Lead Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Lead Product Designer

Company: OBRIO

Location: Ukraine (Remote options in Poland)

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Product Design / Operations Leadership

Date Posted: 2026-03-26

Experience Level: Mid-Senior to Lead

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead product design initiatives to elevate user experience and drive product innovation for a global spirituality brand with over 70 million users.

• Build and scale a high-performing design team, fostering a strong design culture, and establishing best-in-class design processes within a fast-paced IT environment.

• Drive the strategic direction of product design, ensuring alignment with business objectives and user needs, with a focus on measurable impact on product metrics.

• Champion the development and maintenance of a robust design system, ensuring consistency and scalability across mobile (iOS, Android) and web platforms.

📝 Enhancement Note: While the title is "Lead Product Designer," the responsibilities and emphasis on team leadership, process optimization, and strategic planning indicate a role that blends senior individual contribution with operational management, requiring a strong understanding of how design integrates into the broader GTM and product development operations. The focus on scaling expertise, creating shared standards, and operational leadership suggests a significant operational component to this design leadership role.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Design Team Leadership & Development:

  • Manage, mentor, and grow a team of product designers, overseeing hiring, onboarding, and professional development.
  • Foster a collaborative and innovative design culture, setting clear expectations for quality, consistency, and user-centricity.
  • Implement effective performance management and feedback mechanisms to ensure team motivation and engagement.

• Design Strategy & Operations:

  • Actively participate in the formation and execution of the product's overall design strategy, collaborating closely with product management and engineering.
  • Optimize and scale design processes, integrating best practices such as A/B testing, UX research, and data-driven insights.
  • Drive the development, implementation, and maintenance of a comprehensive and scalable design system.

• Product Experience & Metrics Impact:

  • Ensure the delivery of high-quality UX/UI across all digital products, maintaining consistency and driving a user-first approach.
  • Directly influence product metrics through design solutions, focusing on user retention, engagement, and monetization.
  • Lead redesigns of critical user flows and integrate innovative design solutions.

• Operational Excellence & Tool Integration:

  • Leverage AI tools to enhance team efficiency, design quality, and overall workflow effectiveness.

  • Oversee the operational aspects of the design function, ensuring efficient resource allocation and project delivery.

  • Collaborate with cross-functional teams (product, engineering, marketing) to ensure seamless product development and launch cycles.

📝 Enhancement Note: The description emphasizes "operational leadership in a multidisciplinary environment," "optimization of design processes," and "active participation in planning and implementation of design strategy." This indicates a role that goes beyond traditional product design, requiring strong operational management skills to scale the design function and drive process improvements akin to a Head of Design or Design Operations lead.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: Not specified, but a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field is typically expected for lead roles.

Experience: 4+ years of experience in product design, with a proven track record of implementing comprehensive design systems in digital products.

Required Skills:

• Product Design Expertise: Deep understanding of user-centered design principles, UI/UX best practices, and the full product design lifecycle.

• Design System Development: Demonstrated experience in creating, scaling, and maintaining robust design systems for complex digital products.

• Cross-Platform Design: Proficiency in both mobile (iOS, Android) and web design principles and execution.

• Leadership & Team Management: Proven ability to lead, mentor, and manage a team of designers, fostering growth and high performance.

• Process Optimization: Experience in refining and implementing design workflows, including A/B testing, UX research methodologies, and data analysis for design decisions.

• Strategic Thinking: Ability to contribute to and shape the product's design strategy, aligning it with business goals.

• User-First Mentality: A strong commitment to understanding and addressing user needs and driving product decisions based on user feedback and metrics.

• English Proficiency: B2 level or higher, enabling effective communication in a global team environment.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience with AI tools to enhance design workflows and team efficiency.

• Familiarity with various monetization models and retention strategies in digital products.

• Experience working within the spirituality or wellness sector.

• Strong understanding of growth marketing principles and their impact on design.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "scaling expertise," "creating shared standards and values," and "clear division of UX functions" points towards a need for strong operational design skills beyond pure creative output. The requirement for "operational leadership" explicitly calls for management and strategic process-building capabilities.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Design System Showcase: A section dedicated to detailing the design systems you've developed, including examples of components, guidelines, and how you ensured adoption and consistency.

• User-Centric Case Studies: Comprehensive case studies demonstrating your end-to-end product design process, highlighting user research, problem-solving, iterative design, and the impact of your solutions on product metrics.

• Mobile & Web Design Examples: Clear examples of your work on both iOS/Android applications and web platforms, showcasing your versatility.

• Leadership & Process Improvement Examples: If possible, include examples or descriptions of how you've led design teams, optimized design workflows, or mentored junior designers.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Design & Optimization: Be prepared to discuss how you've designed and iterated on design workflows to improve efficiency, collaboration, and output quality.

• Implementation & Automation: Detail your experience in implementing new processes or tools (including AI) to streamline the design process.

• Measurement & Performance Analysis: Demonstrate how you use data, A/B testing, and UX research insights to measure the impact of design decisions and continuously improve product performance.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the role's focus on scaling design expertise and processes, a portfolio that clearly articulates not just the "what" but the "how" and "why" of your design decisions, especially concerning process improvements and system implementations, will be crucial. Evidence of operationalizing design practices is key.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• Estimate: Given the Lead Product Designer title, extensive experience requirements, and the company's growth stage (aiming for unicorn status), a competitive salary range is expected. For locations like Poland and Ukraine, considering the cost of living and industry benchmarks for senior/lead design roles, a range of $60,000 - $100,000 USD annually (or equivalent in PLN/UAH) is a reasonable estimate. This range can fluctuate based on specific experience, negotiation, and the exact location within these countries.

• Methodology: This estimate is based on industry salary surveys for Lead Product Designers in Eastern Europe, factoring in the company's stated growth ambitions, the global nature of the product, and the specified remote work options. It also considers the company's position within the Genesis ecosystem, which often implies competitive compensation.

Benefits:

• Flexible Work Arrangements: Freedom to work from the office (Kyiv, Lviv, Warsaw) or remotely.

• Comprehensive Wellness Support:

  • Participation in the OBRIO Wellness Club.
  • Coverage for individual sports activities.
  • "Spiritual Allowance" to support personal well-being and balance.

• Time for Restoration:

  • 20 paid vacation days.
  • Unlimited sick leave.
  • Sabbatical leave opportunities.

• Professional Growth & Development:

  • Dedicated budget for training and education.
  • Mentorship programs.
  • Opportunities to attend top Ukrainian and international conferences (e.g., IT Arena, DOU Days, Web Summit, TikTok & Meta Summits).

• Company Culture & Perks:

  • Involvement in social impact initiatives and charitable projects.
  • Collaborations with Ukrainian brands and exclusive OBRIO merchandise.

• Team Environment: Access to a strong peer group of middle and senior specialists for continuous learning and growth.

Working Hours: Approximately 40 hours per week, with flexibility to accommodate remote work and potential international team coordination.

📝 Enhancement Note: The benefits package is notably robust, emphasizing employee well-being and professional development, which are strong indicators of a company that invests in its talent and values long-term employee engagement. The "Spiritual Allowance" is a unique perk reflecting the company's product focus.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology (IT Product Company), Digital Media, Spirituality & Self-Development.

Company Size: 300+ professionals, indicating a significant, established, yet growing organization.

Founded: 6+ years ago, with a history of rapid growth from 8 enthusiasts to its current size.

Team Structure:

• The design team is led by Kateryna Cherenkova, who built it from scratch and established all design processes.

• The role of Lead Product Designer involves leading design teams within various product teams, implying a matrixed or federated structure where designers report functionally to the Lead Designer and operationally to product teams.

Methodology:

• Data-Driven Product Development: Strong emphasis on product metrics, user retention, and various monetization models.

• User-Centric Design: Focus on creating solutions that directly address user needs and enhance their experience.

• Agile & Iterative Processes: Implied through the mention of A/B testing, UX research, and continuous improvement of critical flows.

• Scalability & Global Reach: Building a global brand and product necessitates scalable design systems and processes.

• Innovation & Technology Adoption: Openness to new technologies, including AI tools, to improve efficiency and quality.

Company Website: https://obrio.co/

📝 Enhancement Note: OBRIO positions itself as an ambitious, growth-oriented company aiming to be the first Ukrainian unicorn in its niche. The culture appears to be driven by strong leadership, a focus on impact, employee well-being, and a commitment to building a world-class global product. The "lovemark brand" and high eNPS suggest a positive and engaging internal environment.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role represents a senior leadership position within the design function, bridging the gap between individual contribution and strategic operational management. It's a key role in scaling the design organization and maturing its processes.

Reporting Structure: The Lead Product Designer will report to a senior leadership figure (likely Head of Product, CPO, or similar) and will manage a team of product designers. They will work closely with product managers and engineering leads within specific product teams.

Operations Impact: The Lead Product Designer's impact is critical to OBRIO's goal of becoming a Ukrainian unicorn. Their influence extends to:

• Product Success: Directly shaping user experience, which is paramount for retention and growth in a digital product.

• Team Scalability: Building and maturing the design team and its processes to support aggressive product expansion.

• Brand Perception: Ensuring a consistent and high-quality user experience that reinforces the brand's value proposition.

• Operational Efficiency: Optimizing design workflows to accelerate product development cycles and improve resource utilization.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership Expansion: Potential to grow into a Head of Design or VP of Product Design role as the company scales.

• Strategic Influence: Deeper involvement in product strategy, business planning, and cross-functional leadership.

• Industry Impact: Contributing to the growth of a major global brand in the spirituality and self-development space.

• Skill Development: Continuous learning through mentorship, conferences, and complex challenges within a high-growth environment.

📝 Enhancement Note: The role is positioned as a significant growth opportunity, offering leadership development and the chance to shape a critical function in a rapidly expanding tech company. The emphasis on scaling and operationalizing design points to a path toward broader operational leadership.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: OBRIO offers flexibility with options to work from their offices in Kyiv, Lviv, or Warsaw, or remotely. The offices are described as "super comfortable."

Office Location(s):

• Kyiv, Ukraine

• Lviv, Ukraine

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The company emphasizes collaboration, both within the design team and with cross-functional departments (product, engineering, marketing).

• Tools & Technology: Access to modern design tools and a willingness to integrate AI tools for enhanced productivity.

• Team Interaction: Opportunities to work with experienced middle and senior specialists, fostering a strong learning environment.

Work Schedule: Standard full-time hours (approximately 40 hours/week), with a focus on results and flexibility, especially for remote employees. The company values employee well-being, offering ample time for rest and recovery.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid and remote-friendly model, coupled with well-equipped physical office spaces, provides significant flexibility. The "super comfortable" office description suggests an investment in creating an optimal working environment conducive to creative and operational tasks.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

1. Intro Call with TA Specialist: An initial screening to assess basic qualifications, cultural fit, and understanding of the role.

2. Interview with Manager (Kateryna Cherenkova): A deeper dive into your experience, leadership philosophy, and strategic thinking.

3. Skills Assessment (Test Task / Workshop): This will likely involve a practical design challenge or a workshop scenario to evaluate your design process, problem-solving skills, and ability to articulate your rationale.

4. Bar-raising / Final Interview: A final conversation to ensure a strong match with the company's vision, culture, and leadership requirements. This may involve senior stakeholders.

5. Job Offer: Extending an offer to the successful candidate.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Structure for Impact: Organize your portfolio logically.

Start with a strong summary of your experience and highlight your most relevant and impactful projects first.

• Case Study Depth: For each case study, clearly articulate:

  • The problem you were solving.
  • Your role and responsibilities.
  • Your design process (research, ideation, prototyping, testing, iteration).
  • The specific solutions you implemented.
  • The measurable outcomes and impact on product metrics (e.g., increased conversion, retention, user satisfaction).

• Showcase Leadership & Process: Include examples or discussions about how you've led teams, influenced design strategy, implemented design systems, or optimized design workflows.

• Tailor to OBRIO: Research OBRIO and Nebula. Understand their product, target audience, and business goals. Frame your experience and case studies in a way that demonstrates how you can contribute to their specific mission.

• Conciseness: While depth is important, ensure your explanations are clear, concise, and easy to follow.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Brief: Carefully analyze any test task or workshop scenario. Identify the core problem and constraints.

• Process Over Perfection: Focus on demonstrating your thought process, problem-solving approach, and how you would tackle the challenge, rather than delivering a fully polished final output if time is limited.

• Articulate Rationale: Be prepared to explain every decision you make, linking it back to user needs, business objectives, or design principles.

• Consider Operational Aspects: Think about how your proposed design solutions would be implemented, scaled, and maintained within a larger product ecosystem. Consider the design system and team collaboration aspects.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hiring journey emphasizes practical assessment and alignment with leadership. A portfolio that demonstrates not just design craft but also strategic thinking, operational process improvement, and team leadership will be highly valued.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma (highly likely given industry standards and the need for collaborative design systems and workflows), Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite.

• Design Systems: Figma, Storybook, or other component library management tools.

• Collaboration: Slack, Jira, Confluence (standard for cross-functional team communication and project management).

• AI Tools: Expectation to utilize AI tools for design assistance, content generation, research synthesis, or workflow automation. Specific tools are not mentioned, suggesting openness and a need for the candidate to bring expertise or learn quickly.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Product Analytics: Amplitude, Mixpanel, Google Analytics, or similar platforms for tracking user behavior and product metrics.

• A/B Testing Tools: Optimizely, VWO, or in-house solutions for experiment management.

• UX Research Platforms: UserTesting.com, Hotjar, or similar for qualitative insights.

CRM & Automation: While not directly a design tool, understanding how design impacts CRM and marketing automation (e.g., user journeys, onboarding flows) is beneficial.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on AI tools indicates a forward-looking approach. Candidates should be prepared to discuss their experience or willingness to explore and integrate AI into their design workflow. Proficiency in a collaborative design tool like Figma is almost certainly a prerequisite.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Impact-Driven: A strong focus on creating solutions that have a tangible impact on users and business metrics.

• User-First: Prioritizing user needs and experiences in all design decisions.

• Growth Mindset: Embracing challenges, continuous learning, and driving change for product and personal development.

• Collaboration & Transparency: Working effectively across teams and maintaining open communication.

• Quality & Excellence: Striving for best-in-class product experiences and design execution.

• Innovation: Openness to new ideas, technologies (like AI), and approaches to problem-solving.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-functional Integration: The role requires seamless collaboration with Product Management, Engineering, Marketing, and other stakeholders to ensure product success.

• Process-Oriented: A culture that values well-defined and optimized processes for design, development, and research.

• Feedback Exchange: An environment where constructive feedback is encouraged and utilized for continuous improvement.

• Knowledge Sharing: Encouraging the sharing of best practices, insights, and learnings across the team and organization.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture appears to be high-energy, ambitious, and focused on measurable results. The emphasis on well-being and personal growth alongside professional achievement suggests a balanced, yet driven, work environment.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Scaling Design Operations: Establishing and scaling robust design processes, standards, and a design system for a rapidly growing global product.

• Building Design Culture: Fostering a strong, unified design culture across potentially distributed and cross-functional teams.

• Balancing Strategic Vision with Execution: Translating high-level product strategy into actionable design initiatives while managing day-to-day team operations.

• Integrating New Technologies: Effectively leveraging AI and other emerging tools to enhance design efficiency and quality without compromising user experience.

• Managing Stakeholder Expectations: Aligning diverse stakeholder needs and priorities with the design vision and roadmap.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Leadership Advancement: Opportunity to hone leadership skills and potentially grow into a broader Head of Design role.

• Product Strategy Involvement: Deeper engagement in shaping the strategic direction of a major global product.

• Industry Exposure: Access to top-tier conferences and cross-industry collaborations, broadening professional horizons.

• Mentorship: Learning from experienced colleagues and potentially mentoring junior designers, solidifying knowledge.

• Innovation Exploration: Working with cutting-edge technologies like AI in a product development context.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is designed for individuals who thrive on solving complex problems and driving significant impact. The challenges are directly tied to the company's ambitious growth trajectory, offering substantial opportunities for professional development and career advancement.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe how you would approach building a design culture from the ground up within a growing product team. What are the first three steps you would take?"

• "Walk us through your process for developing and scaling a design system. What are the key components and how do you ensure its adoption and maintenance?"

• "How do you balance user needs, business objectives, and technical constraints when making design decisions? Provide an example."

• "How have you used A/B testing or UX research to inform and improve product design? What were the outcomes?"

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What excites you about OBRIO's mission and the Nebula product?"

• "How do you see your leadership style contributing to our team's success and fostering a positive design culture?"

• "How do you stay updated on the latest design trends, tools, and technologies, particularly AI in design?"

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Narrative is Key: Don't just show screens; tell the story behind each project. Emphasize the problem, your process, your role, and the impact.

• Quantify Everything: Whenever possible, use metrics to demonstrate the success of your designs (e.g., "Increased conversion by X%", "Reduced task completion time by Y%").

• Highlight Leadership & Process: For this role, it’s crucial to show not just your design skills but your ability to lead, mentor, and optimize design operations. Discuss how you’ve improved processes, built systems, or managed teams.

• Be Prepared for Live Exercises: If a workshop is involved, be ready to think aloud, sketch ideas, and articulate your rationale clearly.

• Ask Insightful Questions: Prepare questions about the team, challenges, strategic priorities, and design culture to show your engagement and strategic thinking.

📝 Enhancement Note: Preparation should focus on demonstrating a blend of strong design craft, strategic thinking, operational leadership, and cultural alignment. Candidates need to articulate not only what they've done but how they've done it and the impact it had, with a clear eye towards scaling and process improvement.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Lead Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Ashby.

• Portfolio Customization: Ensure your portfolio prominently features case studies demonstrating your experience with design systems, user-centric problem-solving, cross-platform design (mobile/web), and any leadership or process optimization initiatives. Tailor your presentation to highlight how your skills align with OBRIO's mission and growth goals.

• Resume Optimization: Update your resume to clearly highlight your 4+ years of product design experience, specific achievements in design leadership, design system implementation, and process improvements. Use keywords such as "Product Design," "Design Leadership," "Design Systems," "UX/UI," "Team Management," "Process Optimization," and "AI Tools."

• Interview Preparation: Practice articulating your design philosophy, leadership approach, and strategic thinking. Be ready to discuss your portfolio projects in detail, focusing on process, impact, and collaboration. Prepare to address potential operational challenges and how you would tackle them.

• Company Research: Thoroughly research OBRIO, Nebula, and their market position. Understand their values, culture, and ambitious growth plans. This will help you tailor your responses and ask informed questions during the interview process.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

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