Principal Product Designer - Loyalty (all genders) - parental leave cover

Role ---- Principal Product Designer (leadership position with individual contributor scope) in Zalando's Loyalty Design Team, based in Berlin. Responsible for overseeing the Plus experience, shaping visual and UX direction, mentoring two designers, and delivering customer‑centric loyalty solutions. Responsibilities ---- - Define the North Star vision and strategic UX/visual direction for the loyalty ecosystem. - Drive cross‑functional alignment with product, engineering, and brand leadership. - Design complex, gamified systems (missions, tiers) that are intuitive and integrated. - Champion and evolve Zalando’s design system, creating new visual principles, motion and interaction standards. - Lead discovery, design sprints and rapid prototyping to experiment with AI‑driven or 0‑to‑1 concepts. - Mentor senior designers, raise the quality bar, and contribute to the broader design community. Qualifications ---- - Proven track record of architecting visually rich, customer‑facing digital products. - Strong UX/UI foundation with experience in A/B testing, product analytics, design experiments, concept design and user research. - Excellent visual storytelling, typography, colour, layout and motion design skills. - Ability to bridge brand identity and product utility, creating cohesive design systems. - Hands‑on with advanced prototyping and design systems; knows when to break rules for delightful micro‑moments. - Influential communicator who aligns engineers, product managers and stakeholders. - Growth mindset focused on experimentation and data‑driven validation. - Advocate for accessibility and inclusive design. - Natural mentor who provides constructive feedback and helps others scale their craft. What We Offer ---- - 27 days holiday (up to 30 days with seniority) plus 2 paid volunteering days. - Employee shares program and 40 % discount on Zalando fashion & beauty products (30 % on Lounge). - Relocation assistance, family services, health & wellbeing options, mental health support. - Training platform, bi‑annual peer‑to‑peer review, and opportunities to develop within a large design community.