Product Designer - Cape Town
Product Designer - Cape Town
Posted on :
11-06-2025
Employer Active
1 Vacancy
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Monthly Salary
£ 700000 - 1000000
Vacancy
1 Vacancy
Posted on :
11-06-2025
Job Description
High-level bits to keep in mind
Location: Cape Town South Africa
Type: Full-time
Salary:RAND annual compensation based on experience
Who I am and what I am looking for
Hi Im JC Head of Design at Zen Educate. I started sketching out the first versions of the product on evenings and weekends before we had a team a logo or an office. Now I lead our growing design function as we tackle more complex ambitious and impactful problems across both sides of the Atlantic.
Im looking for a Product Designer who wants to do meaningful work at the intersection of service system and interface design. Someone who cares deeply about users communicates clearly thinks in flows not screens and is excited to partner closely with product engineering our commercial team and most importantly our customers to solve real-world problems in education.
Design at Zen is about shaping problems navigating ambiguity collaborating with conviction and crafting simple scalable elegant experiences that make a real difference.
Heres what we value in our designers:
Clarity over all clear thinking clear visuals clear storytelling
Systems thinking not just how a screen works but how it fits into the wider workflow
Craft impact quality design isnt precious its purposeful
Bias to ship perfection is a direction not a requirement
Curiosity and candour great design comes from great questions and honest collaboration
Were still a small design team which means youll have a lot of room to shape how we work build design maturity across the org and leave your fingerprints on a product with deep real-world impact.
What we are building and why
Getting the right teacher into the right school at the right time is a nuanced meaningful problem. Done well it improves childrens outcomes and gets more money into classrooms (weve already saved UK schools over 30 million since 2017). Done poorly it burns out teachers wastes money and disrupts education.
Our platform helps teachers find meaningful work and schools fill roles efficiently. It supports internal operations teams matching supply and demand mobile-first experiences for educators and tools for schools to manage short- and long-term needs.
Were well established in the UK and rapidly growing in the US a market thats similar in spirit but different in all the details. That means complex fascinating design challenges at every level: workflow UX service design visual systems information architecture messaging accessibility trust and much more.
What the role looks like in practice
All job descriptions are a bit abstract so heres a snapshot of the kinds of things our designers have been doing recently:
Theres a lot of autonomy at Zen and you have the chance to carve out space for what you want to work on. You get to be involved in the whole design process from helping to define what youll work on to delivery its very collaborative. Some highlights that Im working on would be: a design-led project to improve the teacher request flow and helping refine the brand as we grow.
James Senior Product Designer on the School Team
Lately Ive been diving into some really exciting work aimed at transforming how educators engage with booking requests for daily supply in our app. Were exploring smarter more intuitive experiences to cut down on ignored requests unlocking better data faster decisions and ultimately helping us make stronger more successful matches between educators and schools.
Sam Senior Product Designer on the Marketplace Team
Youll work across the full product lifecycle from discovery through to delivery with a focus on user outcomes speed of learning and design quality. Youll also mentor other designers contribute to evolving our design culture and help shape how we scale.
What you might like or dislike
Like any org weve made certain trade-offs that shape how we work. Heres some context to help you decide if Zen is a good fit:
How We Work
Design is a partner not a service. Youll co-own problems shape solutions and drive delivery with your squad.
Lean over large. We prefer efficiently created Figma flows sharp critiques and weekly iterations over lengthy decks and bloated specs.
Design system exists and is growing. But youll help define and evolve it its not done or rigid.
Growth & Progression
Choose your own adventure. Youll shape your path not wait for a ladder to appear. We value influence not just individual contribution.
Levels not titles. We use Levels to reflect growth and scope not inflated titles. Theres plenty of space to stretch without switching tracks.
Shared context not command and control. Youll be expected to lead your work and communicate your thinking with support but not micromanagement
Compensation
Solid but not flashy compensation. We pay decently but we wont beat out companies with deeper pockets (yet!).
Progression impact. Pay increases come with increased level and scope. We invest in your growth not just reward it after the fact.
Team Culture
Small design team big ambitions. You wont get lost in a 50-person design org and youll help define what great looks like.
Async and face-to-face collaboration. Iterative sharing with structured rituals and casual touch points to stay aligned and connected.
Mission-led and user-focused. Our product isnt a vanity tool or a growth hack. Its a platform with deep real-world impact.
Still scrappy in places. Not everything is polished or perfectly resourced. If you like clean chaos and building things properly youll thrive.
How we hire
We aim to hire fast and fairly clarity over games. Our ideal process is: apply one week offer the next. Heres what that looks like:
Recruiter chat
Well check the basics your availability compensation expectations and whether this feels like a mutual fit.
Meeting with me
Ill want to understand how you work what matters to you in a design role and how we can support your best work A deep dive into a past project (or two) will follow. Well look for clear storytelling design thinking collaboration and the impact of your work.
Design task session
Youll work on a real product problem shaping it exploring options and figuring out how you think.
Culture & collaboration chat
Youll meet a few of the people youd be working alongside outside of the product sphere. This is where we get a sense of what its like to work at Zen. Expect a relaxed candid chat about team dynamics values and ways of working.
We believe in feedback but only share it if you ask for it. If you want it just say so well be honest and constructive about how we saw things.
Sound exciting Lets talk.
If you read all this and thought hell yes (even if its a slightly nervous one) then please apply. If you skimmed and thought maybe apply anyway youll get a clearer sense once we chat. Were always open to great people even if the timing isnt perfect.
We currently have a clear need for one more Product Designer to join the team maybe its you
Diversity and Inclusion
At Zen we strive to build a culture of equity and inclusion where everyone is respected valued and appreciated for their unique traits experiences and perspectives. We are committed to creating a safe inclusive and equitable environment where our team can thrive regardless of age ethnicity race gender identity sexual orientation socio-economic status disability religion or beliefs. We value our differences and believe that practices of Diversity Equity and Inclusion help us create a fairer more compassionate environment for all.
We welcome applicants with diverse backgrounds and different experiences and perspectives just like the staff who teach through Zen and the children at the schools we work with. We believe in hiring the best people from the widest pool and creating an inclusive culture where peoples voices are heard and all our team can look forward to coming to work.
We are committed to building a team that reflects the diversity of our community and promoting an equitable and inclusive environment for all. We seek out diverse opinions beliefs and experiences because they collectively make us stronger; weve had former teachers pilots fundraisers engineers lawyers marketers social media experts and more join our team.
Employment Type
Full-Time
Key Skills
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