Capital One UK is following in the footsteps of its US office by appointing a Silicon Valley veteran to a newly-created position as head of design.
The card company has recruited Californian native Aline Baeck to the position following roles at Intuit, Causata, and most recently, eBay.
With the customer interface seen as a key battleground between incumbents and fintech firms, the US arm of Capital One has majored on design thinking, appointing Dan Makowski from Google as its first VP of design and hoovering up user experience agencies Adaptive Path and Monsoon.
Baeck has over 20 years’ experience in fostering design-thinking and building creative teams, firstly in Silicon Valley with Intuit before moving to big data software start-up Causata in London and then on to eBay as head of the online flea market's European design team.
Amy Lenander, chief marketing officer at Capital One, says Baeck will be working across the business to embed design and a smooth user experience into the creation of new products.
"Aline, along with our new senior software engineering appointments including Andy Reeves, who recently arrived from Amazon, will be integral to our digital transformation,” she says.
Capital One last month launched an accelerator programme for early-stage start-up and high-growth companies and signed an 11-year lease at the White Collar Factory, adjacent to Silicon Roundabout, London, as a new home for its 50 existing London staff as well as 200 new tech hires.