Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Product Designer

Company: Gem

Location: Sofia, Bulgaria

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Product Design / Engineering

Date Posted: 2026-05-22T08:17:50

Experience Level: Mid-Senior (5-10 years)

Remote Status: On-site (with required overlap for US collaboration)

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead product design initiatives for critical areas of Gem's AI-first recruiting platform, including scheduling, enterprise administration, and talent analytics.

• Drive the end-to-end design process, from user research and problem framing to visual execution and detailed specifications for complex B2B SaaS applications.

• Collaborate closely with engineering and product management teams in Sofia and San Francisco to shape the user experience and product direction.

• Focus on designing intuitive and impactful interfaces for enterprise users, enabling them to surface insights and drive critical talent acquisition decisions.

• Act as a founding member of the Sofia Engineering Product Design (EPD) team, contributing to the establishment of design standards and team culture.

📝 Enhancement Note: The role is explicitly stated as "based out of our Sofia office and is not eligible for full-time remote work," despite the location_type being listed as TELECOMMUTE in the raw data. This indicates a hybrid or on-site requirement with specific collaboration hours. The emphasis on "founding Product Designer" and "ground up in a Sofia team" points to a significant opportunity for influence and impact within a growing international engineering hub.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Conduct comprehensive user research to deeply understand the needs and pain points of recruiters and talent leaders.

• Translate complex user requirements and data insights into clear, actionable, and visually compelling user interface designs.

• Design end-to-end user flows for web applications, ensuring seamless transitions and intuitive navigation.

• Develop detailed design specifications and collaborate iteratively with engineering teams throughout the sprint cycles.

• Partner with Product Managers and Engineers to define product strategy and roadmap for key feature areas.

• Execute polished visual design and high-fidelity prototypes, ensuring a consistent and delightful user experience.

• Contribute to and potentially help maintain Gem's design system for scalability and consistency.

• Clearly articulate and defend design decisions to cross-functional partners across different time zones.

📝 Enhancement Note: The description highlights ownership of "mission-critical product areas," including "Gem Scheduling," "Enterprise Platform (admin settings, permissions, RBAC)," "Talent Compass," and "Talent Marketing." This suggests a broad scope of responsibility encompassing core functionalities and advanced enterprise features, requiring a strong understanding of B2B SaaS user needs and complex workflows.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong portfolio demonstrating equivalent knowledge and practical application of design principles is paramount.

Experience: Minimum of 5+ years of professional product design experience, with 7-8+ years strongly preferred. Experience designing complex web applications, specifically B2B SaaS, enterprise tools, or products with rich workflow and data surfaces, is critical.

Required Skills:

• Full-spectrum product design capabilities: user research, problem framing, interaction design, visual design, and detailed specification.

• Strong product and design point of view, with the ability to understand user problems and articulate solutions.

• Proficiency in translating complex user needs and data into clear, actionable, and visually compelling UI.

• Demonstrated experience designing end-to-end flows in web applications.

• Proven ability to collaborate iteratively with engineering teams, participating in sprint cycles and incorporating feedback.

• Strong communication and presentation skills for cross-functional collaboration and stakeholder management.

• Ability to work with ambiguity and drive clarity without constant direction.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience designing analytics dashboards, admin surfaces, or data-dense reporting UIs.

• Familiarity with the Talent Acquisition or recruiting domain.

• Experience working at a venture-backed startup.

• Experience shipping enterprise B2B SaaS products used by large organizations.

• Contribution to or maintenance of a design system.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "B2B SaaS, enterprise tools, or products with rich workflow and data surfaces" and explicitly excluding "branding, illustration, video games, or consumer-only apps" is a crucial filter for candidates. This signals the need for a designer experienced in complex information architecture and business-critical application design.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase a minimum of 5 shipped products, with a preference for those demonstrating complex B2B SaaS or enterprise functionality.

• Highlight end-to-end design processes, from initial user research and problem definition through to final visual execution and implementation feedback.

• Provide detailed case studies that illustrate the designer's ability to translate complex user needs and data into intuitive UI solutions.

• Demonstrate experience in designing for enterprise contexts, focusing on data surfaces, workflows, and decision-driving features.

Process Documentation:

• Case studies should detail the problem framing and user research methodologies employed.

• Showcase the iterative design process, including wireframing, prototyping, and user testing.

• Clearly articulate the visual design execution and the rationale behind aesthetic choices.

• Detail how complex data and workflows were simplified and made actionable for users.

• Include examples of design specifications and how they were communicated to engineering.

📝 Enhancement Note: The requirement for a "portfolio of shipped products" and experience in "complex web applications" strongly implies that the portfolio should focus on tangible outcomes and the full product development lifecycle, rather than conceptual or purely visual design work. For an enterprise SaaS product, demonstrating an understanding of RBAC, admin settings, and data-driven insights will be highly advantageous.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: Based on industry benchmarks for a Product Designer with 5-10 years of experience in a high-growth tech startup, particularly in a European hub like Sofia collaborating with US counterparts, a competitive salary range would typically fall between €50,000 - €80,000 annually. This range accounts for the specialized B2B SaaS/enterprise experience and the founding team status.

Benefits:

• Highly competitive salary & equity package.

• Generous paid time off: 20 standard days + 5 additional days.

• Comprehensive holiday schedule: 17 paid holidays, including national holidays and company-wide wellness days.

• Additional health insurance coverage.

• Annual learning and development budget of €610 for professional growth.

• Extended Paid Parental Leave: Up to 16 weeks for birthing and non-birthing parents.

• New Parent Perks: A total of €760 and flexibility upon return to work.

Working Hours: Standard full-time hours (approximately 40 hours per week) are expected, with a requirement for reasonable overlap with San Francisco working hours (approximately 8–10 AM PST / 6–8 PM EET) for weekly team syncs.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary estimate is based on market research for experienced Product Designers in European tech hubs with significant startup funding and international collaboration, adjusted for the specific requirements of B2B SaaS and enterprise design. The benefits package is comprehensive, reflecting a mature startup environment.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: AI-first, all-in-one recruiting platform (SaaS). The market is valued at over $250B, indicating a significant and growing sector.

Company Size: Series C startup, indicating significant growth and funding, with a substantial team in San Francisco and a burgeoning engineering team in Sofia. This implies a dynamic, fast-paced environment with room for individual impact.

Founded: Gem is a Series C startup, indicating it's beyond the early-stage but still in a high-growth phase. Its founding team members hail from top tech companies like Facebook, Dropbox, Uber, MIT, and Stanford, suggesting a culture of high technical and design standards.

Team Structure:

• The Sofia EPD team is described as "growing" and "founding," implying a close-knit, foundational group.

• This team will partner closely with engineering and product managers in Sofia and US-based designers and stakeholders in San Francisco.

Methodology:

• Gem leverages AI to modernize the recruiting industry, suggesting a data-driven and technologically advanced approach to product development.

• The company emphasizes customer satisfaction, evidenced by a 4.8/5.0 rating on G2, indicating a focus on delivering value and a high-quality user experience.

• Designs are expected to be iterative and collaborative with engineering, aligning with agile development practices.

Company Website: Gem.com

📝 Enhancement Note: The culture is likely to be innovative, fast-paced, and results-oriented, with a strong emphasis on technical excellence and customer success. As a founding member of the Sofia team, the designer will have a unique opportunity to influence the product and team culture from the ground up.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role represents a Mid-Senior to Senior Product Designer position, designated as a "founding Product Designer" within the Sofia EPD team. It signifies a significant level of autonomy, ownership, and influence over critical product areas. The role is not just about execution but also about shaping product direction and design strategy.

Reporting Structure: The designer will partner closely with engineering and product managers in Sofia and collaborate with US-based designers and stakeholders in San Francisco. This indicates a matrixed reporting structure, emphasizing collaboration and cross-functional alignment rather than a strict hierarchical reporting line.

Operations Impact: The designer will directly impact the user experience of thousands of recruiters and talent leaders, influencing how Gem is perceived and functions. By owning key product areas, their contributions will be critical to customer satisfaction, retention, and the overall growth of Gem's market share in the $250B recruiting industry.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership: As a founding member, there's potential to grow into a design lead or manager role as the Sofia team expands.

• Specialization: Opportunity to deepen expertise in enterprise SaaS design, AI-driven product features, and complex data visualization within the recruiting domain.

• Strategic Influence: Significant opportunity to shape product strategy, design systems, and best practices for the growing Sofia EPD team.

• Skill Development: The €610 annual budget for learning and development supports continuous skill enhancement, certifications, and industry engagement.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "founding" nature of this role is a key differentiator. It implies a high degree of autonomy and the chance to establish design processes and best practices within a new, growing engineering hub, offering substantial career growth potential beyond individual contributor roles.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: The role is based out of the Gem office in Sofia, Bulgaria. While the location_type is listed as TELECOMMUTE, the description explicitly states "not eligible for full-time remote work" and requires office presence. This suggests a dedicated office space designed for collaboration.

Office Location(s): Sofia, Bulgaria. Specific details on office amenities or exact location within Sofia are not provided, but it's positioned as the base for the growing Engineering Product Design (EPD) team.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The role necessitates close collaboration with engineering and product managers in Sofia, as well as designers and stakeholders in San Francisco. This implies an open and communicative workspace designed to facilitate cross-functional teamwork.

• Technology & Tools: Expect access to standard design software and tools, with potential for specific enterprise-grade solutions required for B2B SaaS development. The emphasis on collaboration across time zones suggests robust communication and project management tools will be utilized.

• Team Interaction: There will be regular team syncs to discuss design decisions, project progress, and strategic alignment, fostering a sense of shared purpose.

Work Schedule: A standard full-time schedule is expected, with the crucial requirement of maintaining ~8–10 AM PST / 6–8 PM EET overlap for weekly team syncs and essential cross-continental collaboration. This means the workday will likely start in the afternoon/evening EET to accommodate US East Coast hours.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "on-site" nature in Sofia, combined with the specific US overlap requirement, defines the work environment as a hybrid-remote model where presence in the Sofia office is mandatory, but flexibility is built around accommodating the US team's core hours. This is critical for candidates to understand regarding their daily schedule.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A review of your resume and portfolio to assess experience, skills, and alignment with the role's requirements.

• Portfolio Deep Dive: A session with a design lead or hiring manager to walk through your portfolio, focusing on specific case studies, design process, problem-solving approach, and impact.

• Cross-functional Interview: An interview with engineering and product management partners in Sofia to assess collaboration style, technical understanding, and ability to work iteratively.

• Stakeholder Interview: Potentially an interview with US-based stakeholders to gauge communication across time zones and strategic alignment.

• Take-home Challenge (Potential): While not explicitly stated, some companies may issue a design challenge to assess practical skills and problem-solving in a timed scenario.

• Final Interview: A concluding discussion to confirm fit, answer any remaining questions, and discuss next steps.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Enterprise B2B SaaS: Select case studies that best showcase your experience with complex web applications, data-intensive interfaces, and enterprise workflows. Explicitly mention the technologies and user types involved.

• Demonstrate End-to-End Process: For each case study, clearly articulate the problem, your research methodology, design decisions (wireframes, prototypes, visual design), collaboration with engineering, and the measurable impact of your work.

• Quantify Impact: Where possible, use metrics to demonstrate the success of your designs (e.g., improved conversion rates, reduced task completion time, increased user satisfaction).

• Highlight Collaboration: Show how you worked with product managers and engineers, emphasizing iterative feedback loops and problem-solving.

• Visual Execution: Ensure your portfolio is visually polished and easy to navigate, reflecting your own design capabilities.

Challenge Preparation:

• If a challenge is given, focus on understanding the user problem and business context first.

• Structure your approach clearly: research, ideation, solution design, and justification.

• Be prepared to present your solution concisely and defend your design decisions.

• Think about edge cases, scalability, and how your design integrates with existing systems.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the "founding" aspect and collaboration across time zones, expect interviewers to probe deeply into your ability to work autonomously, drive clarity, and communicate effectively. The portfolio review will be a critical component, so ensure it directly addresses the B2B SaaS and enterprise requirements.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Proficiency in industry-standard tools such as Figma (highly likely given modern B2B SaaS development), Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop).

• User Research Platforms: Experience with tools for user interviews, usability testing, and surveys (e.g., UserTesting.com, Maze, SurveyMonkey, Typeform).

• Collaboration & Project Management: Familiarity with tools like Jira, Confluence, Asana, Trello for sprint tracking and documentation.

• Communication: Slack, Zoom, Google Meet for daily communication and cross-time zone meetings.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Experience with analytics platforms (e.g., Google Analytics, Amplitude, Mixpanel) to understand user behavior and product performance.

CRM & Automation:

• While not a direct CRM role, understanding how design impacts user adoption and workflow within a CRM context (like Salesforce, HubSpot) or the recruiting platform's CRM-like features is beneficial.

• Familiarity with design system management tools or processes.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the emphasis on "AI-first" and "enterprise SaaS," expect a modern tech stack. Figma is almost certainly the primary design tool. Experience with tools that facilitate collaboration across distributed teams and support complex data visualization will be highly valued.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Customer-Centricity: A strong focus on understanding and solving user problems to drive customer satisfaction, as evidenced by Gem's high G2 ratings.

• Innovation & AI Focus: Commitment to leveraging Artificial Intelligence to modernize the recruiting industry.

• Collaboration: Emphasis on close partnership between design, engineering, and product across different geographies.

• Excellence & Impact: Hiring engineers and designers from top-tier backgrounds suggests a drive for high-quality work and measurable business impact.

• Transparency: Commitment to an inclusive and transparent environment where voices are heard.

Collaboration Style:

• Iterative & Agile: Designers are expected to work closely and iteratively with engineering teams within sprint cycles, providing and receiving feedback.

• Cross-Functional: Strong emphasis on collaboration with Product Managers and Engineers in Sofia, and with US-based designers and stakeholders. This requires proactive communication and alignment.

• Remote-Friendly (but not fully remote): While the role is office-based in Sofia, the need to sync with San Francisco necessitates comfort with asynchronous communication and scheduled synchronous meetings across time zones.

• Data-Informed: Decisions are likely backed by user research, data analysis, and product performance metrics.

📝 Enhancement Note: The culture is likely to be a blend of startup dynamism and the rigor of a well-funded, established tech company. As a founding member, the designer will play a role in shaping this culture in Sofia, emphasizing collaboration, innovation, and a strong user focus.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Cross-Time Zone Collaboration: Effectively bridging the gap between Sofia and San Francisco working hours requires excellent communication, planning, and asynchronous collaboration skills.

• Ambiguity: Working in a startup environment, especially as part of a founding team, involves navigating ambiguity and driving clarity without always having perfect direction.

• Enterprise Complexity: Designing for enterprise users with complex needs, data sets, and workflows in a B2B SaaS context presents unique challenges in ensuring usability and adoption.

• Establishing Design Standards: As a founding member of the Sofia EPD team, there's an opportunity to help define and implement design processes and standards from the ground up.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deepen Enterprise SaaS Expertise: Gain extensive experience in designing for complex B2B platforms, including admin settings, permissions, and data-intensive features.

• AI Product Design: Contribute to and learn about designing with AI-first products in the recruiting tech space.

• Design System Development: Opportunity to contribute to or help build and maintain a scalable design system.

• Cross-Cultural Collaboration: Hone skills in working effectively with international teams across different time zones and cultural contexts.

• Formal Learning: Utilize the €610 annual budget for courses, conferences, books, or other professional development activities.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are closely tied to the growth opportunities, particularly the chance to define processes and gain expertise in a high-demand area of tech design. Proactive problem-solving and a growth mindset will be key to navigating these.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a complex B2B SaaS product you designed. What were the biggest challenges, and how did you overcome them?" (Focus on problem framing, user needs, and iterative solutions.)

• "How do you approach translating complex data and user workflows into a clear and intuitive UI for enterprise users?" (Highlight your process, simplification techniques, and visual execution.)

• "Walk me through a design decision where you had to balance user needs with technical constraints or business priorities." (Demonstrate your problem-solving and negotiation skills.)

• "How do you collaborate with engineering teams to ensure your designs are implemented effectively and iteratively?" (Emphasize your understanding of agile, feedback loops, and technical feasibility.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about Gem and our mission to modernize recruiting with AI?" (Show your research and alignment with the company's vision.)

• "How would you contribute to building a design culture within a new Sofia EPD team?" (Discuss your approach to collaboration, mentorship, and process establishment.)

• "How do you handle working across significant time zone differences with remote or distributed teams?" (Share strategies for effective communication and collaboration.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure: Organize your presentation logically: Introduction to Gem, your role, and then dive into 2-3 key case studies.

• Storytelling: For each case study, tell a compelling story: the problem, your approach, your specific contributions, the solution, and the impact.

• Visuals: Use high-quality mockups, prototypes, and flow diagrams. Explain your design choices and rationale clearly.

• Quantify: Whenever possible, present metrics that demonstrate the success or impact of your designs.

• Collaboration Focus: Highlight how you partnered with PMs and Engineers, showing your iterative process and how feedback influenced your designs.

• Q&A Readiness: Be prepared to answer in-depth questions about your process, decisions, and challenges.

📝 Enhancement Note: Expect interviewers to test your ability to think critically, articulate your design process, and demonstrate how you add value in a collaborative, fast-paced, and geographically distributed environment. Your portfolio is your primary tool to showcase these capabilities.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided application link on Gem's careers page.

• Portfolio Customization: Tailor your resume and portfolio to highlight your experience in B2B SaaS, enterprise web applications, complex workflows, and data-dense UIs. Select case studies that best exemplify your end-to-end design process and impact.

• Resume Optimization: Ensure your resume clearly states your years of experience (minimum 5+, ideally 7-8+) and lists key skills relevant to enterprise product design (e.g., User Research, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Figma, Enterprise SaaS, Data Visualization).

• Interview Preparation: Practice articulating your design process, problem-solving methodologies, and specific contributions to shipped products. Prepare to discuss how you collaborate with engineering and handle ambiguity.

• Company Research: Thoroughly research Gem, its product, its mission, and its customer base. Understand its AI-first approach and its position in the recruiting tech market. Familiarize yourself with their company values and culture.

⚠️ 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.