Principal Product Designer - Strategic Discovery

THE ROLE & THE TEAM

We are seeking a highly skilled Principal Product Designer (Strategic Specialist) who excels at the front end of innovation: product discovery, research strategy, and complex problem framing. Within Partner Tech in Berlin, you will navigate ambiguity, lead strategic product discoveries, and apply systemic design thinking to inspire and align cross-functional teams.  

In this role, your title is Product Designer, but your superpower is an advanced mastery of qualitative and quantitative user research. You will sit squarely in the Discovery phase of our product lifecycle, operating as a vital bridge between User Research, Product Management, and Design Strategy. Crucially, you don’t just deliver research reports, you translate insights into structural user experience concepts, interaction models, and tangible product experiences. Partner with senior Product Management to co-create strategic prioritization frameworks, ensuring qualitative user benchmarks directly influence the long-term product roadmap. Together with our cross-functional team, you will discover, build, and synthesize insights to unlock commercial growth and operational efficiency for Zalando’s partners. 

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: https://jobs.zalando.com/en/our-culture/diversity-and-inclusion

WHAT WE’D LOVE YOU TO DO (AND LOVE DOING)

• Advanced Multi-Method Research: Proven expert in selecting, combining, and deploying a wide spectrum of qualitative and quantitative methodologies.

• Conceptual Design & Experience Modelling: Strong capability in transforming abstract customer insights into tangible concept models, low-to-mid fidelity user flows, structural wireframes, and cohesive service blueprints.

• Strategic Synthesis & Information Architecture: Ability to transform disparate, unstructured data sets into cohesive customer/partner archetypes, user segmentations, and holistic journey maps.

• CX Visioning & Strategy Alignment: Track record of translating abstract data into tangible, actionable experience visions that inform and shape short-term, mid-term and long-term product strategies that connect to business ambitions.

• B2B / Complex System Problem Solving: Experience navigating deeply complex enterprise architectures, technical constraints, and multi-stakeholder landscapes.

• Expert Facilitation & Enablement (should): Highly skilled at running large workshops with complex group dynamics, driving cross-functional alignment, and upskilling product teams in discovery practices

WE’D LOVE TO MEET YOU IF

• You define and run cohesive research and discovery strategies across the product development lifecycle, guiding Product Managers and designers through ambiguous problem spaces to confidently assess whether a problem is worth solving.

• You materialize product strategy and shape concepts hands-on, leveraging methods like customer journey mapping, JTBD, structural documentation, and design direction to bring the overarching CX vision to life.

• You discover intangible partner attitudes, behaviors, and core motivations through rigorous field research, ensuring deep customer understanding is embedded at an organizational level.

• You translate complex insights into compelling narratives, storyboards, and qualitative benchmarks that secure executive buy-in and inspire teams to put significant resources behind your solutions.

• You enable a product-led organization to mature by actively modeling user-centered design practices, defining research principles, and spearheading research operations initiatives.

• You partner with senior Product Management to co-create strategic prioritization frameworks, ensuring qualitative user benchmarks directly influence the long-term product roadmap.

• You translate customer insights not just into structural concepts, but into explicit business cases that connect user pain points to core commercial metrics (e.g. like retention, acquisition, or operational efficiency).

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

• 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