UX/UI Design Lead & Strategy Architect

Liquid Thought; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 900,000 - 1,200,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

World-class training opportunities

Bursary programme for education

Job summary

Liquid Thought in Cape Town seeks an experienced UX/UI Team Lead to guide a talented design group at the intersection of art, psychology and engineering. You will shape end-to-end UX/UI strategy and hands-on design while driving a culture that prioritises output and user-centricity.

You will lead a team, run user testing, and push for data-driven decisions, with a focus on scalable design systems and cross-functional collaboration in our Cape Town office.

Qualifications

• Minimum 7+ years in UX/UI design with 2+ years in leadership or mentoring.
• Portfolio showing early sketches, iterations and testing data.
• Expert proficiency in Figma (variables, auto-layout, prototyping).
• Experience with Adobe Creative Suite and Maze.
• Ability to discuss HTML/CSS/JS constraints with developers.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end UX/UI strategy for products and translate goals into design solutions.
• Create and manage a user testing programme and panels for brands.
• Utilise data, usability research and A/B testing to justify design decisions.
• Oversee evolution of Design System ensuring consistency across platforms.
• Run design critiques to remove blockers and drive rapid innovation.
• Collaborate with design, engineering and product teams to understand needs.
• Ensure designs are technically feasible without compromising user experience.
• Present work to executives with clarity and storytelling.
• Experiment with AI tools to keep products current with user needs.

Skills

UX/UI design

Team leadership

Prototyping

User research

Figma

Adobe Creative Suite

Maze

HTML/CSS/JS basics

Education

BA Hons in Visual Communication / Interaction Design

BA Hons Information Design

BCom Hons in Information Systems

BSc Hons in Computer Science

BSocSc Hons in Sociology/Anthropology

UX/UI-focused qualification

Tools

Figma

Maze

Adobe Creative Suite

Job description

Liquid Thought in Cape Town seeks an experienced UX/UI Team Lead to guide a talented design group at the intersection of art, psychology and engineering. You will shape end-to-end UX/UI strategy and hands-on design while driving a culture that prioritises output and user-centricity.

You will lead a team, run user testing, and push for data-driven decisions, with a focus on scalable design systems and cross-functional collaboration in our Cape Town office.