Senior Designer, UX Research and Prototyping

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Designer, UX Research and Prototyping

Company: QIMA

Location: Lisbon, Portugal (Hybrid; Paris, France also considered)

Job Type: Full-time

Category: Design Operations / UX Design

Date Posted: August 05, 2026

Experience Level: Mid-Senior (approx. 7+ years)

Remote Status: Hybrid

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead rigorous user discovery and UX research initiatives to deeply understand diverse client needs and pain points across QIMA's global platform.

• Develop functional, code-backed prototypes that go beyond static mockups, enabling engineering teams to build directly and ship faster.

• Drive the client digital experience to the highest standards of craft, focusing on obsessive attention to detail, friction removal, and iterative design.

• Build strong internal partnerships with Sales, Marketing, Operations, and Finance to ground design decisions in business context and drive growth.

• Leverage AI-augmented design practices daily to accelerate discovery, enhance prototype creation, and elevate the broader design team's capabilities.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as a "Senior Designer" but its responsibilities heavily lean into operationalizing UX research and prototyping within a larger organization, making it crucial for candidates to highlight their experience in process development, cross-functional collaboration, and driving tangible business outcomes through design, aligning it with GTM and Operations principles.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Design and execute comprehensive UX research strategies, including user interviews, usability testing, and data analysis, to gather actionable insights on client needs and platform usability.

• Translate research findings and business requirements into high-fidelity, interactive prototypes using tools that support code-backed development (e.g., advanced Figma features, low-code/no-code tools, basic front-end code).

• Collaborate closely with product managers, engineers, and business stakeholders to ensure prototypes are technically feasible, aligned with business objectives, and address critical user pain points.

• Champion a user-centric design philosophy, advocating for the client experience and ensuring design decisions are data-driven and validated through iterative prototyping and testing.

• Define and track key performance indicators (KPIs) for the client digital experience, such as portal adoption, task completion rates, and time-to-insight, to measure design impact and inform future iterations.

• Integrate AI tools and methodologies into the design workflow to enhance efficiency in research, prototyping, and the overall delivery of client-facing digital solutions.

• Contribute to the development of a modular design system and platform architecture, ensuring scalability and consistency across QIMA's diverse service offerings.

• Facilitate cross-functional workshops and design sprints to foster alignment, generate innovative solutions, and accelerate the product development lifecycle.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities emphasize a blend of strategic UX leadership and hands-on execution, particularly in prototype development that directly informs engineering. This indicates a need for candidates who can not only conceptualize but also practically build and validate solutions, demonstrating a strong understanding of the product development lifecycle and its operational dependencies.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

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

Experience: Typically around 7 years of progressive experience in UX research, product design, or a directly transferable role, with a proven track record of owning complex, multi-stakeholder design problems from initial discovery through to functional prototype delivery.

Required Skills:

• Extensive experience in conducting user discovery and UX research methodologies.

• Proficiency in designing and building interactive, functional prototypes that can be directly used by engineering teams.

• Demonstrated expertise in using advanced prototyping tools beyond static design software (e.g., Figma's interactive features, no-code/low-code prototyping tools, basic front-end code like HTML/CSS/JavaScript).

• A strong portfolio showcasing working prototypes, not just polished mockups, with clear examples of how prototypes influenced engineering decisions or unblocked development.

• Deep understanding of UX craft and a commitment to achieving the highest standards of user experience design, comparable to leading consumer and enterprise products.

• Experience working in high-growth or scale-up environments, understanding both startup scrappiness and the complexities of designing for scale.

• High agency, ownership, and a proactive approach to defining unclear requirements and unblocking challenges.

• A strong bias for action and an iterative mindset, comfortable with rapid prototyping, testing, learning, and adapting.

• Analytical sharpness, with the ability to use data effectively to support design decisions, even with imperfect information.

• Hands-on experience across the full design workflow, from client interviews and data analysis to prototype creation and validation.

• Demonstrated advanced proficiency in AI-augmented design practices, including daily use and a commitment to raising the bar for AI integration.

• Full professional proficiency in English, with clear and concise written and verbal communication skills. Preferred Skills:

• Experience with specific no-code or low-code platforms relevant to rapid prototyping.

• Familiarity with front-end development principles and basic coding (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) to enhance prototype fidelity and handoff.

• Experience working within Agile or Lean development methodologies.

• Familiarity with the supply chain, quality control, or compliance industries.

• Experience in designing for diverse user groups with varying technical proficiencies and workflows.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "code-backed prototypes" and "minimal translation loss" is critical. Candidates should highlight any experience with tools that bridge the gap between design and development, such as Framer, ProtoPie, or even basic React/Vue component prototyping within Figma. AI-augmented design is a key differentiator.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Functional Prototypes: A significant portion of your portfolio must showcase working, interactive prototypes. Clearly articulate the problem addressed, the user research that informed the design, and how the prototype was used to validate solutions or inform engineering.

• Process & Methodology: Detail your approach to UX research, user discovery, and iterative prototyping. Explain how you gather insights, test hypotheses, and incorporate feedback to refine designs.

• Engineering Handoff: Provide examples where your prototypes directly facilitated or unblocked engineering efforts. Highlight how you ensured minimal "translation loss" when handing off designs for development.

• Impact & Metrics: Demonstrate how your design work, supported by prototypes, has driven measurable business outcomes (e.g., increased adoption, improved task completion, reduced friction, client retention signals). Quantify success whenever possible.

• AI Integration: Showcase specific instances where you have leveraged AI tools to accelerate your design process, improve research quality, or enhance prototype capabilities.

Process Documentation:

• Demonstrate experience in documenting design processes, research findings, and prototype specifications in a clear, organized manner that is easily consumable by cross-functional teams.

• Ability to create concise summaries of complex user research and design rationale for stakeholders across different departments (Sales, Operations, Finance).

• Experience in developing user journey maps, flow diagrams, and wireframes that clearly articulate the user experience and interaction design.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio requirement is highly specific: "working prototypes, not only polished mockups." This is a key differentiator for this role. Candidates must be prepared to demonstrate a tangible output that engineering can directly interact with and potentially build from, emphasizing a practical, outcome-oriented approach rather than purely aesthetic design.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: Based on the Senior Designer title, 7+ years of experience, and hybrid nature, with preferred locations in Lisbon or Paris, the estimated salary range for this role in Europe is approximately €60,000 - €90,000 annually. This range can vary based on specific experience, skills, and the final negotiation.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive health insurance coverage.

• Generous paid time off (vacation, public holidays).

• Flexible hybrid work arrangement with core collaboration hours.

• Opportunities for professional development, training, and conference attendance.

• Access to cutting-edge design and AI tools.

• Contribution to pension or retirement plans.

• Potential for performance-based bonuses.

• Employee assistance programs.

Working Hours: Approximately 40 hours per week, with flexible core hours to accommodate hybrid work and collaboration needs across different time zones.

📝 Enhancement Note: Salary is an estimate based on industry benchmarks for Senior UX Designers in Western Europe, considering the specified location preferences and experience level. This should be confirmed with the employer. The benefits are standard for a role of this seniority in the tech/design sector in Europe