Head of Product Design, OLX Group
Design Foundations
Global online marketplace aggregator
Be an early applicant
Global online marketplace aggregator
1001+ employees
Be an early applicant
1001+ employees
Company mission
To shape the future of trade to unlock the hidden value in everything.
Role
Who you are
- Proven experience in design leadership with a focus on systems thinking, scalability, and platform design
- Deep understanding of multi-platform design systems and emerging design technologies, ideally with exposure to GenAI
- Strong operational and strategic skills, able to balance long-term vision with short-term delivery
- Ability to influence and align stakeholders across product, engineering, and business
- Excellent mentorship and leadership skills, with a passion for growing talent and driving impact
- Experience working in a platform or enabling-function capacity is a plus
What the job involves
- We’re looking for an experienced, visionary, and strategic Head of Design to lead our Design Foundations team being responsible for both our multi-brand Design System and our GenAI Design team
- This team plays a critical role in challenging design thinking and driving innovation to better serve our customers. In this crucial role, you’ll collaborate closely with cross-functional leadership to ensure design is enabling product teams across OLX to move faster and deliver high-quality, scalable experiences
- As Head of Product Design, Design Foundations, you’ll translate company-wide experience goals into foundational strategies, design principles, and systems that empower all product teams
- You’ll ensure consistency, efficiency, and scalability through key focus areas such as UI components (Nexus Team), AI integration best practices, content localisation, accessibility, and operational design efficiency
- You’ll lead two core areas, our platform-wide, multi-brand Design System and our emerging Generative AI design capabilities, ensuring they are tightly aligned with OLX’s broader product and business strategy. Your leadership will accelerate innovation, enhance consistency, and bring modern, future-facing design tools and approaches to life
- Define and lead the long-term vision and strategy for Design Foundations across OLX
- Champion a system-based approach to design that scales across platforms and teams
- Shape how GenAI augments design and product development workflows, from creation to execution
- Ensure our design system is deeply integrated into product development, enabling efficiency, consistency, and accessibility
- Collaborate with engineering, brand, design, and product leadership to ensure our foundations support diverse product needs and technical requirements
- Define and evolve processes and governance models to ensure consistent application, contribution, and adoption of our Design System across our categories
- Guide the team exploring how GenAI can unlock new value for users and internal teams
- Serve as a strategic partner to product and engineering leaders, advocating for the role of design systems and foundational tools as multipliers of quality and speed
- Ensure Design Foundations has the visibility, resources, and influence needed to support the company’s experience goals
- Drive alignment through clear governance structures that define ownership, contribution models, and decision-making processes across teams
- Set and uphold high standards of design quality, accessibility, and usability across system components and AI-powered experiences
- Ensure Design Foundations outputs are extensible, documented, and adopted widely across teams
- Establish scalable review and feedback loops to maintain quality and alignment across product teams
- Oversee day-to-day operations across the Design System and GenAI design teams, including roadmapping, team structure, hiring, and delivery
- Align priorities with platform and product teams to maximize impact and value delivery
- Implement clear processes and rituals to ensure cross-functional collaboration and operational efficiency
- Foster a strong partnership with engineering and product counterparts in the Platform team
- Mentor and grow a high-performing team of Design Leads, Product Designers, and Researchers
- Invest in career development, craft excellence, and leadership growth across the team
- Build and sustain a collaborative, inclusive design culture centered on learning, experimentation, and impact
Our take
OLX group started as an alternative to Craigslist outside the US and has since ridden the wave of classifieds, e-commerce and marketplaces to become one the most prominent web platforms in the world.
Over 300 million people use an OLX group website every month. The company has managed to reach this level primarily through the acquisition and integration of emerging marketplaces that typically delight customers with their easy-use and quality range.
The company is now deepening its M&A strategy by integrating further marketplaces and inventories on behalf of its largest platforms, like OLX Autos. The business has already done $1B of revenue since operation.
While some brands have been flying high, others like the Russian-based Avito have become liabilities. Navigating these fluctuations in the fortunes of its ever growing portfolio of brands will continue to pose the biggest challenge for the group.
Steph
Company Specialist at Welcome to the Jungle
Insights
Company
Funding (last 2 of 3 rounds)
May 2009
$5m
SERIES C
Apr 2008
$13.5m
SERIES B
Total funding: $28.5m
Company HQ
Zuidas, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Leadership
Christian Gisy
(CEO, not founder)Previously Non-Exec Director at Takko Fashion, Chairman and Non-Exec Director at atHomeGroup and was Co-Founder at playSports GmbH.
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