Product Designer (Senior)

Do you believe that "good design" is most powerful when it solves complex problems in the most challenging environments? Are you a designer who prioritises empathy and dignity as much as pixels and prototypes? If you are ready to use your craft to improve the lives of millions of adolescent girls, this role is for you.

About Tiko

Tiko is an African nonprofit committed to strengthening the potential and resilience of adolescent girls across Africa. We address the “Triple Threat” of unintended pregnancy, HIV infection, and sexual and gender-based violence by building local health ecosystems that provide stigma-free, no-cost, quality-assured services.

Our model brings together key local actors: community-based organizations (CBO) with peer mobilisers who act as health companions to girls; public and private health clinics that deliver care; and retail partners that redeem Tiko Miles -our behaviour-change incentive programme that rewards service uptake and feedback.

We invest in partners by strengthening CBO capacity, training frontline workers and providers, supporting clinic quality improvement, and compensating partners based on performance. Our technology platform connects all actors by enabling referrals, verifying service delivery, facilitating payments, and generating real-time data.

Tiko operates in six countries: Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Burkina Faso, South Africa, and Nigeria, with additional offices in Portugal, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. For a clear overview of our work, we recommend watching this short video.

Globally, our team consists of +250 enthusiastic, international colleagues. Whether you are working from our biggest office in Nairobi, the fast-growing office in South Africa, or from home, our people are young, and our culture is global and dynamic. Our work environment is fast-paced, informal, and friendly.

This is a remote-friendly position, and we welcome applicants from South Africa, and Kenya.

The Job

We are seeking a Senior Product Designer to play a central role in how Tiko understands user needs, frames problems, and delivers inclusive, intuitive experiences. You will lead the full design process, from discovery through to delivery, bringing systems thinking and curiosity to every stage of our product development.

At Tiko, we design for a broad and diverse set of users: adolescent girls, community mobilisers, healthcare providers, and internal operational teams. A critical part of this role is designing for low-resource contexts. You will tackle challenges like low connectivity, limited device access, and varying literacy levels, ensuring that our digital platform remains a safe, accessible, and respectful space for everyone it serves.

Key Responsibilities

User Understanding & Problem Framing

• Evidence-Based Discovery: Partner with Product Managers and field teams to uncover genuine user needs and define clear problem statements.
• Lightweight Research: Conduct interviews, usability tests, and surveys to validate assumptions and guide design decisions.
• Insight Synthesis: Translate findings into user journeys and hypotheses that shape the strategic direction of our products.
  
  

End-to-End Experience Design

• Craft & Iteration: Design intuitive flows, wireframes, and high-fidelity, accessible UIs, iterating quickly based on user feedback and behavioural data.
• Technical Collaboration: Work closely with engineers to ensure design quality during builds and collaborate with AI/ML teams to integrate intelligent automation in a user-centred way.
• Contextual Design: Adapt designs for low-resource and "low-tech" settings, ensuring usability and respect for users facing infrastructure constraints.
• Design Systems: Contribute to Tiko’s emerging design system through reusable components and foundational patterns.
  
  

Design Practice & Advocacy

• Process Improvement: Take the initiative to embed design thinking and usability across the entire delivery lifecycle.
• Collaborative Rituals: Participate meaningfully in discovery sessions, critiques, and retrospectives, sharing best practices across the organisation.
• Empathy Leadership: Advocate for accessibility and evidence-based design, ensuring we always understand why we are building before what we build.
  
  

About You

You are an empathetic and context-aware designer who believes in designing with users, not just for them. You are naturally curious about new cultures and constraints, and you don’t lower your bar for usability just because an environment is challenging. You describe yourself as a self-directed and pragmatic problem-solver who thrives in cross-functional teams. You are technically curious, and you value clarity and measurable impact in everything you create.

Requirements

• Educational Background: Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field such as Human-Centered Design, Computer Science, Psychology, Anthropology or related discipline
• Professional Experience: 6+ years in Product/UX design across both mobile and web platforms; with deep understanding of interaction design, usability, and visual design principles.
• Portfolio: A strong portfolio demonstrating UX thinking, visual/UI craft, and clear design storytelling.
• Research Skills: Proven experience conducting user research and translating qualitative/quantitative insights into design direction.
• Contextual Knowledge: Experience designing for emerging markets or infrastructure-constrained environments, or a very strong desire to learn this deeply.
• Collaborative Mindset: Demonstrated ability to lead projects independently while partnering closely with Product Managers and engineers.
  
  

Why This Role?

• Scale: Your work will directly shape the experiences used by adolescent girls, mobilizers, partners, and operational teams, impacting the health, safety, and autonomy of millions across Africa.
• Innovation: You’ll design for “Tech for Good” in real-world contexts, collaborating with teams working on biometrics, intelligent automation, and outcome-based models, ensuring these technologies remain transparent, inclusive, and human-centered.
• Craft & Impact: This is a chance to build products end-to-end, influence product direction, and help define how design is practiced at Tiko as the organization grows.
• Culture: Join a team that values openness, curiosity, and pioneering spirit led by a diverse, predominantly female and African Supervisory Board.

The Rewards

In addition to your monthly salary, and in return for your hard work and dedication, we offer you:

• Health and accident insurance
• Flexible work arrangements, including remote or hybrid options where applicable.
• A personal development budget of €500 per year to invest in your professional growth - whether through training, certifications, or career advancement opportunities.
• Comprehensive time-off package, including 5 days of wellness leave, all regional public holidays, maternity and parental leave according to local regulations, and unlimited holidays subject to team coordination.
• The opportunity to shape a growing, impactful product and leave your mark on how we work.
• A culture built on trust - we believe you’ll do your best without the need for unnecessary rules or micromanagement.

The details

Interested? Click Apply for This Job! Want more information? Check out our website tikoafrica.org or contact our Global Recruiter. We only accept applications through the apply links, not by email.

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Tiko prioritizes integrity in our workplace and respects your privacy.

Tiko is committed to preventing any type of unwanted behaviour by its employees at work, including sexual harassment, exploitation and abuse, lack of integrity and financial misconduct. This is why we will do reference and background screening checks on successful candidates before hiring. Tiko also participates in the Inter Agency Misconduct Disclosure Scheme. As part of this scheme, we will request information from your previous employers about any findings of sexual exploitation, sexual abuse and/or sexual harassment during your employment, or incidents under investigation when you left employment. By applying for this position, you confirm you have read and understood these recruitment procedures.

We value your privacy and understand the importance of safeguarding your personal data. We invite you to review our privacy notice for the recruitment process to understand how we collect, use, and protect your personal data during the recruitment process. Click here to view the document. By applying for this position, you acknowledge that you have read and understood our privacy notice.