Lead Design Engineer (m/f/d)

Blockbrain•Stuttgart, AR

18d•€80,000 - €110,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Blockbrain is seeking a Lead Design Engineer to establish and lead design engineering as a core part of its growing product organisation. The role combines design leadership with hands-on implementation: the successful candidate will lead design engineers across the product, own the design vision and quality standards, and contribute directly to the TypeScript/React codebase. The position carries professional and disciplinary responsibility, including hiring and developing team members, and reports directly to engineering leadership. The role owns design direction across web, agent interfaces, and mobile; evolves the component library and interaction standards; and designs interfaces for complex agent workflows and configuration surfaces. It also establishes design critique practices and works as a peer with Product and Engineering leadership to shape product direction and collaboration as the company scales. AI tools and coding agents are part of the daily workflow, used to explore concepts, produce designs, implement frontend code, and inform Blockbrain’s agent platform. Blockbrain builds an AI-powered knowledge management platform for mid-sized and enterprise companies, enabling teams to create tailored assistants, agents, and workflows. The company is Series A funded, reports strong growth momentum, and serves enterprise clients including Roland Berger, Bosch, and Harting. It is ISO 27001 certified and EU AI Act ready.

Requirements

At least 8 years of experience in product design, design engineering, or frontend-heavy design roles.
A strong portfolio demonstrating design craft.
Proven leadership experience with professional and disciplinary responsibility for design or design engineering teams, including hiring, developing people, setting direction, and maintaining standards.
Strong attention to interaction quality and the ability to establish high craft standards across a team.
System-thinking ability, designing coherent systems across components, states, edge cases, and error conditions.
Technical fluency, including reading and writing code and understanding implementation costs and constraints.
Ability to make data-informed decisions based on user behaviour and metrics, decide under ambiguity, ship, and revise based on learning.
Fluent German and English skills.
Willingness to use AI as a creative and engineering multiplier, rather than treating it as a novelty.

Nice To Haves

Experience gained in fast-paced startups or scale-ups.

Responsibilities

Lead the design engineering team with professional and disciplinary responsibility; hire, develop, coach, and support team members to perform at a high level.
Own the design vision across the product, including web, agent UI, and mobile, and set direction for the team.
Define and evolve the component library, interaction patterns, spacing, typography, and motion across product surfaces.
Implement components directly in the TypeScript/React codebase, bridging design intent and production implementation.
Design interfaces for complex agent workflows, configuration surfaces, and human-in-the-loop moments, from initial sketches through shipped components.
Establish design critique practices across the engineering organisation, define quality standards, and uphold them.
Partner with Product and Engineering leadership to shape product direction and how design and engineering work together.
Use AI tools to generate design variations, explore interaction concepts, and accelerate visual production; use coding agents to implement and iterate on frontend code.
Work with Blockbrain’s agent platform, keep current on AI-driven interface paradigms, and contribute design insights to the product.