Senior/Staff Product Designer, Item Navigation - (Quick Commerce)
📍 Job Overview
Job Title: Senior/Staff Product Designer, Item Navigation - (Quick Commerce) Company: Delivery Hero Location: Berlin, Germany Job Type: Full-time Category: Product Design / User Experience Operations Date Posted: 2025-09-25T14:08:47.151 Experience Level: Senior/Staff (5-10 years) Remote Status: Hybrid
🚀 Role Summary
- Lead end-to-end product design strategy for the Item Navigation domain within Quick Commerce, focusing on enhancing customer discovery and catalog browsing experiences.
- Drive impact across undefined problem spaces by partnering with Product Managers, Engineering Leads, Data Scientists, and ML Engineers to translate complex systems and algorithms into user-centered solutions.
- Act as a federated design leader, establishing best practices and fostering collaboration with global platform teams to ensure a consistent and high-quality user experience across diverse markets.
- Utilize quantitative data and experimentation (A/B testing) to uncover user behavior patterns, inform design decisions, and optimize item discovery for revenue growth.
- Champion a holistic customer experience strategy, mapping service blueprints and journey maps to illustrate system interactions and advocate for unified, intelligent user journeys.
📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as a Senior/Staff level, indicating a need for significant autonomy, strategic thinking, and the ability to influence design direction and execution within a complex technical domain. The focus on "Item Navigation" and "Quick Commerce" suggests a critical role in how customers find and select products in a fast-paced, high-volume environment.
📈 Primary Responsibilities
- Partner closely with Senior Product Managers and Engineering Leads within the QC Merchandising Tribe to define and execute the product vision for Item Navigation, ensuring alignment with overall business objectives.
- Design and validate user experiences that power efficient product listing, accurate product information display, standardized navigation, and personalized in-shop discovery for quick commerce offerings.
- Engage in technical discussions with Data Scientists and ML Engineers regarding ranking models, data pipelines, and system logic to translate algorithmic capabilities into intuitive user interfaces and experiences.
- Develop and maintain service blueprints and journey maps to visualize the end-to-end item discovery process, identifying key touchpoints and opportunities for improvement across global entities.
- Lead the design and analysis of large-scale experiments, collaborating with Product Analytics and Data Science to derive actionable insights that drive superior design solutions and improve item discovery metrics.
- Establish and evangelize design best practices for implementing and testing central ranking solutions with global platform teams, ensuring consistency while respecting local market nuances.
- Communicate design strategies, rationale, and outcomes effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders, including senior leadership, through compelling narratives and persuasive deliverables.
- Conduct user research and validation activities to deeply understand customer needs and behaviors related to product discovery within the quick commerce context.
📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of strategic design leadership, deep technical collaboration, and a strong emphasis on data-driven decision-making and experimentation, which are hallmarks of senior operations-focused design roles.
🎓 Skills & Qualifications
Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong educational background in Design (e.g., HCI, Graphic Design, Interaction Design), Computer Science, or a related field is implied by the nature of the work. Experience: Extensive experience (5-10 years) designing and shipping complex, data-rich products, particularly for mobile applications and web platforms. Proven experience in environments involving machine learning, personalization, search, or recommendation engines is crucial.
Required Skills:
- Product Design Mastery: Profound expertise in user-centered design principles, interaction design, visual design, and information architecture for digital products.
- Systems Thinking: Ability to comprehend and design for complex, interconnected systems, including understanding how algorithms and data pipelines influence user experience.
- Data-Driven Experimentation: Strong proficiency in designing, executing, and analyzing A/B tests and other quantitative experiments to inform design decisions and measure impact.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Proven ability to build strong partnerships and collaborate effectively with Product Management, Engineering, Data Science, and ML Engineering teams.
- Technical Acumen: Comfortable engaging in technical discussions related to data, algorithms, and system logic, and translating these into user-centric solutions.
- Communication & Storytelling: Excellent verbal and written communication skills, with a demonstrated ability to articulate a clear vision, present compelling design rationales, and influence stakeholders at all levels.
- Portfolio Excellence: A robust portfolio showcasing end-to-end design process, problem-solving skills, systems thinking, attention to detail, and successful product launches in complex technical domains.
- English Fluency: Professional fluency in English for effective communication in a global environment.
Preferred Skills:
- E-commerce/Q-commerce Experience: Prior experience designing for e-commerce, quick commerce, or marketplace platforms (B2B or B2C).
- Ranking/Personalization/Search Design: Direct experience specifically designing for ranking algorithms, personalization engines, or search functionalities.
- B2B Tooling Familiarity: Exposure to B2B tools used for assortment and content management within e-commerce or retail operations.
- UX Research Acumen: Experience partnering with UX Researchers or conducting user research to validate design concepts and gather qualitative insights.
📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "data-rich products," "machine learning," and "complex systems" points towards a need for designers who can operate effectively in a highly technical and data-intensive environment, bridging the gap between sophisticated backend logic and user-facing experience.
📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements
Portfolio Essentials:
- End-to-End Case Studies: Showcase 3-5 comprehensive case studies detailing your process from problem definition to shipped solution, highlighting your role and impact.
- Systemic Design Examples: Include projects that demonstrate your ability to design for complex systems, such as personalization engines, recommendation systems, search functionalities, or data-driven discovery platforms.
- Data & Experimentation Integration: Provide evidence of how you used quantitative data, A/B testing, and user analytics to inform and validate your design decisions and measure success.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Illustrate instances where you effectively collaborated with engineering, data science, and product management teams, showcasing your ability to navigate technical constraints and opportunities.
- Problem Decomposition: Demonstrate how you break down complex, often ill-defined problems into manageable design challenges and solutions.
Process Documentation:
- User Journey Mapping & Service Blueprints: Present examples of detailed user journey maps and service blueprints that illustrate the end-to-end customer experience and system interactions.
- Experiment Design & Analysis: Include examples of how you designed and analyzed experiments, translating findings into actionable design improvements.
- Design System Contributions (if applicable): If you have contributed to or utilized design systems, provide examples that showcase consistency and scalability in your design approach.
📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio requirements are highly specific, emphasizing the need for designers who can demonstrate a deep understanding of systems, data, and cross-functional collaboration, rather than just visual design or prototyping skills. This reflects a more operations-centric view of product design within a tech organization.
💵 Compensation & Benefits
Salary Range: For a Senior/Staff Product Designer in Berlin, Germany, with 5-10 years of experience, the estimated annual salary range is typically between €75,000 and €100,000, potentially higher for exceptional candidates with highly relevant experience in quick commerce or complex algorithmic systems.
Benefits:
- Hybrid Work Model: 2 days per week in the office for collaboration, with flexibility for remote work.
- Generous Paid Time Off: 27 days of holiday, increasing with tenure.
- Professional Development: €1,000 educational budget annually, language courses, and access to Udemy Business for skill enhancement.
- Family Support: Parental support programs available.
- Health & Wellness: Health checkups, meditation resources, gym and bicycle subsidies.
- Financial Incentives: Employee Share Purchase Plan, Sabbatical Bank, Corporate Pension Plan, Life & Accident Insurance.
- Commuting & Daily Perks: Public transportation ticket discount, digital and physical meal vouchers, food vouchers, and corporate discounts.
Working Hours: Standard full-time working hours, likely around 40 hours per week, with flexibility often provided within a hybrid model.
📝 Enhancement Note: The comprehensive benefits package indicates Delivery Hero's commitment to employee well-being and professional growth, which is a significant factor for attracting and retaining senior talent in competitive tech hubs like Berlin. The salary estimate is based on industry benchmarks for similar roles in Berlin.
🎯 Team & Company Context
🏢 Company Culture
Industry: Technology (Local Delivery Platform, E-commerce, Quick Commerce) Company Size: Large (Delivery Hero operates in over 70+ countries and is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange, indicating thousands of employees globally). This size implies structured processes, opportunities for specialization, and potential for broad impact. Founded: 2011. Delivery Hero's history as a pioneering platform in the delivery space suggests a culture of innovation, rapid growth, and adaptation to market dynamics.
Team Structure:
- Tribe/Domain Model: The role sits within the "QC Merchandising Tribe," specifically the "Item Navigation" domain. This structure suggests a focus on specialized areas with dedicated cross-functional teams.
- Cross-functional Triad: You will be part of a "powerful triad" with a Senior Product Manager and Engineering Leads, indicating a highly collaborative and integrated working model.
- Data & Engineering Integration: Close collaboration with Data Scientists, Data Engineers, and ML Engineers is a core aspect of the team's operation.
- Global Platform Interaction: The role requires interaction and collaboration with designers and researchers from global platform teams.
Methodology:
- Agile/Lean Principles: Likely operates with agile methodologies, emphasizing iterative development and continuous improvement.
- Experimentation-Driven: A strong culture of continuous, large-scale experimentation (A/B testing) is central to the team's approach to product development and optimization.
- Data-Informed Decision Making: Decisions are heavily influenced by quantitative data analysis and user behavior insights.
- Systems Design Focus: Emphasis on understanding and designing for complex underlying systems and algorithms.
Company Website: https://www.deliveryhero.com/
📝 Enhancement Note: Delivery Hero's global presence and focus on technology and innovation suggest a dynamic and fast-paced work environment where operational efficiency and user experience are paramount. The tribe/domain structure is common in large tech companies aiming for agility and specialization.
📈 Career & Growth Analysis
Operations Career Level: Senior/Staff Product Designer. This level signifies a senior individual contributor role, expected to lead complex projects, mentor junior designers, and influence product strategy within their domain. It's a step beyond a standard Senior Designer, often involving broader scope or more ambiguous problem spaces. Reporting Structure: You will report into a design leadership structure within the QC Merchandising Tribe, likely a Head of Design or Design Lead. You'll work in a "triad" with a Senior Product Manager and Engineering Leads, collaborating closely on a daily basis. Operations Impact: This role has a direct impact on the core revenue-generating activities of the Quick Commerce business by optimizing how customers discover and select products. Improving item navigation and ranking directly influences conversion rates, average order value, and overall customer satisfaction, thereby driving business growth and market competitiveness.
Growth Opportunities:
- Technical Specialization: Deepen expertise in designing for machine learning-driven systems, personalization, and complex data-intensive products.
- Leadership & Mentorship: Opportunity to mentor junior designers, lead design critiques, and influence design best practices across the organization.
- Strategic Influence: Contribute to the strategic direction of the Item Navigation domain and the broader Quick Commerce offering.
- Cross-Domain Exposure: Gain exposure to related domains like Content, Assortment, and Promotions, fostering a holistic understanding of the e-commerce ecosystem.
- Global Impact: Influence the product experience for millions of customers across Delivery Hero's extensive global footprint.
📝 Enhancement Note: The Senior/Staff designation suggests a path towards principal or lead design roles, or potentially management, depending on individual career aspirations and organizational needs. The focus on complex systems and data provides a strong foundation for growth in specialized product design areas.
🌐 Work Environment
Office Type: The role is based in Berlin, Germany, with a hybrid working model. This implies a modern office environment designed to facilitate collaboration and innovation. Office Location(s): Delivery Hero's headquarters are in Berlin, Germany. Specific office details would be available upon inquiry or during the interview process. Workspace Context:
- Collaborative Spaces: The office is likely equipped with collaborative spaces, meeting rooms, and common areas designed for team interaction and brainstorming.
- Technology Enabled: Access to necessary design tools, software, and hardware to perform the role effectively.
- Cross-functional Proximity: The hybrid model, with designated office days, encourages close proximity and interaction with Product Managers, Engineers, and Data Scientists within the QC Merchandising Tribe.
- Global Connectivity: While based in Berlin, the role involves interaction with global teams, suggesting a need for strong remote collaboration tools and practices.
Work Schedule: Standard full-time schedule, likely with flexibility within the hybrid model. Emphasis is on delivering results and meeting project milestones rather than strict adherence to hours, common in tech environments.
📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid model with specific office days is designed to balance the benefits of in-person collaboration with the flexibility of remote work, a common and effective approach in modern tech companies.
📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process
Interview Process:
- Application Screening: Initial review of resume and portfolio against the stated requirements.
- Hiring Manager/Recruiter Screen: A preliminary conversation to assess fit, experience, and understanding of the role.
- Design Portfolio Presentation & Discussion: A significant part of the process will involve presenting your portfolio, detailing your design process, problem-solving approach, and the impact of your work. This will likely include specific case studies related to complex systems, data, and collaboration.
- Cross-functional Team Interviews: Interviews with key stakeholders, including Product Managers, Engineering Leads, and potentially Data Scientists, to assess collaboration skills and technical understanding.
- Whiteboarding/Design Challenge: A practical exercise, potentially a design challenge or system-thinking exercise, to evaluate your problem-solving abilities, design process, and communication skills in real-time.
- Final Interview/Leadership Review: A final discussion, possibly with senior design or product leadership, to assess strategic thinking, cultural fit, and overall potential.
Portfolio Review Tips:
- Curate Strategically: Select 3-5 projects that best showcase your experience with complex systems, data-driven design, and cross-functional collaboration. Prioritize quality over quantity.
- Tell a Story: For each project, clearly articulate the problem, your role, the process you followed, the challenges you faced, the solutions you designed, and the measurable impact of your work. Use visuals effectively.
- Highlight Systems Thinking: Explicitly demonstrate how you considered the broader system, data flows, and algorithmic constraints in your design process.
- Showcase Data & Experimentation: Detail how you used data and experimentation (A/B tests) to inform your design decisions and measure success. Present key metrics and outcomes.
- Explain Collaboration: Describe your interactions with PMs, engineers, and data scientists, and how you navigated technical discussions and aligned on solutions.
- Prepare for Questions: Anticipate questions about your design choices, trade-offs made, how you handled ambiguity, and how you would approach specific challenges within Delivery Hero's context.
Challenge Preparation:
- Understand the Domain: Familiarize yourself with quick commerce, item discovery, ranking, and personalization concepts.
- Think Systemically: Practice breaking down complex problems into smaller parts, considering various stakeholders and technical constraints.
- Data Focus: Be ready to discuss how you would use data to solve a given problem or improve a user experience.
- Communicate Clearly: Practice articulating your thought process and design rationale concisely and persuasively.
📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process heavily emphasizes practical application of design skills in a technical context, with a strong focus on portfolio demonstration and the ability to collaborate effectively with data-driven teams.
🛠 Tools & Technology Stack
Primary Tools:
- Design & Prototyping Software: Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop), InVision, Principle, or similar tools for wireframing, UI design, prototyping, and user flow creation.
- Collaboration & Project Management: Jira, Confluence, Asana, Trello, Slack for team communication, task management, and documentation.
- Whiteboarding & Brainstorming: Miro, Mural, or physical whiteboards for collaborative ideation and system mapping.
Analytics & Reporting:
- Data Analysis Platforms: Proficiency in understanding and utilizing data from platforms like Amplitude, Mixpanel, Google Analytics, or internal BI tools to analyze user behavior and experiment results.
- A/B Testing Tools: Experience with experimentation platforms (e.g., Optimizely, VWO, internal A/B testing frameworks) to design and interpret A/B tests.
- Data Visualization Tools: Familiarity with tools like Tableau, Looker, or Power BI for analyzing and presenting data insights.
CRM & Automation:
- While not directly a CRM role, understanding how user data feeds into broader customer platforms and how design impacts the customer journey is beneficial. Familiarity with how personalization engines and recommendation systems integrate with user data is important.
📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on data analysis, experimentation tools, and collaboration platforms highlights the need for a designer who is comfortable working with data and technology as integral parts of the design process, rather than being siloed in creative tasks.
👥 Team Culture & Values
Operations Values:
- Customer Centricity: A deep commitment to understanding and serving customer needs, especially in the context of fast and efficient product discovery.
- Data-Driven Excellence: Valuing data and experimentation as primary drivers for decision-making and continuous improvement of operational processes.
- Collaboration & Teamwork: Fostering a culture of mutual respect and shared responsibility, working effectively across diverse functions to achieve common goals.
- Innovation & Agility: Embracing new ideas, adapting quickly to change, and continuously seeking more efficient and effective ways to operate and deliver value.
- Impact & Accountability: Taking ownership of outcomes and focusing on delivering tangible results that positively impact customers and the business.
Collaboration Style:
- Partnership Approach: Working in tight-knit, cross-functional teams (Product, Engineering, Data Science) with shared goals and mutual accountability.
- Open Communication: Encouraging transparent and honest feedback, constructive critique, and proactive sharing of information.
- Influence Through Insight: Driving consensus and alignment through well-reasoned arguments, data-backed insights, and compelling user advocacy.
- Global Mindset: Collaborating effectively with diverse teams across different geographies and cultures.
📝 Enhancement Note: The company values align with a high-performing, modern tech organization that prioritizes data, collaboration, and customer impact. The collaboration style emphasizes shared ownership and influence through expertise.
⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities
Challenges:
- Complexity of Systems: Designing for intricate ranking algorithms, diverse data inputs, and large-scale global platforms requires significant systems thinking and technical understanding.
- Balancing Centralization & Localization: Ensuring a consistent core experience while allowing for necessary local adaptations and optimizations across 70+ countries.
- Data Interpretation: Translating complex quantitative data and experiment results into clear, actionable design insights can be challenging.
- Stakeholder Alignment: Gaining buy-in and alignment from various global teams and leadership on design strategies for often "invisible" systems like ranking.
- Pace of Innovation: Keeping up with rapid technological advancements and evolving customer expectations in the quick commerce space.
Learning & Development Opportunities:
- Advanced Design Skills: Deepen expertise in designing for AI/ML systems, personalization, and complex data products.
- Strategic Product Leadership: Develop skills in product strategy, roadmap influence, and leading design initiatives for critical business domains.
- Data Science & Analytics Exposure: Gain a deeper understanding of data science methodologies, machine learning concepts, and analytical techniques.
- Global Product Management: Learn about managing product experiences across diverse international markets and regulatory environments.
- Industry Trends: Stay abreast of the latest trends in e-commerce, quick commerce, and user experience design.
📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers significant opportunities for professional growth by tackling complex, high-impact challenges at a global scale, pushing the boundaries of product design in a data-rich, technically sophisticated environment.
💡 Interview Preparation
Strategy Questions:
- Problem Framing: "How would you approach designing a better way for users to discover new products within our quick commerce app, considering our existing ranking algorithms and catalog structure?" (Focus on process, data, collaboration).
- System Design: "Describe a time you designed for a complex, data-driven system. What were the key technical considerations, and how did you ensure a positive user experience?" (Look for systems thinking, technical collaboration).
- Experimentation: "Imagine we want to test a new categorization system for our grocery items. How would you design the experiment, what metrics would you track, and how would you interpret the results to make a design decision?" (Focus on data, A/B testing, metrics).
- Collaboration: "How do you typically collaborate with Product Managers and Engineers who have different priorities or technical constraints? Describe a situation where you had to navigate conflicting perspectives." (Look for influence, communication, partnership).
Company & Culture Questions:
- "What excites you about Delivery Hero and the quick commerce space?" (Show genuine interest and research).
- "How do you see your role contributing to our mission of delivering amazing experiences, fast, easy, and to your door?" (Connect your skills to the company's goals).
- "How do you handle feedback on your designs, especially from technical stakeholders?" (Assess receptiveness and collaboration).
Portfolio Presentation Strategy:
- Structure: Organize your presentation logically: Problem Statement -> Your Role -> Process (Research, Ideation, Design, Testing) -> Solution -> Impact/Results -> Learnings.
- Highlight Key Contributions: Clearly articulate your specific contributions within each project, especially in cross-functional environments.
- Data Visualization: Present data and experiment results clearly, explaining the "so what?" behind the numbers.
- Show, Don't Just Tell: Use visuals, prototypes, and journey maps to illustrate your design thinking and solutions.
- Be Prepared for Deep Dives: Expect detailed questions about your process, decisions, trade-offs, and the technical underpinnings of your projects.
📝 Enhancement Note: Preparation should focus on demonstrating a blend of design craft, strategic thinking, technical understanding, data literacy, and strong collaborative skills, all tailored to the specific context of quick commerce and complex systems.
📌 Application Steps
To apply for this operations-focused product design position:
- Submit your application through the provided link on the Delivery Hero careers page.
- Tailor Your Resume: Emphasize experience in designing data-rich products, systems thinking, collaboration with technical teams (especially data science/ML), and quantifiable achievements related to user experience and business impact.
- Curate Your Portfolio: Select 3-5 most relevant projects that showcase your end-to-end design process for complex systems, data-driven decision-making, and cross-functional collaboration. Ensure clear articulation of problem, process, solution, and impact.
- Prepare Your Presentation: Practice presenting your portfolio case studies concisely, focusing on your process, rationale, data insights, and the measurable outcomes of your work. Be ready to discuss technical aspects and collaboration strategies.
- Research Delivery Hero: Understand Delivery Hero's business model, its position in the market, the quick commerce landscape, and its company culture. Familiarize yourself with their product offerings and mission.
⚠️ 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.
Application Requirements
Candidates should have extensive experience in designing data-rich products and collaborating with technical teams, particularly in machine learning environments. A strong portfolio demonstrating user-centered design and analytical skills is essential.