Design Lead

Reports to: Product Manager | Location: Hybrid (Ghent, Belgium) | Employment type: Payroll

Optimile is a leading software company specializing in digital solutions for the electric vehicle (EV) charging industry. Our innovative platforms empower Charging Point Operators (CPOs) and Mobility Service Providers (MSPs) to deliver seamless and efficient EV charging experiences.

As we continue to scale, we are looking for a Design Lead. At Optimile, design covers the full product experience across both web and mobile applications, from understanding user needs and mapping journeys to interaction design and polished UI, always with the goal of building software that is powerful, intuitive and easy to use.

Your role

As Design Lead, you will become Optimile's design authority. You will lead the evolution of design as a discipline across the organisation.

Key responsibilities

• Grow the design practice: you will coach fellow designer(s) & introduce better processes. You are a multiplier: your thinking and ways of working elevate everyone around you.
• Drive the full design process: from early discovery, user journey mapping and MVP scoping through low-fidelity sketches and flows to high-fidelity prototypes and development handoff.
• Take responsibility for Optimile's design system ensuring UI consistency and design-to-development efficiency across all applications. 
• Own design quality across multiple squads: You ensure our products evolve in line with modern UX standards, accessibility requirements and industry regulations. You act as the Voice of the User.
• You set up and improve how we are doing user research: user adoption, feedback and utilization metrics to continuously iterate and improve. 
• Bring AI into the design workflow: you actively use AI tools to move faster and explore more options and you help fellow designer(s) adopt practices that make the whole team more effective. 
• Be part of several squads: you actively take up the designer role in 2-3 squads on a day to day basis.

What we are looking for

• Experienced in setting up a UX/UI approach in a SaaS scale-up.
• Decisive: you form opinions based on rational thinking, communicate them clearly and lead the way forward.
• A process thinker: who sees beyond individual deliverables and wants to improve how design works as a whole.
• Comfortable in both worlds: equally fluent talking to end-users about their frustrations and discussing system architecture or API constraints with engineers.
• A people-oriented leader who can guide a team and contribute meaningfully to discussions with Product Owners and Tech Leads, rather than simply taking direction from them.
• Hands-on and strategic with a critical eye for pixel perfect, UI, consistency and opportunities to improve the experience. You can zoom out to set direction and zoom in the details when it matters.

Why join Optimile

• Work on robust solutions that are shaping the future of e-mobility. 
• Join a passionate, cross-functional team in a fast-growing tech scale-up. 
• Enjoy flexibility with a hybrid work setup and a modern office in Ghent. 
• Make a direct impact on how users experience EV charging. You help define the convenience, simplicity and usability of charging sessions, shaping digital products that thousands of drivers and businesses rely on every day.

Ready to drive innovation in the EV charging space? Apply now and help us build the future of e-mobility.