About the Role
- This positions plays a critical role in delivering high-quality digital experiences, driving design excellence, technical implementation standards, and supporting agency performance through hands-on delivery, team leadership, and operational improvement.
- We are seeking a hybrid Design & Development Lead with strong UX/UI expertise and a solid understanding of modern web technologies. This role combines design leadership, technical oversight, project delivery, and people management responsibilities.
- The successful candidate will lead multidisciplinary teams of designers and developers, establish scalable delivery processes, maintain quality standards across projects, and ensure successful implementation of digital solutions from concept through deployment. This role is suited to someone who enjoys solving complex digital challenges, leading teams, improving workflows, and bridging the gap between creative design and technical execution.
What You'll Be Doing
Design Leadership
- Design intuitive and visually compelling UX/UI solutions for websites and digital products.
- Own and lead design delivery across projects from concept through final implementation.
- Oversee design quality across all outputs, ensuring consistency, usability, accessibility, and high standards.
- Produce wireframes, user flows, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs.
- Design and maintain scalable Design Systems and UI component libraries.
- Ensure consistency with client brand guidelines across all digital touchpoints.
Technical Leadership
- Provide technical oversight across website and digital product development projects.
- Work closely with developers to ensure designs are implemented accurately and efficiently.
- Review technical approaches and provide guidance on frontend implementation.
- Support website deployment, testing, optimisation, and ongoing maintenance activities.
- Ensure best practices are followed for performance, responsiveness, accessibility, and SEO.* Act as the bridge between design, development, and delivery teams.
** Leadership & Management**
- Lead, mentor, and develop a team of designers and developers.
- Conduct regular coaching, performance reviews, and professional development planning.
- Foster a collaborative, accountable, and high-performing team culture.
- Support recruitment, onboarding, and capability development across the digital team.
- Allocate resources effectively across projects and workloads.
- Identify skills gaps and implement training initiatives to strengthen team capability.
Process & Delivery Management
- Develop and maintain standardised delivery frameworks, workflows, and quality assurance processes.
- Establish best-practice methodologies for design, development, testing, and deployment.
- Continuously improve agency processes to increase efficiency, consistency, and profitability.
- Support project planning, estimation, scoping, and technical discovery activities.
- Monitor quality, timelines, and delivery performance.
- Ensure documentation standards are maintained across projects.
What You'll Bring
Design
7+ years experience in UX/UI, digital product, or web design.
Advanced proficiency in Figma and modern design tools.
Strong understanding of user-centred design principles.
Experience creating responsive web experiences across desktop, tablet, and mobile.
Experience building and maintaining Design Systems.
Technical
Strong understanding of HTML, CSS, and modern frontend development principles.
Working knowledge of React and component-based development.
Experience with Shopify and Shopify theme customisation.
Familiarity with website deployment processes, hosting environments, and control systems.
Understanding of web performance optimisation, accessibility standards, and SEO best practices.
Ability to communicate effectively with developers and review technical implementation decisions.
Leadership
Previous experience managing designers, developers, or multidisciplinary digital teams.
Demonstrated experience coaching and mentoring team members.
Experience creating operational processes, delivery standards, and quality frameworks.
Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.
Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on execution.
Nice to Have
Experience working within a digital agency environment.
Experience with headless CMS platforms.
Familiarity with JavaScript frameworks and frontend architecture.
Experience with conversion rate optimisation (CRO).
Experience managing project delivery and resource planning.
Understanding of AI-assisted design and development workflows.
Compensation & Benefits
- Competitive salary and benefits.
- Opportunities for professional growth and continuous learning.
About Eloa Labs
- Eloa Labs is a brand-new and fast-growing startup partnering with startups and ambitious businesses to create software that endures.
- We produce intelligent web and mobile applications, carefully designed and built for scale.
- As we continue to grow, we are looking for ambitious, organised, and proactive individuals who thrive in a dynamic environment and are excited by the opportunity to play a key role in building and shaping a company from the ground up.
- Location: Portugal.
- Role: Permanent and hybrid.