Principal Design Strategist

About EPI Company and Wero

In today’s digital world, payments often still feel outdated. The European Payments Initiative (EPI) is here to change all that, forever. With Wero, our digital wallet, we make sending and receiving money simple, seamless, and secure across France, Belgium, and Germany, with more countries and omnichannel solutions coming soon. Supported by 16 major banks and the two largest European acquirers, EPI is building a new, proudly European payment system: easy, instant, and transparent, all for the greater good.

What You'll Do as a Principal Design Strategist

In this role, you will define and drive the end-to-end product design strategy and UI vision for Wero, with a strong focus on coherence, usability, and high-quality interfaces across products and lifecycles. You will operate at both system and detail level, shaping long-term experience principles while designing critical journeys and interaction patterns yourself. Your work will involve turning complex business, regulatory, and technical requirements into clear, accessible, and elegant solutions.

Your approach is evidence-based; you plan and synthesize qualitative and quantitative research, connect business objectives to user needs, and translate insights into clear design direction. You will also mentor designers, elevate standards across teams, and communicate strategy and trade-offs clearly to senior stakeholders.

At EPI, we embrace a remote-first culture, enabling teams to work from their country of residence, with in-person gatherings at least once per quarter to strengthen collaboration and connection.

About The Team

You will join a Design team of around 12 professionals across Product Design, Research, Content Design, and Design Operations, reporting into the Head of Experience Design. Product Designers are embedded in cross-functional product teams, while Research, Content Design, and Operations work transversally across domains.

As a Principal Design Strategist, you will:

• Collaborate across multiple domains and product areas.
• Act as a senior reference point for product design strategy and UI craft.
• Partner closely with other senior designers and the Head of Experience Design.

You will work within a product-led, cross-functional model, joining the right touch points to anticipate change, influence direction, and contribute where your strategic and craft expertise creates the most leverage.

Your Impact

• Lead by example in UI craftsmanship, setting clear standards for visual quality, interaction design, accessibility, and detail in high-impact product areas.
• Define and drive product design strategy end-to-end, translating product and business direction into coherent experience principles, journeys, and shipped UI across platforms.
• Shape and articulate the long-term UI vision for Wero, including emerging payment use cases, ensuring alignment between business goals, regulatory requirements, and user needs.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Compliance to transform complex constraints into intuitive, accessible interface solutions.
• Plan, drive, and synthesize discovery and research activities to inform strategy, validate decisions, and guide iteration.
• Mentor designers and provide structured feedback that raises overall design maturity, while clearly communicating rationale and trade-offs to senior stakeholders.

Technology Stack

Primary: Figma, Slack, Miro, Microsoft Suite, Confluence, Jira

Secondary: Analytics tools (e.g., Amplitude, Mixpanel, or similar), prototyping tools, After Effects or similar for motion, user research tools (e.g., UserTesting or similar), AI tools (nice to have)

What You'll Bring

Product Design Craft & Systems Thinking

• 9+ years in product design within product-led organizations, including ownership of complex product areas.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating shipped, high-quality digital products across mobile and/or web.
• Experience defining product or experience strategy and translating it into coherent journeys and shipped UI.
• Advanced proficiency in Figma.
• Solid accessibility practice, designing to WCAG AA level or higher.

Designing In Regulated & Complex Environments

• Experience designing end-to-end journeys in complex digital products from discovery to iteration.
• Experience in payments, fintech, financial services, or other regulated domains is a strong plus.
• Experience shaping coherent multi-platform ecosystems (mobile, web, partner touchpoints).

Research & Evidence-Based Decision Making

• Comfortable using qualitative and quantitative research methods to inform and validate design decisions.
• Able to connect insights to product strategy and adjust direction based on evidence.

Collaboration, Communication & Stakeholder Management

• Clear communicator who can explain design rationale and trade-offs to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders and aligning cross-functional teams.
• Able to zoom between long-term vision and detailed UI decisions.
• Experience working in distributed or multi-market teams is a plus.

Languages

• Fluent English (C1/C2) is mandatory.
• Additional European languages are a plus.

A degree in Design, HCI, or related fields is welcome but not required. If you do not meet every requirement but believe you can make a strong impact, we encourage you to apply.

Recruitment Process

The recruitment steps are:

• A first call with one of our recruiters (45 min).
• Portfolio review + Job-Specific Skills Interview (60 min) with your hiring manager + relevant experts.
• Culture Interview (60 min) with a cross-functional panel of design + engineering leadership.
• Hopefully, an offer you can’t refuse.

We respect senior candidates’ time. There are no unpaid design exercises.

Who We're Looking For (and Not)

Turn back if:

• You prefer fully structured environments with minimal ambiguity and limited strategic ownership.
• You are not comfortable shaping experience direction with incomplete information and influencing senior stakeholders.
• You prefer narrow execution over cross-domain collaboration, mentorship, and raising design standards.

Otherwise, apply!

Our Commitment to Equal Employment Opportunities

EPI offers the same job opportunities to all, without distinction of gender, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, social status, disability, or age. EPI promotes the development of an inclusive work environment that mirrors the diversity of the clients our product is serving.

Key skills/competency

• Product Design Strategy
• UI/UX Design
• Figma
• Interaction Design
• Accessibility
• User Research
• Stakeholder Management
• Fintech/Payments
• Systems Thinking
• Cross-functional Collaboration