Lead Product Designer

At Rome2Rio, our mission is simple: help travellers get from A to any B. We make it easy to compare flights, trains, buses, ferries, and driving routes - providing everything users need to discover, plan, and book their journey. Behind the scenes, we tackle complex routing challenges, process massive datasets, and optimise search performance to deliver fast, reliable results.

The Lead Product Designer plays a critical role in the Consumer Product team, accountable for both hands-on product design and the strategic development of Rome2Rio's internal design practice. This role is responsible for delivering high-quality, user-focused design work while fostering a culture of excellence, ownership, and continuous improvement.

The Lead Designer will guide a small but high-performing design team and partner closely with Product and Engineering counterparts to ensure Rome2Rio's travel planning products are intuitive, consistent, and valuable to users. The role includes ownership of our design system, implementation of team rituals and feedback practices, and the introduction of scalable processes that support both the team's craft and delivery.

This is a hybrid role requiring equal comfort with execution and leadership. The successful candidate will demonstrate a strong sense of care—for design quality, user outcomes, and team growth.

What you'll do

- Own and evolve Rome2Rio's internal design system, ensuring it grows to meet future needs without slowing down current delivery.

- Partner with Engineering to maintain reusable components and documentation that support fast, consistent, and scalable design.
- Define and uphold design quality standards, helping the team understand what "great" looks like across execution and craft.
- Design and deliver end-to-end consumer-facing features across web and mobile with a focus on usability, clarity, and consistency.
- Translate product requirements into high-quality design outputs—flows, wireframes, prototypes, and detailed specs.
- Drive adoption of shared design practices such as critiques, iteration cycles, and validation processes.
- Collaborate closely with Product Managers, Engineers, and Analysts to shape direction, prioritise work, and align on goals.
- Identify and address gaps in tools, processes, or documentation to help the design team work more effectively at scale.
- Lead and support a small team of designers, fostering a culture of curiosity, growth, and accountability through coaching and feedback.

What We're Looking For

- 6+ years of experience in product design, including at least 1–2 years in a lead or mentoring role.
- Strong portfolio of consumer-facing digital products, with a track record of shipping high-quality, data-informed design work.
- Proven experience building and maintaining design systems in cross-functional teams.
- Skilled in interaction design, visual design, UX principles, and accessibility best practices.
- Experience leading design rituals such as critiques, workshops, and iteration sessions.
- Comfortable working in agile teams, with a strong understanding of experimentation frameworks and scaling design operations.

Nice-to-haves:

- Experience working in travel, transport, or geospatial/mapping-related products.
- Familiarity with multilingual or internationalised product design.
- Basic front-end knowledge (HTML/CSS) or experience working closely with front-end engineers.
- Interest in exploring how AI can meaningfully improve product design, elevate user experience, or streamline workflows (e.g. prototyping, content generation, or personalised interfaces).

Why Join Us?

Innovate & Impact: Work on a product that millions of travellers rely on.
Inclusive & Supportive Team: We welcome all backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences.
Career Growth: Develop your skills with mentorship, knowledge-sharing, and leadership opportunities.
Flexible Work: Hybrid setup with a great work-life balance.
Explore Fund: Travel perks to help you experience the journeys you help create

At Rome2Rio, we don't expect candidates to tick every box—if you're passionate about what we do and excited about the role, we encourage you to apply

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