Hire the Top 3% of Freelance 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.

No-Risk Trial, Pay Only If Satisfied.

Clients rate Toptal design leads 4.9 / 5 on average based on 3,171 reviews.
Talent Navigator
World map with time zones
Find and hire Top Design Leads worldwide. Simply click on your preferred time zone on the map.

Trusted by leading brands and startups

Hire Freelance Design Leads

Daniel T Wood

Verified Expert in Design
UTC-08:00
United States
Toptal Member Since June 7, 2024

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 More

Warren Lebovics

Verified Expert in Design
UTC-08:00
United States
Toptal Member Since December 26, 2019

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 More

Irfan Shaikh

Verified Expert in Design
UTC-05:00
Canada
Toptal Member Since November 30, 2020

Irfan is a product designer with a psychology degree and product management certification and 15+ years at companies like Emirates, Walmart, RBC, TurboTax, Carta AI, and PepsiCo. Irfan innovates by aligning customer interactions with product development and leveraging psychology to understand and validate user needs. For him, product design is where innovation meets empathy for seamless user delight.

Show More

Adam Rotmil

Verified Expert in Design
UTC-05:00
United States
Toptal Member Since October 6, 2021

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 More

Antonija Skugor

Verified Expert in Design
UTC+01:00
Croatia
Toptal Member Since April 4, 2016

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 More

Levi Csanyi

Verified Expert in Design
UTC+01:00
United States
Toptal Member Since May 20, 2022

Levi has over 20 years of experience in user-centered design from high-level processes to design delivery. He's 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 More

Hannu Salonen

Verified Expert in Design
UTC+02:00
Finland
Toptal Member Since August 4, 2022

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 More

Gertruda Fon Narcco

Verified Expert in Design
UTC+03:00
Qatar
Toptal Member Since November 11, 2021

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 More

Christopher Barklem

Verified Expert in Design
UTC+08:00
Indonesia
Toptal Member Since March 12, 2022

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 More

Carrie Webster

Verified Expert in Design
UTC+10:00
Australia
Toptal Member Since August 31, 2020

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 More

Adrien Castelain

Verified Expert in Design
UTC+12:00
New Zealand
Toptal Member Since October 1, 2019

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 More

Discover More Design Leads in the Toptal Network

Start Hiring
THE TOPTAL ADVANTAGE

98% 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
Toptal in the press

... 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.

Our clients
Creating an app for the game
Conor Kenney
Creating an app for the game
Leading a digital transformation
Elmar Platzer
Leading a digital transformation
Building a cross-platform app to be used worldwide
Building a cross-platform app to be used worldwide
Drilling into real-time data creates an industry game changer
Drilling into real-time data creates an industry game changer
Testimonials
Michael is an incredible designer, and has been a great fit for our project. He just gets it in a way that can’t be taught. My goal was to pay Toptal to find me a high quality designer for my project, and that is exactly what happened. It was easy. Being able to see the portfolio work on Toptal’s platform is what gave me the infomation I needed to choose Michael. I have nothing but good things to say about Toptal and am looking forward to using Toptal for other projects in the future.

Edward Daniel

Co-Founder

I've worked very closely with Martina for over a year and have to say she is one of the best people I have ever worked with. Instead of simply following instructions blindly, she thinks through the task at hand, becoming a thought partner to help with whatever the project may be. Besides being super talented at design, she possesses specific qualities that make her exceptional to work with given the fast paced nature of being a startup. I would definitely recommend her to anyone looking for a talented, professional designer who doesn't need much direction to hit the ground running.

Sahil Khanna

Sr. Manager, Marketing

Darko did a great job figuring out the user architecture for our concept, which led him to produce terrific wireframes. His knowledge of usability and design was a perfect match for the outside voice we needed to help jumpstart our project. We would certainly recommend him and work with him again in the future.

Rich Danker

Founder

Carlos has the unique talent of blending both quantitative and qualitative research to keenly identify UX challenges and opportunities. He thinks methodically, emphatically, and holistically to produce data-driven strategies and well-executed designs. Over the past 8 years of working with fully or partially distributed teams, Carlos manages working remotely far better than anyone I've encountered because of his strong communication and presentation skills. He is the first on my list the next time I need a UX designer.

Michelle Krogmeier

Project Manager

Rafael is an amazing designer. His aesthetic sense is spot on, and he seems to be able to anticipate our needs before we even know what they are. He's taken the time to understand both our company and our clientele, and his solutions are consistently in-line with our values, interests, and our customers' needs. He delivers on time (if not earlier), works quickly, is well organized, and very effective. He's a pleasure to work with, and we're very happy to have found him through Toptal.

Ethan Brooks

CTO

How to Hire Design Leads Through Toptal

1

Talk to One of Our Client Advisors

A Toptal client advisor will work with you to understand your goals, technical needs, and team dynamics.
2

Work With Hand-selected Talent

Within days, we'll introduce you to the right design lead for your project. Average time to match is under 24 hours.
3

The Right Fit, Guaranteed

Work with your new design lead for a trial period (pay only if satisfied), ensuring they're the right fit before starting the engagement.

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 or Managed 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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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 our Managed 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.

  • 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.

Tap Into World-Class Talent

  • Trusted Experts Only

    Trusted Experts Only

    All of our talent are seasoned experts who ramp up quickly, readily contribute as core team members, and work with you to minimize onboarding time.

  • The Right Fit

    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

    Scale as Needed

    Hire talent within 48 hours and scale your team up or down as needed, no strings attached.

  • Seamless Hiring

    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

    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

    Expert Talent Matching

    Focus on your project and enjoy support from your dedicated account executive and expert talent matcher.

Top Design Leads Are in High Demand.

Start Hiring