Freelance Product Design Lead

About the role

We’re looking for experienced freelance Product Design Leads to help design and build complex tools and platforms.

You’ll champion the user’s voice and confidently map and optimise end-to-end journeys across complex product ecosystems. You’ll bring a strong understanding of user research, with a toolkit of methods and techniques to uncover insights and test design concepts and prototypes.

AI is central to how we work, and you’ll use it throughout the design process, from research and concept development through to shipping production-ready code. You’ll also work closely with client stakeholders, often directly with founders and early-stage teams, so clear communication and the ability to build strong relationships are essential.

As a discipline lead on the project, you’ll work alongside a talented, collaborative team to shape, design and build new products.

Why we’re excited about you

• As a skilled storyteller and proactive communicator, you effectively convey every phase of your design process and tailor your communication to suit different audiences.
• You thrive in a collaborative working style. You’re skilled in facilitating workshops and design reviews with clients and team members and ensure everyone's perspectives are heard and incorporated.
• You enjoy working through ambiguity and are able to adapt and guide your team through any difficult or changing client needs and you build trust by consistently delivering.
• You’ve reshaped how you work around AI, and you can explain where it accelerates the work and where design judgement matters most.

Requirements

• Able to communicate with and understand clients’ business goals, and technical limitations, working within those constraints to unpack the challenge and explore innovative solutions for users and drive value for clients
• Skilled in identifying and prioritizing the right problems to solve and alignments across teams and clients
• Adept in both qualitative and quantitative research methods to fill knowledge gaps, quickly translate insights, unearth opportunities, and translate complex requirements into tangible design artifacts.
• Ability to craft designs that are grounded in user-centric decision making including experience journeys and end-to-end flows.
• Capable of high-level strategic thinking and conceptual exploration across the product ecosystem, while also detail-oriented enough to be able to get into the weeds of the designs and able to guide your team accordingly.
• Skilled in crafting compelling interaction models and design solutions through visual expression, design, and prototyping.
• Experienced in leading design within cross-functional teams and able to distill complex information into actionable steps for the team.
• Fluent in AI-assisted design and development workflows. You can generate code with AI, understand how it fits within the technical stack, and contribute production-ready front-end work.
• A strong product mindset. You can judge what the product needs at each stage (what to build, what to cut, how far to take it), keeping momentum toward the bigger vision.
• Comfortable working at startup pace with a high degree of autonomy. You self-direct, make decisions, and manage your own output without needing close oversight.