Experience Design Lead

AKQA Media; Dubai; Hybrid; AED 120,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading digital experience firm in Dubai seeks a Senior Experience Designer to lead the design of innovative digital products. This role requires at least 8 years of experience and emphasizes collaboration, leadership, and advanced proficiency in design tools such as Figma and Sketch. You will mentor junior team members and engage in hands-on design work, ensuring the creation of meaningful experiences for clients. The firm supports a hybrid work environment and values equal opportunities for all employees.

Benefits

Comprehensive benefits package

Flexible working arrangements

Hybrid work culture

Qualifications

• Minimum 8 years’ experience in designing digital products.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating real-world impact.
• Experience leading stakeholders in UX/UI/CX strategy.

Responsibilities

• Design and deliver outstanding digital experiences.
• Lead multi-disciplinary teams and projects.
• Mentor junior members of the Experience Design team.

Skills

Empathy

Systems thinking

Craftsmanship

Excellent listening

Leadership

Communication skills

Collaboration

Prototyping

Tools

Figma

Sketch

Miro

Job description

At AKQA, we believe in the imaginative application of art and science to create beautiful ideas, products and services. With an entrepreneurial and collaborative approach, we design adaptive digital services and experiences that capture the imagination, delivering impressive returns for our clients.

Experience Designers at AKQA apply empathy, systems thinking, and craftsmanship to strategic insights — designing groundbreaking solutions to human problems. Adept storytellers and fearless innovators, they create interactive experiences, products and services that move the world.

Our Senior Experience Designers are endlessly curious and obsessed with consumer behaviour and psychology but armed with a product mindset. They demonstrate passion, empathy, excellent listening skills, intelligence and are the human‑centric glue that binds together business strategy, creative, and technology into a harmonious collaboration, working with multi‑disciplinary teams to deliver positive impact for brands, people and their environment.

At AKQA Dubai, located in Media City, in Dubai, you’ll have the opportunity to produce meaningful work for world‑class companies in one of the world’s most vibrant and beautiful cities, with access to our network of specialists across the global network of studios. You will work in an environment that fosters a dynamic and meritocratic culture, surrounded by some of the brightest minds in their fields.

ROLE REQUIREMENTS

• A minimum 8 years’ experience designing stand‑out digital products and services from strategy to concept to delivery
• A compelling portfolio of outstanding work across different platforms that has created a real‑world impact
• Demonstrated ability to lead senior business stakeholders to understand UX/UI/CX strategy and making decisions that strengthen their business
• Has defined, facilitated, and overseen design processes across different streams of work, from research and workshops to handover and user stories
• Mastery with design and prototyping software such as Figma, Sketch, etc
• Experienced working alongside designers and developers in complex, ecosystems, ideally in Agile processes, with a product & MVP mindset
• Leading one or more multi‑disciplinary teams to ensure product vision and strategy is developed into a continuously improving, world‑class outcome
• Excellent ownership of developing services, experiences, products and platforms to their full lifecycle potential.
• Strong experience across Miro, Figma and prototyping tools (Figma, Protopie or similar)
• Understanding and executing core CX deliverables from user research to strategy to design (user research, personas, user journeys, ecosystem maps, prototypes, service blueprints)
• Able to develop solutions for a wide variety of touchpoints, platforms and devices including mobile, web, kiosk, social, physical, etc.
• Promotes collaborative work practices with teams and clients, and identifies opportunities to improve quality and increase efficiency through collaborative design
• Provide guidance and mentorship to junior members of the Experience Design team and ensure the team has a high level of morale

QUALITIES AND CHARACTERISTICS

• You have exceptional visual, verbal and written communication skills, fluent in English with a strong command of the language
• You have an insatiable curiosity and are able to observe and identify patterns, trends and insights, bringing a strong point of view to any project you work on
• You are a hands‑on creator of prototypes and/or visually impactful strategic deliverables
• You have a compelling portfolio of unique work that spans touchpoints
• You embrace challenges, and new ways of thinking
• You enjoy getting into the nitty‑gritty of a problem and have a sharp eye for detail.
• You are a lateral and creative thinker with the ability to understand and make complex topics understandable
• You are obsessed with your field, up to date with new techniques and trends in UX/UI, tech, and business
• You’re comfortable confidently presenting your point of view or your work
• You have a “can‑do” attitude and approach to collaboration and leadership, embracing challenges and inspiring new ways of thinking

Explore our extensive range of benefits here.

We believe great work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach including required in-office days. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

AKQA is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.