Principal Product Designer

Job Description

THE CARWOW GROUP

Carwow Group is driven by a passion for getting people into cars. But not just any car, the right car. That’s why we are building the go-to destination for car-changing. Designed to reach drivers everywhere with our trail-blazing portfolio of personality rich automotive brands; Carwow, Auto Express, evo, Driving Electric and Car Buyer.

What started as a simple reviews site, is now one of the largest online car-changing destinations in Europe - over 10m customers have used Carwow to help them buy and sell cars since its inception. Last year we grew over 50% with nearly £3bn worth of cars bought on site, while £1.8bn of cars were listed for sale through our Sell My Car service.

In 2024 we went big and acquired Autovia, doubling our audience overnight. Together we now have one of the biggest YouTube channels in the world with over 1.1 billion annual views, sell 1.2 million print copies of our magazines and have an annual web content reach over 350million.

WHY JOIN US?

We are winners of the prestigious Culture 100 award that recognises the most loved and happiest tech companies to work for! We have just raised $52m in funding led by global venture capital firm Bessemer Venture Partners (an early backer of LinkedIn and Shopify) to accelerate our growth plans!

As pioneers, we’re always driving for new territory and positive change, so our work as a group is never done. Where others see difficulty, it’s our responsibility to see possibility – building new experiences, launching new titles and listening to drivers.

Being a part of Carwow Group means championing drivers and the automotive industry, acting as a disrupter and never being afraid to fail (but learning fast when we do!).

Our team of 500 employees across the UK, Germany, Spain and Portugal are revolutionising car-changing and we are fast expanding our mission across every single brand and country we operate in, so jump in!

THE ROLE

Ready for a leadership role that challenges and excites? Carwow is on the lookout for a Principal Product Designer with 10+ years of experience to join our Design Team on a permanent basis. You’ll be working within our product ecosystem, influencing strategy, and guiding the design direction across our UK, Germany, and Spain markets. This is your chance to make a significant impact on an international scale.

The Design team’s Mission is to make changing cars a seamless, thrilling, and surprising experience.

Our Design Principles are:

Bold: Surpass the ordinary with exceptional design. By pushing boundaries, we set standards and inspire greatness.

Simple: Create clarity through design. Distill a solution down to its essence.

Human: Deeply understand our users' needs and craft experiences that fulfill them.

Refined: Craft work you’re proud of and obsess over the detail.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Strategic Design Leadership: Lead the design vision across multiple domains, influencing product strategy and ensuring cohesive user experiences.
• Mentorship & Growth: Mentor and coach Senior to Lead Designers, providing guidance on complex design challenges and fostering professional growth.
• Cross-Functional Influence: Shape the approach, strategy, and processes of cross-functional teams, building strong relationships with product and commercial partners.
• Product Vision & Evolution: Collaborate with Design & Product Leadership to refine and communicate the long-term product vision, ensuring alignment with business goals.
• Advanced Problem-Solving: Tackle complex interaction problems with elegant, innovative solutions, raising the design bar with modern, beautiful experiences.
• System Thinking: Anticipate and address potential service and product design challenges, maintaining healthy and scalable systems.
• Effective Communication: Present high-complexity work to Product Leadership, Exec team members, and occasionally the CEO, using storytelling to convey a passion for great design.
• Collaboration & Feedback: Provide balanced, constructive feedback, actively share insights, and resolve conflicts to turn challenges into opportunities for growth.
• Hiring & Onboarding: Participate in hiring and onboarding processes, supporting team structure and hiring strategy to bring in top talent.

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

Please note: We know that no candidate will be the perfect match for all we've listed in this posting, so we’d encourage you to apply if you feel you're close to the brief but not an exact match. Ideally you’ll have

• Proven Expertise: A track record of delivering exceptional user experiences and interfaces, showcasing high-level design craftsmanship and innovation.
• Mastery of Tools: Advanced proficiency in Figma with the ability to leverage it for complex design challenges.
• Leadership in Communication: Strong communication skills with the ability to lead discussions, articulate complex design concepts, and align cross-functional teams towards a common vision.
• Strategic Problem-Solving: Experience in identifying and solving complex problems with creative and effective solutions that drive product success.
• Collaborative Leadership: A history of leading and inspiring cross-functional teams, fostering a collaborative environment, and driving projects to successful outcomes.
• Mentorship & Feedback Integration: Skilled in providing and integrating feedback constructively, with a focus on mentoring team members and elevating design standards.
• Big-Picture Thinking: Ability to think broadly to improve products and systems, building a visionary perspective that enhances the product and design principles.
• Efficiency in Processes: Experience in defining design and collaboration processes to make the Design Team more efficient and impactful.

Join Carwow and take the lead in driving innovation and growth in our next chapter. Empower your team, refine our design principles, and shape the future of automotive experiences on an international stage.

INTERVIEW PROCESS

Step 1: Talent Screen

Step 2: Hiring Manager Interview

Step 3: Case Study Part 1

Step 4: Case Study Part 2

WHAT'S IN IT FOR YOU

• Hybrid working that works around you
• Competitive salary to fund that dream holiday to Bali
• Matched pension contributions for a peaceful retirement
• Share options - when we thrive, so do you!
• Vitality Private Healthcare, for peace of mind, plus eyecare vouchers
• Life Assurance for (even more) peace of mind
• Monthly coaching sessions with Spill - our mental wellbeing partner
• Enhanced holiday package, plus bank holidays
• 28 days annual leave
• 1 day for your wedding
• 1 day off when you move house - because moving’s hard enough without work!
• On your third year anniversary, you get 30 days of annual leave per year
• On your tenth year anniversary, you get 35 days of annual leave per year
• Option to buy 3 extra days of holiday per year
• Work from abroad for a month (due to popular demand, this offer excludes the moon).
• Inclusive parental, partner and shared parental leave, fertility treatment and pregnancy loss policies
• Bubble childcare support and discounted nanny fees for the little ones
• The latest tech (Macbook or Surface) to power your gif-sending talents
• Up to £500/€550 home office allowance for that massage chair you’ve been talking about
• A generous learning and development budget to help you master your craft
• Regular social events:, tech lunches, coffee with the exec sessions, book clubs, social events/anything else you pester us for
• Refer a friend, get paid. Repeat for infinite money
• Lunch & learns and Carwow Classrooms with expert speakers who are here for a free lunch

Diversity and inclusion is an integral part of our culture. We know that diverse teams are strong teams, so we welcome those with alternative identities, backgrounds, and experiences to apply for this position. We make recruiting decisions based on experience, skills and potential, so all our applicants are treated fairly and equally.