About Me

David Mitchell

19

years designing

9

years of leadership

17

awards won

I thrive in complex, ambiguous environments such as R&D, AI innovation labs, and advanced product organisations. I'm drawn to industries on the brink of disruption, where there’s an opportunity to define the next wave of innovation.

With experience across agencies, start-ups, scale-ups, and enterprises, I simplify complex challenges into clear, high-impact solutions that align with business goals and deliver profitable ROI. I’ve held four product leadership roles, successfully launching products with cross-functional teams and establishing effective product operations in fast-paced, agile environments.

I combine design thinking with business strategy, leveraging emerging technologies and experience design to move beyond traditional product challenges and shape future-facing solutions.

My approach integrates user-centered innovation, technical insight, and systems thinking into a design-led product development process-creating meaningful products that resonate with users and drive lasting impact.

Previously as VP, Head of Design for Castor, I’m led the digital transformation of becoming a product design led company and decentralise clinical trials for everyone, everywhere. We raised a $45 million series B, and I led the design and research teams and drove the product strategy and design for end-to-end experiences. Being a part of the SLT with entrepreneurial energy, I guided with vision and drove new standards of excellence at scale through influence, leadership, and recognised expertise. I’m focused on driving design strategy and customer-centric innovation, establishing customer experience as a competitive advantage, defining new ways of working through business agility, and bringing holistic thinking and cohesion across Castors ecosystem.

Before joining Castor, I was global manager of UX at Bullhorn responsible for a $400 million portfolio, where I led the company’s UX and research departments, driving the end-to-end transformation of the core product and acquisitions, raising the impact of design as a strategic asset, and spearheading customer-centric culture change and innovation. Previously, I was founding designer, at Invenias, where I led all UX design launching 5 products to market, building the worlds most advanced executive search ATS/CRM. Later, Invenias was acquired by Bullhorn.

Prior to Invenias, I spent a decade in creative agencies working with brands such as Sky, AXA, Carlsberg, Pepsi and IBM alongside celebrities such as Beyoncé and Sir David Beckham. In agencies I designed websites (commerce,campaign), apps and social media content.

My skillset

N0.1
Strategy

• Leadership and consultancy

 Holistic vision and tactical delivery

 Stakeholder management

 Critical thinking and problem solving

 Transformation AI initiatives

 Talent mobilisation and mentoring

 Product management and support

N0.2
Research

 Discovery, synthesis and validation

 Contextual inquiry

 SME and user interviews / workshops

 Requirements and insights gathering

Qualitative and quantitative 

 Service blueprint development

 Usability evaluation and optimisation

N0.3
Craft

 End-to-end design and delivery

 Product and service design

 User experience design

 Interaction design

 Scalable design systems

 Journey mapping and process flow

 Prototyping and testing

Press & Recognition

I’ve been lucky enough to work with brilliant people, great teams and awesome brands. My work has been recognised by highly acclaimed press around the world, including some of the few listed below.

Speaking & Events

On occasion, I can be seen speaking at industry events on AI, product innovations, design leadership and user experience.

Free time

When I’m not designing or tinkering with new tech, I’ll be jumping down mountains on my bike, spending quality family timesnowboarding off piste or fostering my new love/hate relationship with golf.