Digital Product Designer

About Populate

We are a design and tech consultancy building digital products around civic engagement. We are hiring a designer that will be focused on Decidim and Gobierto Contracts.

Decidim is the citizen participation software created by the Barcelona City Council and used by many institutions all over the world. You’ll participate in the evolution of the platform, creation of a design system, designing new features, solving usability issues… Read about how is working in Decidim (spanish).

Gobierto Contracts is the tool to help public administrations control, plan and research about their contracting activity. Read El por qué de Gobierto Contratación: hacer más eficiente la contratación pública (spanish) about our motivation for building this tool — making public spending more efficient, nothing less!

We value

open: source, data, knowledge
balance: design your work schedule around your life, not the other way round
communication: remote-first approach. Good & orderly written communication > meetings > real time interruptions
quality: pride in process and results
independence and autonomy: responsibility for your own work, not micromanaging

The job

Design web interfaces: desktop, mobile, responsive
Conceptualize solutions and give form to features from client briefings and user needs
Structure complex content, services and tools so it’s easy and delightful to process, understand and use
Have an eye for usable, efficient, fun and smart UIs
Research as part of the design process: analyze data, talk with clients, conduct user interviews, plan usability tests…
Present proposals and ideas to team and clients, gather feedback and iterate
Enjoy explaining your reasoning behind your proposed solutions. Be able to articulate your thoughts with clarity and economy (see examples)

We use Figma and prepare interactive prototypes to showcase our work. You’ll work with front-end engineers who will be implementing your designs (although if you are able to do it it will be a bonus), but it is required you understand HTML, CSS and JS to anticipate the implications of your designs and propose smart design solutions to address technology constraints.

This role is for you if…

(don’t hesitate to talk to us even if you don’t tick all the boxes)

You want to work on meaningful projects around civic engagement, open data, participation and accountability
Are looking for a stable job in a rewarding environment, with mission-driven projects, where you’ll spend your next few years
Value a work environment which strives for excellence, from process to results, from design to code
Prioritize understanding and analyzing problems to come up with effective solutions
You are interested in open data, free software, data visualization
You are fluent in written and spoken English

Bonus tracks: valued, but not required

You can do some front-end coding (HTML/CSS/JS)
Are used to working with Github

Benefits

Remote, mixed or onsite: some of us work regularly in our sunny Madrid office, others are fully remote, others mix. You are free to choose your place of work.
Flexible schedule and hours: You design your work schedule around your life, not the other way round.
Events: We get together a few time a years to work (when COVID allows), share and have fun
Choose your hardware & software: Linux, Mac… your choice
Education & Conferences stipend 1.200 € per year
Indefinite contract

The salary

Up to 50.000 € depending on experience, with a 5-10% yearly bonus according to your performance and company results. Yearly salary revisions.

We are not the latest giga-funded startup with the mission to change the world of * (really, in those startups they are changing the world about anything!) so we won’t match top paying equivalent jobs in Spain.

We are building an independent, self-financed, sustainable company with the objective of being in business for many years working on projects we believe in and that we think make the world a better place, bit by bit. Projects that are respectful with people and don’t prioritize revenue over everything.

We are growing the business and aim to pay as best as we can. We look forward to growing with you: you’ll join a place that we are all defining together so it’s the best possible place to work we can imagine of: Interesting projects, intelligent people, with stimulating challenges, that provides good work-life balance and freedom to organize your schedule. You’ll contribute to delivering projects with more efficiency so we can grow faster.

Hiring process

You take some time to write the application (two questions to show your motivations on the role)
We look at the work you have done. Please send samples of your work, clearly stating your participation
We do a short chat over the phone. Do a longer one if everything is fine
If we want you to join us, we’ll make a salary proposal
Paid project:
- we want to test the relationship before committing full time so we (you and us) are sure it’s a good fit. Changing jobs is stressful and time consuming and we don’t want to lose anybody’s time.
- we’ll propose a project of around 20-40 hours so you can combine it with your current job. We agree on the fee and you complete it when you can, without stress (2-3 weeks, but we are flexible and we can define an agreement based on personal circumstances)
- alternately, you can do this project in the office
- we pay you this project, no matter what
If project is OK, everything is ready ;)

Interesed? Apply

We'll only consider applications that take the time to answer all questions ;)