UX/UI Designer (12 month contract)

Token Tamer Wanted: You’re not just comfortable using design systems. You know how to rebuild them. You understand how a single component decision can ripple across dozens of pages, multiple brands, future launches, and developer workflows. You’ve worked with tokens, variables, component properties, variants, libraries, and documentation — and you know the difference between a tidy Figma file and a system that can actually scale.

In this 12-month contract, you’ll help restructure our existing single-brand design system into a scalable multi-brand architecture. That means separating shared platform foundations from brand-specific expression, building a net-new brand library, refactoring components, and supporting the prototype of a new e-commerce experience using the system you’ve helped create.

If that sounds like the kind of challenge you love, you might have what it takes to be our new UX/UI Designer.

What You Bring to the Table…

A portfolio that proves you can build systems, not just screens:
When we look at your work, we’ll see more than polished pages. We’ll see structured components, thoughtful patterns, scalable libraries, and design decisions that make life easier for everyone who uses the system after you. And your portfolio shows that you understand how tokens, variables, components, documentation, and governance all work together. Beautiful screens are great. But for this role, we need to see the architecture behind them.

A serious design systems mindset:
You don’t just use design systems. You think in systems. Core foundations. Brand libraries. Experience libraries. Primitive tokens. Semantic tokens. Component-level decisions. Naming conventions. Library relationships. Governance. Versioning. This is the stuff that makes your brain light up. You understand how to separate what should be shared from what should stay brand-specific. You can spot unnecessary duplication, messy component logic, and brittle structures before they become expensive problems.

Advanced Figma instincts:
Figma is deep in your muscle memory. You’re highly comfortable with components, variants, component properties, nested instances, auto-layout, variables, tokens, and responsive behaviour. You know how to structure files so other designers can find what they need, understand how things work, and contribute without creating chaos. And when you create something, it is clean, logical, documented, and built to be used.

Strong component architecture skills:
You know the difference between a component that looks good once and a component that holds up across brands, states, edge cases, and real-world use. You think carefully about variants, properties, states, flexibility, and maintainability. You know when to standardize and when to allow variation. You understand how one overcomplicated component can slow a team down — and how one underbuilt component can create a mess six months later.

Token and variable experience:
You’ve built or worked deeply with token architecture using Figma variables. You understand primitive, semantic, and component-level tokens. You know how color, typography, spacing, radius, elevation, and other foundations need to be structured so multiple brands can operate from one shared platform without everything becoming a tangled mess.

For this role, this is not a nice-to-have. It matters.

Experience refactoring existing systems:
You don’t need a perfectly blank canvas to do great work.You can audit an existing component ecosystem, classify what belongs where, separate brand-specific assets from shared foundations, and migrate work without introducing a trail of inconsistencies behind you.

Design fundamentals you can feel:
Typography, hierarchy, alignment, spacing, layout, visual balance — this is second nature to you. You care about polish. You care about consistency. You care about the small details that make a system feel professional instead of patched together.

An understanding of e-commerce:
You understand the basic building blocks of e-commerce experiences: product pages, offers, promotions, bundles, pricing hierarchy, content modules, CTAs, comparison sections, and purchase paths. You don’t need to be a conversion copywriter or a CRO strategist. But you do need to understand that the system you build will be used by teams creating real customer-facing commerce experiences — not theoretical design exercises.

Front-end awareness:
You do not need to be a full-time developer. But you do need to understand how front-end code works well enough to collaborate intelligently with developers. You’re comfortable with HTML and CSS. You can reason about component-based frameworks like React. You understand why certain design decisions are easy to implement, why others create headaches, and why handoff details matter.

If you’ve worked with Storybook, Chromatic, or a similar component/UI-kit environment, even better.

Clear documentation and handoff habits:
You do not leave people guessing. Your component specs are clear. Your usage guidelines are practical. And your files are organized. In your soul you believe that designers should not need a treasure map to understand the system.

A collaborative, low-ego operator:
You’ll work closely with UX, Design, Development, E-commerce, and brand stakeholders. So yes, you need strong technical design systems skills. But you also need to be easy to work with. You ask good questions. You explain your thinking clearly. You take feedback without defensiveness. You can defend a system decision when it matters, but you do not turn every discussion into a courtroom drama.

Now, time to be honest: is this really you?

If you’re nodding your head and feeling that flutter of excitement, then we can’t wait to meet you.

But let’s be clear…

This is not a junior role.
This is not a “make some nice landing pages” role.
And this is not a job for someone who has only used a design system from the outside.

We’re looking for someone who has been inside the machinery. Someone who understands how systems are structured, where they break, how they scale, and how to rebuild them without creating chaos for the teams who depend on them.

If that sounds like you, keep reading.

Other Qualities You’ll Need

We’re going to insist that you have these 3 qualities:

You’re humble--you put the team and others’ needs ahead of your own

You’re hungry to learn more

You’re people smart--in the sense that you’re a great teammate

The truth is, if you don’t have these qualities you won’t last long with us. So if you’re missing one of them, be honest. Save yourself a lot of headaches and skip to a job posting that is a better fit for you.

What Will You Earn?

We believe in rewarding top talent. So let’s talk about salary once we’ve had the chance to get to know you better. Rest assured, we’re generous and offer above-market pay for the right person. If you bring the skills and experience, we’ll make sure the compensation reflects that.

You’ll also enjoy the following benefits:

A generous healthcare package

Monthly team events and activities

Flexible Stat Holidays with the option to bank days for later use

And above all, you’ll join a team that you’ll never want to leave. Culture is everything to us. Yes, we work extremely hard to change as many people’s lives as possible. But we know how to have fun and reward ourselves too.

How to apply

So, do you have what it takes to become the next member of team AlgaeCal?

Job opportunities like this don’t come along often, and we’ve got a lot to offer our successful applicants. So, to make sure our future UX/UI Designer is the real-deal, will be a great fit, and will thrive at AlgaeCal, we ask a little more than your run-of-the-mill job application:

If this sounds like a position for you, please respond to this advertisement with your resume and cover letter. Please, read carefully:

1. Write a cover letter addressing:

Why you're the best UX/UI Designer for this role. Give quantifiable examples of related achievements.

Describe why you fit perfectly with our values. Read them: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1deCCJZ6tiDiOSlr_W0UdCuM_V_ahzPBs/view

What's the toughest challenge you’ve ever overcome in your life? How did you overcome it?

What are the last three books you’ve read?

What do you do for fun?

2. Explain what you’re doing now for a job:

If you don’t have one, explain why.

If you have one, explain why you’re looking elsewhere.

3. Upload your cover letter and resume:

Ensure that your cover letter and resume are saved and sent as one file.

Yes, our hiring process is challenging, but it’s our way of selecting the best--and your way of ensuring your AlgaeCal teammates are tops.

Click the “Apply Now” button on this page and upload your cover letter and resume.

***Note: Please include your cover letter WITH your resume in one document.

Applications without a cover letter will not be read! Include the URL link to your personal website / portfolio****

We are looking to hire as soon as we find the right person, so act quickly and you can also expect a prompt response.