Lead Product Designer

About the Role

We're a fast-growing, seed-stage AI communication SaaS company based in Vienna, Austria, building AI-powered phone assistants that help small and medium-sized businesses automate inbound and outbound calls, schedule appointments, and streamline customer service — 24/7. With a team of ~50 people and strong European roots, we're scaling quickly and looking for a Lead Product Designer to own Design, Brand, and Design team leadership.

You'll work hand-in-hand with founders and engineering, shape the experience for thousands of European business customers (craft workers, medical practices, professional services), and set the visual and product design standard at high pace with direct customer access. This is a high-ownership, high-impact role for someone who loves both crafting great product experiences and growing a team.

What You'll Do

• Take full ownership of product design, branding, and design team leadership.

• ~50% hands-on design: end-to-end product design across three core product areas, customer interviews, and brand development.

• ~50% team leadership: lead and grow the design team covering product design, website, and branding.

• Collaborate closely with founders and engineering for fast decision-making and short feedback loops.

• Build deep customer understanding through regular conversations with end users (e.g., tradespeople, doctors, professional services firms).

• Set and maintain design standards across product, web, and brand.

• Scale design systems and ensure consistent execution across multiple product areas.

• Drive a shipping-focused culture: meaningful impact delivered through frequent, iterative releases.

What We're Looking For

Must-haves:

• Native German speaker (DACH market focus) with solid English for an international team — this is a dealbreaker requirement.

• 5+ years of end-to-end product design experience with ownership of multiple product areas.

• Demonstrated experience leading or managing a design team, or a strong, clear intent to step into design leadership while keeping craft front and centre.

• Proven experience conducting customer interviews and translating research insights into design decisions.

• Ownership of branding, website, and product design; ability to set and uphold design standards.

• Analytics-driven design mindset — you measure design decisions and iterate based on data, not just intuition.

• Experience building and scaling design systems across multiple product areas.

• Strong Figma skills including prototyping and component-level thinking.

• AI-first workflow: hands-on experience using AI tools (e.g., Cursor, Claude, v0) to accelerate and enhance the design process.

Nice-to-haves:

• Background in B2B SaaS, professional services software, or CRM-like environments.

• Experience maintaining a design system at scale across a growing product suite.

• Prior collaboration with staff-level designers or cross-functional leads.

Compensation & Benefits

• Salary: €80,000 – €150,000 per year, depending on experience.

• High autonomy and direct influence over product direction from day one.

• Work closely with founders in a fast-moving, high-ownership environment.

• Opportunity to build and shape the design function as the company scales from ~50 to 100+ employees.

Please note: visa sponsorship is not available for this role.

Location

This is an on-site role based in Vienna, Austria. Candidates should be based in or willing to relocate to Vienna. Remote work is not available for this position.