Have you shipped enough real products to know which design decisions actually matter and which are just a matter of taste?
Do you get satisfaction from building a design system that other people can use without asking you questions?
Can you sit in a client call, hear a half-formed request, and leave with a clear problem statement everyone agrees on?
Do you enjoy making other designers better — reviewing their work, unblocking them, raising the bar without taking over the file?
Are you comfortable defending a design decision to an engineer, a founder, and a user in three different ways?
If you're nodding along, keep reading.
Commutatus is a digital product studio trusted by startups, corporates, and social organisations worldwide. We build platforms with speed, structure, and strategy. We work with diverse organisations, including AIESEC (https://aiesec.org/), Rajasthan Royals (https://www.rajasthanroyals.com/), Gehna India (https://www.gehnaindia.com/), Toyota Connected India (https://www.toyotaconnected.co.in/), Hispanic Star by We Are All Human (https://www.hispanicstar.org/), Tech to the Rescue (http://techtotherescue.org) and others (https://www.commutatus.com/clients). Catalyst, our own product-building framework, allows us to build and deploy products in days, rather than weeks or months. At the heart of it are our components, pre-designed & developed, that are used and updated as we add more projects into our repertoire.
We're looking for a Senior UI/UX Designer to own the design end-to-end for our most complex engagements, setting the direction, building the systems that maintain consistent quality, and mentoring the designers coming up behind you.
This is a senior individual contributor role with real leadership scope. You'll be the design lead on your projects and the person 2–3 junior and mid-level designers look to for guidance. You won't be managing headcount or writing performance reviews; you'll be raising the standard of the work.
At a product level
- Own design end-to-end on multiple concurrent projects — discovery through handoff and post-launch iteration
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Translate ambiguous business goals into a design strategy, then into flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity screens
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Build and maintain design systems that scale across products and teams — tokens, components, documentation, governance
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Set and defend design direction with clear reasoning, not just strong opinions
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Design for the full state space: edge cases, error states, empty states, loading, permissions, offline
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Plan responsive and adaptive behaviour across breakpoints and platforms from the start
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Run lightweight research and usability testing, and turn findings into concrete design changes
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Define what "good" looks like for a project and hold the work to it through review
At a leadership level
- Mentor 2–3 junior and mid-level designers — review their work, unblock them, and help them grow deliberately
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Run design critiques that are useful, specific, and safe to be wrong in
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Set and document design standards, file conventions, and handoff expectations for the team
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Lead client-facing design conversations: present work, absorb feedback, and steer scope without losing the user
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Partner with PMs and engineering leads on scoping, feasibility, and sequencing
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Make the call when there isn't consensus, and explain the reasoning afterwards
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Give feedback directly and receive it without defensiveness
At a craft level
- Advanced Figma — variables, component APIs, complex auto layout, interactive prototypes, branching, library publishing
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Keep files clean enough that someone else can pick them up cold
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Produce specs and annotations that engineers can build from without a follow-up meeting
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Stay current on how well-built products actually solve problems, and bring that back to the team
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Share what you learn: — writeups, teardowns, internal sessions
- Strong portfolio of shipped products, with clear articulation of your role, the constraints, and the outcomes
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Demonstrated ownership of a design system — not just using one, but building, documenting, and maintaining it
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Excellent written and verbal communication; you can make a design argument in writing
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Sharp visual craft: — layout, typography, colour, hierarchy, spacing, motion
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Ability to break down vague, contested problems into clear flows and sequenced decisions
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Comfort working directly with clients and senior stakeholders
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Fluency with engineering constraints — you know what's expensive to build and why
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Experience mentoring or leading other designers
Bonus points
- Experience designing for multiple industries or in an agency/studio setting
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Motion design, micro-interactions, or prototyping in code
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Familiarity with no-code tools like Webflow, Framer, or Squarespace
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Ability to leverage AI tools effectively within the design process
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Experience defining and tracking design metrics
- Real ownership — you set the direction, not just execute someone else's
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A front-row seat to product building across multiple industries
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Collaborative teams that value clarity and craft
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Trust-based culture with genuine autonomy
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Room to shape how design works here, not just how it looks
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Supportive, friendly team
- 3+ years of UI/UX design experience, with at least 1 year at a senior level
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A portfolio demonstrating end-to-end product work and clear design thinking
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Evidence of design system ownership
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Experience mentoring or guiding other designers
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Comfort working in a fast-paced, structured, client-facing environment
