Lead UI/UX Designer

About Us

Canibuild automates the residential construction industry's design, approval, and sales processes, allowing clients to answer 'Can I build this on this plot of land?' instantly. As a fast-growing SaaS platform backed by Australia's largest hedge fund, we serve clients across Australia, New Zealand, Canada, and the US.

Job Summary

We're looking for a Lead UI/UX Designer who combines creative vision with technical discipline — someone who can make experiences look amazing while building scalable, professional systems that elevate canibuild's product. At canibuild, design is more than making things look good — it's about building slick, scalable, and innovative experiences that solve real problems for our users. In this role, you'll be hands-on with design while also shaping our design culture and processes. You'll create forward-thinking solutions, establish a design system that scales, and make sure design is seamlessly integrated into our product development lifecycle. You'll be the bridge between product, engineering, and leadership, ensuring we're not just building what was first imagined, but pushing towards something smarter and better.If you've led design for web products (not just websites), know how to keep design and engineering aligned, and have a passion for creating products that feel modern, usable, and polished, this role is for you. Experience with real estate or map-based design is a big plus.

Key Responsibilities

• Raise the design bar: Deliver innovative solutions that go beyond stakeholder ideas and set a higher standard for usability and polish.
• Own the source of truth: Keep designs up to date across what's live, in development, and in scope, so there's no confusion between teams.
• Build for scale: Create and maintain a design system in Figma with reusable components, ensuring consistency across products and screen sizes.
• Design end-to-end: Translate business and user needs into engaging, intuitive product experiences — not just screens, but complete flows.
• Prototype fast: Use Figma to explore ideas quickly, get early feedback, and avoid endless rework.
• Research & testing: Run user interviews and usability tests, and turn insights into clear, practical design improvements.
• Trends & micro-interactions: Stay sharp on design trends and use micro-interactions thoughtfully, always mindful of performance and load times.
• Stress-test & advocate: Push your designs beyond the happy path, account for edge cases, and champion the user's perspective when tough trade-offs come up.
• DesignOps mindset: Bring process to design — align design work with the software development lifecycle so engineers know exactly what's ready and what's next.
• Mentor & lead: Guide junior and mid-level designers, share best practices, and create a design culture that's both creative and disciplined.

What We're Looking For

• 5+ years of UI/UX design experience, including 2+ years in a senior or lead role.
• Strong track record designing and maintaining complex web products (SaaS or platform experience is ideal).
• Deep knowledge of responsive design and scaling across multiple resolutions.
• Expert in Figma — not just for creating screens, but for managing design systems, components, auto-layout, variants, and rapid prototyping.
• Skilled in usability testing methods and tools to validate designs early.
• Understanding of Agile ways of working and how design fits into the SDLC.
• Basic knowledge of HTML/CSS to communicate effectively with developers.
• Excellent communication skills, able to explain design decisions to both internal teams and customers.
• Bonus: Experience in real estate, GIS, or map-based design.
• Portfolio requirement: Please include a link to your portfolio or share a Figma file that demonstrates your ability to design, structure, and maintain a web product. We're especially interested in seeing examples of design systems, responsive layouts, and how you've solved complex product challenges.

What Success Looks Like

• A design system in Figma is built, documented, and in active use by the team.
• Designs consistently scale across resolutions with less back-and-forth during development.
• There's a clear source of truth for design status — live, in development, or being scoped — removing misunderstandings with engineering.
• Stakeholders notice fewer rework cycles because ideas are explored and validated earlier through prototyping and testing.
• DesignOps practices are embedded, and design handover to engineering feels smooth and predictable.
• The product experience is seen as slick, modern, and ahead of competitors, with micro-interactions and thoughtful details that feel deliberate.
• User research is a regular input into design, ensuring solutions reflect real needs instead of assumptions.
• Other designers are learning from you and raising their game, with higher-quality output across the board.

Benefits

• Competitive salary, benefits, and opportunities for growth.
• A collaborative, fast-paced, and innovative culture that values initiative, ownership, and smart solutions.
• A remote-first environment with global collaboration.