Diyana Bancheva
Senior design manager who still designs · Fintech · AI-enabled design
Profile
Product design leader with 10+ years in fintech and digital products, including seven years at Paysafe across Skrill, Neteller, PaysafeCard and PaysafeCash. I've led a blended team of up to eight, consolidated four design systems into one, taken three brands through a rebrand reaching 10M+ users, and built AI tools into the team's everyday practice. Open to fully remote Senior Design Manager roles, and to freelance, fractional and interim work.
Key Proof
4→1
Design systems
10M+
Users reached by the rebrand
Up to 8
Blended team
50+
Initiatives handed over
Experience
Paysafe
September 2019 – August 2026 · Consumer fintech · Skrill · Neteller · PaysafeCard · PaysafeCash
Senior Manager, Product Design
April – August 2026 · Sofia, Bulgaria
- Led consumer product design across Paysafe's wallet and eCash portfolio with a blended team of up to eight designers.
- Represented Design in portfolio planning, bringing customer evidence, UX risk and delivery realities into prioritisation before roadmap commitments.
- Owned the design-quality operating model: discovery, design review, design-system governance, accessibility and delivery readiness.
- Built AI into the team's practice: an 8-pass PRD review, UX-quality checks with Claude and Figma MCP, and recurring Voice of Customer synthesis.
- Led a structured handover of 50+ live initiatives when Paysafe wound down its in-house consumer design team.
Product Design Manager · Digital Wallets
February 2023 – April 2026 · Sofia, Bulgaria
- Led product design across Skrill, Neteller, PaysafeCard, PaysafeCash and shared consumer capabilities with a blended team of in-house and external designers.
- Consolidated four design systems into one shared foundation with 50+ core components and 100+ sub-components, and used it to deliver the three-brand rebrand on schedule (10M+ users, Paysafe platforms, 400+ assets).
- Built customer evidence into product decisions: a three-brand NPS programme with 146K+ responses and 50+ usability studies.
- Embedded accessibility into delivery, including WCAG AA audits of two products that fed a component-level fix backlog.
- Led Sports Corner (2021–2026) through its December 2023 redesign and the June 2024 Free to Play launch, managing the designer on it: 120K monthly active customers, 29% of them paying a merchant within 24 hours.
- Hired, onboarded and mentored designers into greater ownership and leadership responsibility.
Selected Product Impact
Skrill Sports Corner & Free to Play
120K
Monthly active customers
29%
Paid a merchant within 24h
293K
Free to Play active customers
+2–4%
Peak-event retention
Lead Product Designer
December 2020 – January 2023 · Sofia, Bulgaria
- Led the Skrill and Neteller wallet home redesign: monthly exchange transactions +13% with take rate held; dark mode shipped.
- Led end-to-end design across home, navigation, money movement, exchange, cards and rewards.
- Lead designer on Sports Corner from 2021: designed the first experience, its engagement model and wallet entry points.
- Introduced structured critique, design review and cross-team alignment practices that later became part of the Consumer Design operating model.
UX Designer · Design Systems
September 2019 – December 2020 · Sofia, Bulgaria
- Built the first reusable components, tokens and patterns of the shared design system; the kit saved an estimated ~30% of designer production time.
- Became the go-to person for design-system decisions across designers, engineers and the brand team.
Earlier Experience
Senior UX Designer
Designed complex digital banking, insurance and investment experiences for regulated financial products across Amsterdam and Sofia.
Web Designer
Designed responsive interfaces and visual systems for financial-service platforms.
Web Designer & Front-end Developer
Designed and built digital experiences for publishing platforms, brands and high-traffic media products.
Core Expertise
Product Design Leadership
Product & UX Strategy
Product Discovery
DesignOps
Design Systems
Product Quality
Accessibility / WCAG
AI-enabled Design Practice
Cross-functional Leadership
Education
New Bulgarian University
Bachelor's, Interior Design · Second specialty, Graphic Design · 2008–2012 · Sofia, Bulgaria
Escola Superior de Disseny de les Illes Balears
Erasmus Exchange, Interior & Graphic Design · Final semester · 2012 · Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Professional High School of Clothing “Ana May”
Secondary vocational education, Fashion Design · 2000–2005 · Plovdiv, Bulgaria
Certifications
Nielsen Norman Group — Becoming a UX Strategist (UX Management specialty track), 2023