Lead Product Designer — UI/UX

Description

KabuK Style is building the next generation infrastructure for the global travel industry.

Our flagship product, HafH, already connects over 30,000 accommodations across 130+ countries and serves a rapidly growing international customer base. As we scale, we are developing a new B2B platform that powers travel distribution, supplier integrations, pricing optimization, and booking infrastructure for partners around the world.

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KabuK Style is building technology that connects travel supply with distribution.

KabuK Exchange connects hotels, wholesalers, and other travel suppliers with travel agencies, OTAs, membership platforms, and travel businesses. KabuK Platform provides the underlying services and operational tools that support these connections.

Our products handle complex workflows across content, availability, pricing, booking, and settlement. We’re looking for a designer who can turn that complexity into clear, useful experiences for our partners and internal teams.

-------------------------------------------

As our Lead Product Designer, you will lead UI/UX design across KabuK Platform and KabuK Exchange. You will improve dashboards and operational tools, design our websites, and establish consistent design patterns across our products.

This is a hands-on individual contributor role with no direct reports. You will own design direction and quality, collaborate closely with product managers and engineers, and mentor our junior designer through feedback and design reviews. Formal people management remains with the Head of Platform.

Your primary focus will be product design, with website design and occasional graphic design for presentations, brochures, and partner materials forming part of the role.

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▼Product Experience & UI Design
- Own design from understanding the problem through exploration, prototyping, implementation, and iteration.
- Simplify complex workflows across dashboards, admin consoles, partner portals, and operational tools.
- Design clear navigation, information hierarchy, tables, forms, and interactions.
- Account for permissions, validation, loading, empty, error, and success states.
- Create responsive, accessible interfaces that help users complete tasks accurately and efficiently.

▼Research & Validation
- Work with product managers, operations, and partner-facing colleagues to identify user problems and priorities.
- Conduct practical user interviews, workflow observations, and usability testing.
- Use feedback and available product data to evaluate designs and guide improvements.
- Explain the reasoning behind decisions, including alternatives and tradeoffs.

▼Design Systems & Delivery
- Build and maintain reusable components, interaction patterns, and design guidelines.
- Work with engineers to keep design components and implemented components aligned.
- Provide clear specifications and support implementation.
- Review delivered interfaces and help resolve usability and visual quality issues.
- Establish practical design processes that support the team’s delivery pace.

▼Design Leadership & Mentorship
- Set a clear design direction in collaboration with the Head of Platform and product team.
- Guide design quality through constructive reviews and actionable feedback.
- Mentor our junior designer and help them develop their craft, problem-solving skills, and design judgment.
- Encourage collaboration and shared ownership while remaining accountable for design quality.
- Help prioritize design work across product improvements, new features, and website needs.

▼Websites & Visual Communication
- Design and improve our product websites, including navigation, page structure, responsive layouts, and partner inquiry flows.
- Translate product positioning into clear visual communication.
- Apply our brand consistently across digital experiences.
- Occasionally support presentations, brochures, and other business materials.

-------------------------------------------

- Partners and internal teams can complete important tasks with less confusion and fewer unnecessary steps.
- Complex information is presented clearly, with appropriate handling of exceptions and errors.
- Product interfaces become more consistent through reusable patterns and components.
- Our websites explain our products clearly and help prospective partners take the next step.
- Designs are implemented with close collaboration between design and engineering.
- Our junior designer develops greater independence and stronger design judgment through regular guidance.
- Design priorities reflect user needs, business goals, and delivery constraints.

-------------------------------------------

- Shape design across a growing travel technology platform.
- Own meaningful decisions across product interfaces and websites.
- Work closely with the Head of Platform, product managers, and engineers.
- Establish the design foundations that will support future product growth.
- Combine hands-on design with leadership and mentorship in a small team.

-------------------------------------------

Please submit your CV and portfolio.

Include case studies that explain:

- The user and business problem.
- Your specific role and contribution.
- The alternatives you considered and the decisions you made.
- How you worked with product managers, engineers, and other stakeholders.
- What shipped, what you learned, and any evidence of improvement.

We are particularly interested in complex B2B workflows, dashboards, or operational tools. Examples of design systems, website design, and mentorship are also welcome. Anonymized case studies are acceptable where confidentiality applies.

Requirements

KabuK Style is building the next generation infrastructure for the global travel industry.

Our flagship product, HafH, already connects over 30,000 accommodations across 130+ countries and serves a rapidly growing international customer base. As we scale, we are developing a new B2B platform that powers travel distribution, supplier integrations, pricing optimization, and booking infrastructure for partners around the world.

-------------------------------------------

KabuK Style is building technology that connects travel supply with distribution.

KabuK Exchange connects hotels, wholesalers, and other travel suppliers with travel agencies, OTAs, membership platforms, and travel businesses. KabuK Platform provides the underlying services and operational tools that support these connections.

Our products handle complex workflows across content, availability, pricing, booking, and settlement. We’re looking for a designer who can turn that complexity into clear, useful experiences for our partners and internal teams.

-------------------------------------------

As our Lead Product Designer, you will lead UI/UX design across KabuK Platform and KabuK Exchange. You will improve dashboards and operational tools, design our websites, and establish consistent design patterns across our products.

This is a hands-on individual contributor role with no direct reports. You will own design direction and quality, collaborate closely with product managers and engineers, and mentor our junior designer through feedback and design reviews. Formal people management remains with the Head of Platform.

Your primary focus will be product design, with website design and occasional graphic design for presentations, brochures, and partner materials forming part of the role.

-------------------------------------------

▼Product Experience & UI Design
- Own design from understanding the problem through exploration, prototyping, implementation, and iteration.
- Simplify complex workflows across dashboards, admin consoles, partner portals, and operational tools.
- Design clear navigation, information hierarchy, tables, forms, and interactions.
- Account for permissions, validation, loading, empty, error, and success states.
- Create responsive, accessible interfaces that help users complete tasks accurately and efficiently.

▼Research & Validation
- Work with product managers, operations, and partner-facing colleagues to identify user problems and priorities.
- Conduct practical user interviews, workflow observations, and usability testing.
- Use feedback and available product data to evaluate designs and guide improvements.
- Explain the reasoning behind decisions, including alternatives and tradeoffs.

▼Design Systems & Delivery
- Build and maintain reusable components, interaction patterns, and design guidelines.
- Work with engineers to keep design components and implemented components aligned.
- Provide clear specifications and support implementation.
- Review delivered interfaces and help resolve usability and visual quality issues.
- Establish practical design processes that support the team’s delivery pace.

▼Design Leadership & Mentorship
- Set a clear design direction in collaboration with the Head of Platform and product team.
- Guide design quality through constructive reviews and actionable feedback.
- Mentor our junior designer and help them develop their craft, problem-solving skills, and design judgment.
- Encourage collaboration and shared ownership while remaining accountable for design quality.
- Help prioritize design work across product improvements, new features, and website needs.

▼Websites & Visual Communication
- Design and improve our product websites, including navigation, page structure, responsive layouts, and partner inquiry flows.
- Translate product positioning into clear visual communication.
- Apply our brand consistently across digital experiences.
- Occasionally support presentations, brochures, and other business materials.

-------------------------------------------

- Partners and internal teams can complete important tasks with less confusion and fewer unnecessary steps.
- Complex information is presented clearly, with appropriate handling of exceptions and errors.
- Product interfaces become more consistent through reusable patterns and components.
- Our websites explain our products clearly and help prospective partners take the next step.
- Designs are implemented with close collaboration between design and engineering.
- Our junior designer develops greater independence and stronger design judgment through regular guidance.
- Design priorities reflect user needs, business goals, and delivery constraints.

-------------------------------------------

- Shape design across a growing travel technology platform.
- Own meaningful decisions across product interfaces and websites.
- Work closely with the Head of Platform, product managers, and engineers.
- Establish the design foundations that will support future product growth.
- Combine hands-on design with leadership and mentorship in a small team.

-------------------------------------------

Please submit your CV and portfolio.

Include case studies that explain:

- The user and business problem.
- Your specific role and contribution.
- The alternatives you considered and the decisions you made.
- How you worked with product managers, engineers, and other stakeholders.
- What shipped, what you learned, and any evidence of improvement.

We are particularly interested in complex B2B workflows, dashboards, or operational tools. Examples of design systems, website design, and mentorship are also welcome. Anonymized case studies are acceptable where confidentiality applies.

Preferred Experiences

- Experience in travel technology, marketplaces, booking systems, payments, or financial operations.
- Experience designing public-facing B2B websites.
- Experience designing multilingual interfaces and accommodating different content lengths and formats.
- Familiarity with frontend development and reusable UI components.
- Japanese or Korean language ability.
- Graphic design experience for presentations, brochures, and business materials.

We are looking for

Working Conditions

Salary

Compensation varies based on skills and experience

Location

This is a remote role, but we are ideally looking for candidates based in Japan.

Preferred locations in Japan:

- Osaka
- Fukuoka
- Tokyo

Candidates based elsewhere in Japan are also welcome to apply.

Candidates based in Korea are also acceptable, with Seoul being the preferred location.

The role will work closely with teams in Japan, so candidates should be comfortable working across Japan/Korea time zones and collaborating with both internal and external engineering teams.

For candidates based in Japan or Korea, local employment arrangements may be available depending on location and individual circumstances.

Job Type

Fixed-term contract employee or Outsourcing contract / Final decision will be made based on mutual agreement.

Work hours

Fully Flex

Probation period

Contract employee : 6 months, Outsourcing contract : 4 months

Benefits

Contract employee : Social insurance (Health insurance, welfare pension, work Injury insurance, and unemployment Insurance)