📍 Job Overview
Job Title: Senior Product Designer
Company: Smartcat
Location: Portugal - Remote
Job Type: Full-Time
Category: Product Design (UX/UI Focus)
Date Posted: 2025-06-12
Experience Level: Senior (5-10 years)
Remote Status: Remote Solely
🎨 Role Summary
- Drive innovation in language and translation technology by reimagining user experiences on a cutting-edge AI-powered platform.
- Collaborate closely with Product Managers and UX designers to translate project requirements and user needs into intuitive and impactful design solutions.
- Lead the creation of high-fidelity visual designs and interactive prototypes for both web and mobile applications, setting new standards for user interaction.
- Establish and maintain a robust design system and style guide to ensure design consistency and a seamless user journey across the entire Smartcat platform.
🖼️ Primary Responsibilities
- Partner with Product Managers and UX designers to deeply understand project requirements, define ambitious design goals, and gain comprehensive insights into user behavior and needs.
- Conduct thorough user research, plan and execute usability testing sessions, and systematically gather user feedback to inform and validate design decisions.
- Develop wireframes, low-fidelity mockups, and detailed interactive prototypes to effectively communicate design concepts and user flows.
- Establish, document, and maintain a comprehensive design system and style guide to ensure visual and functional consistency across all platform interfaces.
- Produce pixel-perfect, high-impact visual designs and interactive prototypes for web and mobile applications that align with brand standards and enhance user engagement.
- Actively seek and incorporate user feedback and usability test results into design iterations, demonstrating adaptability to evolving project requirements.
- Stay abreast of the latest industry trends, evaluate emerging design tools and technologies, and integrate relevant advancements into the Smartcat design process.
🎓 Skills & Qualifications
Education: While not explicitly stated, a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Design, HCI, Computer Science, or a related field is typically preferred for a Senior Product Designer role. Equivalent practical experience with a strong portfolio is highly valued.
Experience: 5-10 years of proven experience as a Product Designer. A portfolio demonstrating successful product design outcomes, showcasing a strong understanding of user-centered design principles and the ability to deliver high-quality visual and interactive designs, is essential.
Required Skills:
- Extensive experience as a Product Designer with a strong portfolio showcasing impactful design solutions.
- Expert-level proficiency in Figma for wireframing, prototyping, and high-fidelity design.
- Deep understanding and application of user-centered design principles and usability best practices.
- Exceptional communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to clearly articulate design decisions to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- A data-driven approach to design, with the ability to use metrics and research findings to justify design choices.
- Strong sense of ownership, persistence, and the ability to thrive in a highly intense startup environment.
- Openness to constructive feedback and collaborative input from team members.
Preferred Skills:
- Familiarity with UI animation techniques to enhance user interactions.
- Understanding of HTML, CSS, and front-end development concepts to facilitate effective collaboration with engineers.
- Experience establishing and maintaining design systems.
🎨 Portfolio & Creative Requirements
Portfolio Essentials:
- Showcase a diverse range of projects demonstrating end-to-end product design process, from problem definition and research through ideation, prototyping, and final visual design.
- Include detailed case studies for key projects, clearly articulating the problem addressed, your role, the design process followed, key decisions made, and the impact of your design solutions.
- Present high-fidelity visual designs and interactive prototypes that highlight your aesthetic sensibility, attention to detail, and understanding of user interaction patterns.
- If applicable, demonstrate technical understanding through examples of handoff specifications or collaboration with engineering teams.
Process Documentation:
- Clearly document your approach to user research and discovery, including methodologies used (e.g., interviews, surveys, competitive analysis) and key insights gathered.
- Illustrate your ideation and iteration process, showing sketches, wireframes, and prototypes that demonstrate the evolution of your design concepts.
- Explain your validation and testing approaches, including usability testing methods and how feedback influenced your designs.
💵 Compensation & Benefits
Salary Range: While a specific salary range is not provided, based on the Senior Product Designer level, remote work in Portugal, and the company's Series C funding status and growth phase, a competitive salary range for this role in Portugal would likely be between €40,000 - €65,000 per year. This estimate is based on typical salary benchmarks for senior design roles in Portugal, considering the cost of living and the tech industry landscape. Actual compensation may vary based on experience, skills, and negotiation.
Benefits:
- Fully remote work environment, offering flexibility and global collaboration opportunities.
- Opportunity to work on a cutting-edge platform in the rapidly evolving Agentic AI and language technology space.
- Be part of a fast-growing company with significant potential for impact and career advancement as the company scales.
- Contribute to a product that is revolutionizing a $100 billion industry and improving how people work and exchange knowledge globally.
Working Hours: Full-time, with the flexibility inherent in a remote, globally distributed team. Expect a standard full-time commitment (around 40 hours per week), with potential for flexible scheduling to accommodate collaboration across different time zones.
🎯Team & Company Context
🏢 Company & Design Culture
Industry: Technology, Information and Internet (specifically AI-powered language and translation platform). Smartcat operates in the frontier of Agentic AI, enabling enterprises to build hybrid human-AI workforces.
Company Size: 201-500 employees globally. This size indicates a scale-up phase with established processes but still offering significant opportunities for individual impact and contribution to shaping the company's future.
Founded: 2016. Founded in 2016, Smartcat has rapidly grown to become a key player in the language AI space, backed by Series C funding.
Team Structure: Smartcat is a fully remote global team distributed across 30+ countries. The design team likely collaborates closely with Product Management and Engineering, working in a distributed, agile environment.
Methodology: The emphasis on user research, usability testing, and data-driven decisions suggests an iterative, user-centered design methodology. Collaboration with Product Managers and UX designers implies a strong focus on understanding user needs and translating them into effective design solutions.
Company Website: https://www.smartcat.com/
📈 Career & Growth Analysis
Design Career Level: Senior Product Designer. This role is for an experienced individual expected to take ownership of significant product areas, mentor junior designers (if applicable), and contribute strategically to the product vision and design direction.
Reporting Structure: Typically, a Senior Product Designer reports to a Design Lead, Design Manager, or Head of Design. In a remote setup, clear communication and autonomous work are crucial.
Design Impact: Design plays a central role in Smartcat's mission to revolutionize the language and translation industry. As a Senior Product Designer, your work will directly influence the user experience of a platform used by over 1,000 companies, including Fortune 500 clients, impacting how global businesses communicate and operate.
Growth Opportunities:
- Potential for advancement to a Lead Product Designer or Design Management role as the team and company scale.
- Opportunities to specialize in specific areas of the platform or delve deeper into AI-driven design challenges.
- Continuous learning and development opportunities in a rapidly evolving technology landscape.
🌐 Work Environment
Studio Type: Fully Remote. Smartcat operates as a fully distributed team with no central physical office requirement for this role.
Office Location(s): While Smartcat has concentrations of employees in locations like Boston, NYC, SF, the Bay Area, London, and Lisbon, this specific role is designated as fully remote in Portugal.
Design Workspace Context:
- Work from your preferred location in Portugal, providing flexibility and autonomy.
- Collaborate virtually with a diverse, global team using various communication and collaboration tools.
- Requires a self-disciplined and organized approach to manage work effectively in a remote setting.
Work Schedule: Flexible, within the context of collaborating with a global team. While core working hours may be necessary for team meetings and collaboration, there is likely flexibility to manage your schedule around personal preferences and time zone differences.
📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process
Design Interview Process:
- Initial screening call to assess basic qualifications and fit.
- Portfolio review and discussion, focusing on your design process, problem-solving skills, and the impact of your work. Be prepared to walk through selected case studies in detail.
- Technical interview or design challenge to evaluate your design skills, tool proficiency (especially Figma), and ability to tackle real-world design problems relevant to Smartcat's platform.
- Interviews with team members (Product, Engineering, other designers) to assess collaboration skills and cultural fit.
- Final interview with a design leader or hiring manager to discuss strategic contributions and alignment with the team's vision.
Portfolio Review Tips:
- Curate your portfolio to showcase projects most relevant to product design and complex platform challenges.
- For each case study, clearly articulate the problem, your role, the design process (including research, ideation, iteration), key decisions, and the outcome/impact.
- Highlight your expertise in Figma and demonstrate your ability to create high-fidelity designs and interactive prototypes.
- Be prepared to discuss the rationale behind your design decisions and how you incorporated user feedback and data.
- If possible, tailor your portfolio presentation to demonstrate an understanding of the language technology or AI space.
Challenge Preparation:
- Research Smartcat's platform and target users to understand the context for any potential design challenge.
- Practice articulating your design process and rationale under time constraints.
- Be prepared to present your solution and explain your thinking clearly to a diverse audience.
ATS Keywords: Product Design, UX Design, UI Design, User Experience, User Interface, Figma, Prototyping, Wireframing, Usability Testing, User Research, Design Systems, Visual Design, Interaction Design, Information Architecture, Data-Driven Design, Agile, Collaboration, Communication, Problem-Solving, Critical Thinking, Strategic Thinking, Product Development, SaaS, AI, Machine Learning, Localization, Translation, Remote Work, Global Team, HTML, CSS, Front-End Development, Design Iteration, Case Studies, Portfolio, Agentic AI, Enterprise Software.
🛠 Tools & Technology Stack
Primary Design Tools:
- Figma: Essential tool for wireframing, prototyping, and high-fidelity design. Expect to use Figma extensively for collaborative design work.
- Likely utilizes other standard design software for specific tasks like image editing (e.g., Adobe Creative Suite) or diagramming.
Collaboration & Handoff:
- Collaboration tools common in remote environments (e.g., Slack, Zoom, Google Workspace).
- Handoff tools integrated with Figma or separate platforms for design specifications and developer handoff.
- Documentation tools for maintaining the design system and style guide.
Research & Testing:
- Tools for conducting user interviews and surveys.
- Platforms for remote usability testing.
- Analytics tools to track user behavior and design performance metrics.
👥 Team Culture & Values
Design Values:
- Innovation: Smartcat seeks a designer ready to "push boundaries, challenge the status quo, and redefine user experiences" in the language and translation technology space.
- User-Centeredness: A strong advocacy for user-centered design principles and usability best practices is a core requirement, emphasizing a focus on understanding and meeting user needs.
- Impact: The role emphasizes driving innovation and having an "extraordinary experience every time they engage with us," highlighting a focus on delivering tangible value through design.
- Data-Driven Decision Making: The ability to justify design decisions using concrete metrics underscores a culture of evidence-based design.
Collaboration Style:
- Close Partnership: Collaboration with Product Managers and UX designers is described as a "partner," indicating a collaborative and integrated approach to product development.
- Exceptional Communication: Strong communication skills are essential for conveying design concepts to both design and non-design stakeholders in a remote environment.
- Openness to Feedback: A requirement for openness to constructive feedback suggests a culture of continuous improvement and collaborative iteration.
⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities
Design Challenges:
- Designing for a complex domain: The intersection of language, translation, and AI presents unique design challenges related to user workflows, data visualization, and human-AI interaction.
- Working in a highly intense startup environment: Requires extreme focus, a strong sense of ownership, and persistence to navigate rapid growth and evolving priorities.
- Maintaining design consistency across a growing platform: Establishing and maintaining a design system is crucial for scalability but can be challenging in a fast-paced environment.
- Designing for a global user base: Requires understanding diverse user needs and cultural nuances.
Learning & Development Opportunities:
- Opportunity to become an expert in the design of AI-powered tools and platforms.
- Gain experience in a rapidly growing global tech company, learning best practices in scaled product development.
- Develop leadership skills by potentially mentoring junior designers or leading design initiatives.
💡 Interview Preparation
Design Process Questions:
- Be prepared to discuss your end-to-end design process, using examples from your portfolio. Highlight your approach to user research, ideation, prototyping, and testing.
- Explain how you collaborate with Product Managers, Engineers, and other stakeholders throughout the design lifecycle.
- Describe a time you faced a significant design challenge and how you overcame it, focusing on your problem-solving skills and iterative approach.
Company Culture Questions:
- Research Smartcat's culture code and values (linked in the job description). Be prepared to discuss how your working style aligns with their emphasis on high performance, diversity, and direct communication.
- Discuss your experience working in remote or distributed teams and how you ensure effective communication and collaboration in such environments.
- Be ready to talk about your experience in fast-paced or startup environments and how you manage focus and ownership.
Portfolio Presentation Strategy:
- Select 2-3 key case studies that best showcase your skills and experience relevant to the Senior Product Designer role at Smartcat.
- Structure your presentation clearly, starting with the problem, your role, the process, key design decisions, and the impact of your work.
- Emphasize your proficiency in Figma and your ability to create high-fidelity designs and interactive prototypes.
- Be prepared to answer questions about your design choices and how you incorporated user feedback and data.
📌 Application Steps
To apply for this design position:
- Submit your application through this link
- Ensure your portfolio is up-to-date, well-organized, and clearly showcases your relevant product design experience and process through detailed case studies.
- Tailor your resume to highlight keywords and experiences mentioned in the job description, particularly related to product design, UX/UI, Figma, and collaboration.
- Prepare for the interview process by reviewing your portfolio, practicing articulating your design process, and researching Smartcat's platform and culture.
- Demonstrate your passion for the language technology or AI space and your readiness to contribute to a fast-growing, innovative company.