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

Zalando is Europe’s leading online platform for fashion and lifestyle, connecting over 60 million active customers with brands and partners across 25 markets. Our aspiration is simple yet massive: to help people feel confident and have fun with their personal style, building a sustainable ecosystem that is truly inclusive by design. Imagine a collaborative powerhouse of 200+ world-class product designers who actively help each other grow. That’s Product Design at Zalando. We are a thriving community dedicated to sharpening our craft, swapping insights, and pushing the boundaries of what's possible with AI. Based in Berlin, our Loyalty Design Team is rewriting the rules of customer retention. Through our Plus program, we create customer-centric loyalty experiences where users unlock exclusive benefits by shopping on Zalando and completing app missions. As a Product Designer on this team, you will play a critical role in transforming transaction milestones into moments of delight, ensuring our members feel valued at every single touchpoint of their journey. THE ROLE & THE TEAM We are seeking a highly skilled Principal Product Designer - this is a leadership position with individual contributor scope. You oversee the overall Plus experience, realise your own projects throughout problem definition, solution design and execution, and also mentor 2 other designers in the team. You are passionate about designing and delivering customer-centric solutions that delight customers and are aligned with business strategy. You have a keen eye for detail, visual design trends, and an appreciation for how art direction, illustration or motion design can elevate the overall experience. You have experience with a/b testing and Product Analytics. While strong foundational UX/UI skills are a must, experience with design experiments, concept design methods, and conducting user research will help you succeed. Collaboration and communication are at the heart of this role, as you’ll partner with principal product managers, engineers, commercial stakeholders and other designers to grow our loyalty program into a delightful and attractive experience. As a customer-focused design role model, you will contribute to the Zalando Product Design community and the larger European design industry by sharing best practices, mentoring and teaching colleagues, crafting best-in-class solutions, bar-raising in design reviews, and sparking inspiring conversations. This is a temporary limited contract to cover a parental leave of absence. INCLUSIVE BY DESIGN If you think you have what it takes, we encourage you to apply even if you don't meet every single requirement. You may just be the right candidate for this or other roles! At Zalando, our vision is to be the leading pan-European ecosystem for fashion and lifestyle e-commerce – one that thrives on diversity and is truly inclusive by design. We believe that diverse teams fuel innovation and creativity, and we actively seek out talent from all backgrounds. We actively seek to reduce bias in our hiring and employment processes, focusing on your qualifications, skills, and contributions. To support this, we kindly ask that you refrain from including personal details such as your photo, age, or marital status in your CV, ensuring a fair and equitable evaluation based solely on your abilities and potential. We are committed to providing an exceptional and accessible candidate experience for everyone. If you require any accommodations to support you throughout the hiring process, please let us know – we are here to assist you. Discover more about our commitment to creating a diverse and inclusive workplace: WE'D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF You're a Master of Product Craft: You have a proven track record of architecting visually rich, customer-facing digital products. You don't just follow a style guide - you are entirely comfortable owning and evolving the visual language of a major product from high-level concept to flawless execution. You Have a Refined Aesthetic Lens: Your superpower is visual storytelling. You possess an elite aesthetic sensibility and a deep understanding of hierarchy, typography, colour, and layout, allowing you to elevate digital experiences from functional to unforgettable. You Bridge Brand and Product: You thrive at the intersection of brand identity and product utility. You know how to translate a brand’s emotional DNA into a living, breathing design system that drives user goals and business outcomes. You're Systemic Yet Creative: You are deeply hands-on with advanced prototyping and design systems. You know the rules - and more importantly, you know exactly when to break them to craft delightful, memorable micro-moments. You're an Influential Communicator: You thrive in highly collaborative ecosystems. You communicate your design rationale with clarity and confidence, effortlessly aligning engineers, product managers, and executive stakeholders around a shared vision. You're Driven by Experimentation: You bring a rigorous growth mindset. You’re excited to validate bold, innovative ideas through rapid prototyping, user data, and continuous experimentation. You Design for Everyone: You are an unwavering advocate for accessibility and inclusive design, ensuring that every experience you touch is intuitive, equitable, and welcoming to all. You Elevate the Room: You are a natural mentor. You naturally raise the quality bar for the designers around you by providing constructive, thoughtful feedback and generously sharing your expertise to help others scale their own craft. WHAT WE’D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING) Define the North Star Vision: Shape the strategic UX and visual direction for Zalando’s loyalty ecosystem. You’ll translate complex business goals and shifting customer behaviours into a high-level design vision that guides product roadmaps. Drive Cross-Functional Alignment: Act as a core strategic partner to Product, Engineering, and Brand leadership. You’ll bridge the gap between business strategy and emotional customer experiences, ensuring the loyalty program drives deep, long-term engagement. Master Complex Systems & Gamification: Own the conceptual ambition of our Plus program. You’ll design sophisticated, gamified systems (like missions and levelling tiers) that feel intuitive, elegant, and seamlessly integrated across the entire Zalando journey. Scale the Craft: Champion the evolution of Zalando’s design system. You won't just use patterns—you’ll define new visual principles, motion frameworks, and interaction standards that raise the quality bar for teams across the company. Innovate & Experiment: Spearhead discovery-led exploration. You’ll facilitate design sprints, frame complex problem spaces, and leverage rapid prototyping to test bold, AI-driven, or 0-to-1 concepts before they scale. Elevate the Community: Act as a pillar of Zalando’s 200+ design organisation. You will scale our culture of feedback, mentor senior designers, and inspire the broader team through masterclasses, design critiques, and thought leadership. OUR OFFER Zalando provides a range of benefits, here’s an overview of what you can expect. Ask your Talent Acquisition Partner to learn more about what we offer. 27 days of holiday a year to start for full-time employees (+1 day for every calendar year up to 30 days) 2 paid volunteering days a year Hybrid working model with up to 60% remote per week, actual practice is up to each team to best support their collaboration Work from abroad for up to 30 working days a year Employee shares program 40% off fashion and beauty products sold and shipped by Zalando, 30% off Lounge by Zalando, discounts from external partners Relocation assistance available (subject to prior agreement) Family services, including counseling and support Health and wellbeing options (including Wellhub, formerly Gympass) Mental health support and coaching available Drive your development through our training platform and biannual peer-to-peer review