeks. This means that you have time to confirm the engagement will be successful. If you’re completely satisfied with the results, we’ll bill you for the time and continue the engagement for as long as you’d like. If you’re not completely satisfied, you won’t be billed. From there, we can either part ways, or we can provide you with another expert who may be a better fit and with whom we will begin a second, no-risk trial.
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Trusted Talent Only
All of our talent are seasoned professionals who ramp up quickly, readily contribute as core team members, and work with you to minimize onboarding time.
The Right Fit
We have a knack for matching you with the right fit. Start working with your new hire on a no-risk trial period, paying only if satisfied.
Scale as Needed
Hire talent within 48 hours and scale your team up or down as needed, no strings attached.
Seamless Hiring
We handle all aspects of billing, payments, and NDA’s. Let us take care of the overhead while you focus on building great products.
Flexible Engagements
Choose the engagement type that suits your needs — hourly, part-time, or full-time — with the ability to change anytime.
Expert Talent Matching
Focus on your project and enjoy support from your dedicated account executive and expert talent matcher.
Featured Toptal Design Leadership Publications
Top Design Leads Are in High Demand.