Principal Product Designer, Real Estate at olx

WELCOME TO OLX   We're building marketplace sustainable ecosystems that millions of people depend on every month – to buy and sell cars, find homes, land jobs, and trade secondhand goods. It's commerce that matters: safe, smart, and environmentally responsible.   We do this with courage to innovate, commitment to outcomes, collaboration across 50+ nationalities and 7 markets, and a customer-led approach that puts real people first. Add a desire to win – and you get a culture that's ambitious, fast-moving, and built on trust.   Our brands – including AutoTrader, OLX, Otomoto Property24, and more – are loved by millions. And we're backed by Prosus, one of the world's largest tech investors.   Join OLX and see how far you can go. We believe the future of our products sits at the intersection of AI and design. Our ambition is to become an AI-native organization, where intelligent systems and human-centered design come together to create faster, smarter, and more meaningful customer experiences. We’re rethinking how products are built, how experiences are shaped, and how teams deliver impact. A key part of this transformation is creating the right foundations and infrastructure to enable high-quality experiences at scale - where design systems, patterns, and workflows are structured, scalable, and AI-readable, unlocking new levels of speed, consistency, and innovation. Real Estate is one of our most strategic verticals. It’s where high-intent users make some of the most important decisions of their lives. Our ambition is to deliver a category-defining experience - one that is seamless, intelligent, and deeply tailored to user needs. Design plays a critical role in making that happen. We are looking for a strong design leader to spearhead a coherent, cross-platform experience across Real Estate, bringing it to the next level and ensuring tight alignment across brand, product, and design. This role will be instrumental in defining a unified experience that feels intentional, high-quality, and consistent across all user touchpoints - while shaping how AI and design come together at scale within OLX. Why this role exists As our Real Estate business scales, so does the complexity of the experience. Today, we face fragmentation across teams, inconsistent patterns, and limited governance over quality. At the same time, we are entering a new era where design needs to be: Systematized Scalable AI-readable and AI-leveraged Governed with clarity and intent We are looking for a Principal Designer to lead this transformation. This is a craft-first leadership role, not a pure manager, not a pure strategist. You will define and elevate the quality bar across the Real Estate vertical, shaping everything from interaction patterns to system architecture, while ensuring our design foundations are structured for the future (including AI-driven creation, automation, and consistency at scale). What you’ll do Lead Craft & Quality Across the Vertical Set and uphold a high bar for interaction, UX, and visual design quality across all Real Estate experiences. Identify gaps in experience consistency and drive alignment across teams. Turn strong design instincts into explicit, repeatable standards. Own Design Systems & Governance for Real Estate Define how the design system is applied, extended, and governed within the vertical. Establish clear guidelines, principles, and usage patterns to reduce fragmentation. Partner with design systems teams to ensure coherence across OLX while enabling vertical-specific needs. Drive AI-Ready Design Foundations Lead the evolution of design systems and patterns into structured, machine-readable formats. Ensure components, patterns, and flows are designed for AI-assisted creation and scalability. Explore how AI can: Generate and validate UI patterns, improve consistency and quality enforcement and accelerate design and build workflows Be a Hands-On Craft Leader Design and prototype critical flows and interactions yourself. Push for excellence in the last 20% of execution, where quality truly differentiates. Bring clarity to complex problems through strong design thinking and making. Influence Strategy Through Design Shape product direction through design-led thinking, not just execution. Partner with Product and Engineering leaders to define what great looks like. Use design to connect user needs, business goals, and technical possibilities. Mentor and Elevate the Team Act as a craft leader across designers, not just within a single team. Provide feedback, coaching, and guidance to raise the overall quality bar. Create a culture of taste, detail, and continuous improvement. What we’re looking for Experience & Craft 10+ years in product design, with experience operating at Staff or Principal level. Proven track record of shipping high-quality, complex digital products. Strong expertise across: UX and interaction design, visual design and systems thinking and End-to-end product experiences Systems Thinking & Governance Deep experience with design systems and scalable design frameworks. Ability to define standards, guidelines, and governance models that teams actually adopt. Experience reducing fragmentation and increasing consistency across multiple teams. AI & Technical Fluency Understanding of AI/ML product design patterns, including prompt design, conversational UX, agentic workflows, human-in-the-loop patterns, progressive disclosure, and trust calibration. Comfort with technical AI concepts and the ability to collaborate closely with ML engineers and AI researchers on interaction models, edge cases, error states, and confidence thresholds. Active use of AI tools in your own workflow, across prototyping, research synthesis, design exploration, or code-assisted design. AI & Future-Facing Design Strong interest or experience in AI-driven product experiences or workflows. Understanding of how design systems evolve into structured data, tokenized systems, and machine-readable patterns. Comfortable experimenting with AI tools in design and prototyping. Execution & Ownership A builder mindset - you design, prototype, and refine, not just direct. High attention to detail and strong design taste. Ability to operate with autonomy in ambiguous environments. Leadership & Influence Outstanding communicator and facilitator who can bring people together and align teams through clear, compelling design narratives. Experienced in mentoring and growing designers - enabling them to deliver high-quality work and progress in their careers. Comfortable navigating ambiguity at speed, driving clarity from complexity, and balancing user needs with business goals. Strong cross-functional collaborator - building trust with Product, Engineering, Data Science, and business stakeholders to deliver coherent, impactful experiences. What success looks like The Real Estate experience feels cohesive, high-quality, and intentional across all touchpoints. Design decisions are guided by clear systems and principles, not ad hoc choices. Teams move faster because they rely on well-defined patterns and guidelines. The design system evolves into a scalable, AI-ready foundation. Craft quality is visibly higher - and consistently so. Who this role is not for You prefer managing teams over designing and crafting experiences. You focus primarily on strategy without driving execution quality. You are uncomfortable with ambiguity or undefined problem spaces. You don’t enjoy working deeply on systems, patterns, and details. Location details This role can be based in the following locations: Spain (remote or Barcelona), Portugal (remote or Lisbon), the Netherlands (remote or Amsterdam). Please note that OLX does not offer relocation support for this position. We will only consider candidates who are currently based in one of the listed locations. However, if you already have the right to work in one of these countries, we’re happy to support you with any local visa transfer process. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion at OLX OLX values diversity and welcomes applicants of all races, ethnicities, disabilities, ages, genders, sexual orientations, religions, backgrounds, and experiences to apply. If this role excites you, we encourage you to apply, even if you don’t meet all the requirements - you may be just the right fit for this or other opportunities with us!   OLX will process your personal data to assess your fit for the applied position. You may optionally consent to store your data for up to 12 months after the application process for consideration in future OLX roles. For more details on how your application data will be processed please check our Privacy Statement.