Lead Digital UX/UI Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Lead Digital UX/UI Designer

Company: Loop Earplugs

Location: Antwerp, Belgium or Amsterdam, Netherlands

Job Type: Full-time | Freelance/Contract

Category: UX/UI Design, Digital Product Design

Date Posted: 2025-06-12T10:10:59

Experience Level: 10+ years

Remote Status: Hybrid

🎨 Role Summary

• Define and execute the user experience (UX) vision for Loop's upcoming connected digital products, demonstrating strong strategic design thinking.
• Lead end-to-end digital product design, translating complex product requirements into intuitive and visually compelling user interfaces (UI).
• Establish and scale the digital design identity, ensuring brand consistency and a premium user experience across all digital touchpoints.
• Drive rapid iteration and usability testing to refine designs based on user feedback and ensure a user-centered design approach.

🖼️ Primary Responsibilities

• Lead the complete UX/UI design lifecycle for Loop's connected applications, from initial concept and wireframing through to high-fidelity UI design and final implementation.
• Develop detailed user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity mockups that effectively communicate design concepts and user interaction patterns.
• Collaborate closely with product managers, engineers, and marketing teams to translate business requirements and user needs into actionable design solutions.
• Conduct and synthesize user research, usability testing, and gather feedback to inform design decisions and validate design solutions.
• Define, document, and evolve the digital design system and style guide, ensuring consistency and scalability across all digital products.
• Provide design guidance and mentorship to external agencies and freelancers, ensuring adherence to design standards and quality output.
• Contribute to the development of a strong UX culture within the organization, advocating for user-centered design principles and best practices.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

Experience: Minimum of 10+ years of progressive experience in UX/UI design, with a strong portfolio demonstrating leadership in designing and launching complex connected consumer applications.

Required Skills:

• Demonstrated expertise in end-to-end UX/UI design, including user research, ideation, wireframing, prototyping, visual design, and usability testing.
• Proven experience leading design initiatives for connected consumer products, successfully bringing concepts from ideation to launch.
• Exceptional hands-on skills in creating high-fidelity user interfaces and interactive prototypes.
• Strong understanding of usability principles, interaction design patterns, and mobile design best practices.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced, iterative design environment and adapt designs based on feedback and data.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to effectively articulate design decisions and work cross-functionally.
• Experience guiding and mentoring other designers or external design partners.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience establishing and maintaining design systems for complex digital products.
• Proficiency in conducting qualitative and quantitative user research methods.
• Experience working in an Agile or Lean development environment.
• Knowledge of front-end development technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) to facilitate effective collaboration with engineers.

🎨 Portfolio & Creative Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase a diverse range of projects, with a strong emphasis on connected consumer applications and digital product design.
• Present detailed case studies that clearly articulate your design process, from problem definition and research through to ideation, iteration, and final solution.
• Include examples of wireframes, user flows, prototypes, and high-fidelity UI designs to demonstrate your hands-on execution skills.
• Highlight your contribution to the success of launched products and the impact of your design decisions on user experience and business outcomes.

Process Documentation:

• Clearly document your approach to understanding user needs through research and discovery phases.
• Illustrate your ideation process, including sketching, brainstorming, and iterative design methods.
• Explain your validation and testing approaches, including how you gather and incorporate user feedback into your designs.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: €60,000 - €90,000 annually (Estimate)

Benefits:

• Competitive salary benchmarked against local market data to ensure fair compensation for your expertise.
• Comprehensive health insurance coverage to support your well-being.
• Retirement savings plan to help you plan for the future.
• Provision of the latest tools and technology necessary for effective digital design work.
• Flexible and hybrid working arrangements based on trust and autonomy.
• Opportunities for professional growth and development within a fast-growing company.

Working Hours: Full-time (approx. 40 hours per week), with flexibility offered through the hybrid work model.

🎯Team & Company Context

🏢 Company & Design Culture

Industry: Manufacturing, specializing in innovative hearing protection and audio accessories (Wearable, Hearable, DTC).

Company Size: 201-500 employees (as per LinkedIn), indicating a scale-up environment with structured teams but still room for significant individual impact.

Founded: 2016, demonstrating a relatively young but rapidly successful company with a history of innovation (winning Deloitte's Fast 50 Belgium twice).

Team Structure:

• This role is the first Digital UX/UI Designer hire on the product design team, suggesting a pioneering position with significant influence on the digital design function.
• Collaboration will be key with product management, engineering, other design disciplines (likely physical product design), and marketing teams.
• The role involves guiding external agencies and freelancers, indicating a mix of in-house leadership and external collaboration.

Methodology:

• The description emphasizes a "fast iteration mindset" and moving "quickly, test often," suggesting an Agile or Lean approach to product development.
• User research and usability testing are mentioned as core activities, indicating a commitment to a user-centered design process.
• The need to "define and evolve Loop’s digital design identity" points towards the establishment and maintenance of a design system.

Company Website: https://www.loopearplugs.com

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Design Career Level: This is a Lead-level position, signifying a senior individual contributor role with significant responsibility for driving the digital design strategy and execution. It involves both hands-on design work and strategic thinking.

Reporting Structure: The role is on the "product design team," suggesting reporting to a Product Design Manager or Head of Design, and working closely with product management and engineering leads.

Design Impact: As the first dedicated Digital UX/UI Designer, this role has a high potential for impact, shaping the digital user experience from the ground up and influencing the future direction of Loop's connected products.

Growth Opportunities:

• Opportunity to build and potentially lead a digital design team as the company grows.
• Significant influence on the digital product strategy and roadmap.
• Development of leadership skills through guiding external teams and mentoring future hires.
• Exposure to a fast-growing scale-up environment, offering diverse challenges and learning experiences.

🌐 Work Environment

Studio Type: Hybrid work model, combining in-office collaboration in Antwerp or Amsterdam with remote work flexibility.

Office Location(s): Antwerp, Belgium and Amsterdam, Netherlands. The role requires being located in one of these cities for close collaboration.

Design Workspace Context:

• The hybrid model suggests a focus on both in-person collaboration for key activities and the flexibility of remote work for focused design tasks.
• Being located in either the Antwerp or Amsterdam office indicates access to dedicated workspace and design tools.
• Opportunities for direct interaction and collaboration with product, engineering, and other design teams in a shared physical space.

Work Schedule: Flexible schedule within a full-time framework, designed to accommodate creative workflows and collaboration needs in a hybrid setting.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Design Interview Process:

• Initial screening call to assess experience and fit.
• Portfolio review and presentation to showcase relevant projects and design process. Be prepared to walk through case studies of connected consumer apps you've designed.
• Design challenge or take-home assignment to evaluate problem-solving skills and hands-on execution.
• Interviews with members of the product design team, product management, and engineering to assess technical skills, collaboration style, and cultural fit.
• Final interview with leadership to discuss strategic thinking and potential impact.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Clearly highlight projects involving connected consumer applications and demonstrate end-to-end ownership.
• Focus on the problem you were solving, your design process, key decisions, and the impact of your work.
• Include wireframes, prototypes, and UI designs to illustrate your hands-on skills.
• Be prepared to discuss the challenges you faced and how you iterated on your designs based on feedback or data.

Challenge Preparation:

• Familiarize yourself with the Loop Earplugs brand and existing products.
• Anticipate a design challenge related to extending the Loop experience into a connected digital product.
• Practice articulating your design rationale and process clearly and concisely.

ATS Keywords: UX Design, UI Design, Digital Product Design, Connected Devices, Consumer Electronics, Mobile App Design, Wireframing, Prototyping, Usability Testing, User Research, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Design Systems, Agile, Lean UX, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Design Leadership, Mentoring, Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, InVision, User Flows, Information Architecture, Design Strategy, Product Development, Iteration, Human-Computer Interaction, Accessibility, Design Thinking, Case Studies, Portfolio, Frontend Development (basic understanding), Data-Driven Design, Design Specification, Handoff, Style Guide.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Design Tools:

• Figma or Sketch: Essential for wireframing, UI design, and prototyping. Proficiency in modern collaborative design tools is expected.
• Prototyping Tools (e.g., InVision, Principle, After Effects): Necessary for creating interactive prototypes to test user flows and interactions.

Collaboration & Handoff:

• Collaboration Platforms (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams): Used for communication and collaboration with cross-functional teams.
• Handoff Tools (e.g., Zeplin, Abstract, Figma/Sketch features): Facilitates seamless collaboration and design specification handoff to engineering teams.
• Documentation Tools (e.g., Confluence, Notion): For documenting design decisions, processes, and potentially design system guidelines.

Research & Testing:

• User Research Platforms (e.g., Maze, UserTesting.com): Tools for conducting remote or in-person usability testing and gathering user feedback.
• Analytics Tools (e.g., Google Analytics, Mixpanel): Understanding user behavior through data to inform design decisions (preferred).

👥 Team Culture & Values

Design Values:

• User-Centricity: A core value, emphasized by the focus on user research and usability testing to inform design decisions.
• Innovation & Disruption: Aligning with Loop's history of reinventing the earplug experience, the design team likely values creative problem-solving and pushing boundaries in digital product design.
• Collaboration: Working closely with product management, engineering, and other teams is crucial, indicating a collaborative and integrated design approach.
• Autonomy & Impact: Loop's culture emphasizes giving team members autonomy and the opportunity to make a real impact, which would likely extend to the design function.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-functional collaboration is essential, with close interaction between design, product, and engineering teams throughout the product development lifecycle.
• A culture of feedback and iteration, where design decisions are refined based on input and user testing.
• Likely involves design critiques and knowledge sharing within the design team (including external partners).

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Design Challenges:

• Defining and establishing the digital design identity and system from scratch for a company primarily known for physical products.
• Bridging the gap between the physical product experience and the connected digital experience.
• Working in a fast-paced scale-up environment with evolving priorities and the need for rapid iteration.
• Guiding external design partners while maintaining a cohesive design vision.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Opportunity to build and shape a new design function within a successful company.
• Exposure to the unique challenges of designing for connected consumer products.
• Development of leadership skills through team building and mentorship.
• Learning from experienced professionals in a high-growth environment.

💡 Interview Preparation

Design Process Questions:

• Be prepared to discuss your end-to-end design process for a connected consumer application, highlighting your approach to research, ideation, and iteration. Use specific examples from your portfolio.
• Explain how you collaborate with product managers and engineers throughout the design lifecycle.
• Describe a time you had to make a difficult design decision and how you arrived at the solution, using data or user feedback to support your choice.

Company Culture Questions:

• Research Loop Earplugs' products, brand, and mission. Be prepared to discuss why you are interested in designing for this specific company and industry.
• Ask questions about the current design team structure, collaboration practices, and how design is valued within the organization.
• Discuss how you approach working in a fast-paced, iterative environment.

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Curate your portfolio to specifically showcase projects involving connected consumer applications or similar complex digital products.
• For each case study, clearly articulate the problem, your role, your process, key design decisions, and the impact of your work.
• Be ready to demonstrate your prototyping skills and walk through interactive flows.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this design position:

• Submit your application through this link
• Tailor your resume and cover letter to highlight your experience in designing connected consumer applications and your leadership skills.
• Prepare a portfolio that clearly showcases your end-to-end design process and impact on shipped products, with a focus on relevant case studies.
• Research Loop Earplugs' products and brand to demonstrate your understanding of their business and target audience.