[Hiring] Senior Product Designer @Cheesecake Labs

Role Description

At Cheesecake Labs, our designers don’t just create screens. We’re usually brought in when products are still evolving, requirements are not fully defined yet, and teams need to balance user experience, business priorities, technical constraints, and delivery speed all at the same time.

Many of our client engagements start with strategic conversations and evolve quickly into active projects. That’s why we maintain a network of strong contractor designers we can engage quickly when the right projects come in.

This is not a traditional long-term internal role. It’s a contractor opportunity designed for people who enjoy working across different products, clients, industries, and business challenges in fast-moving environments.

We’re looking for a Senior Product Designer (Contractor) who combines strong product thinking, visual design skills, user empathy, and ownership across the full product design lifecycle.

Engagement details

• Contractor / project-based engagement
• Paid in USD/hour
• Remote-first
• Flexible allocation depending on project availability and fit
• Opportunities may vary in duration, scope, and weekly commitment depending on client needs

Some opportunities may start immediately. Others may become active as new projects enter our pipeline.

What this role actually looks like

This is not a “just receive requirements and design screens” type of role. On a typical project, you might:

• Work closely with team members to shape product experiences and figure out what should actually be built
• Conduct user research, market research, and validation activities when needed
• Break down product requirements and user stories into practical design flows and experiences
• Create high-quality UI designs, mockups, prototypes, and scalable design systems
• Balance usability, business priorities, technical constraints, and delivery timelines in day-to-day decisions
• Participate in product and design discussions with international clients and multidisciplinary teams

Some projects will be highly execution-focused. Others will involve broader discovery, product strategy, and UX decision-making. Most are a mix of both.

What tends to work well here

We’ve seen that people who thrive in this type of engagement usually:

• Have strong experience designing digital products across web and mobile environments
• Feel comfortable navigating both UX and UI challenges — from discovery and flows to polished interfaces and interactions
• Have a collaborative mindset and work well alongside engineers, product managers, and stakeholders
• Feel comfortable navigating ambiguity, evolving requirements, and fast-changing product contexts
• Care deeply about usability, design quality, consistency, and pragmatic product decisions
• Feel totally confident working in English with international clients and teams (calls, discussions, async) — at least advanced level
• Already use AI as part of their day-to-day workflow — whether for research, ideation, prototyping, content support, or workflow acceleration

Experience with modern design systems, mobile design guidelines, or tools such as Figma, Sketch, Zeplin, Adobe products, or similar platforms is a strong plus.

This probably won’t be your thing if

Just to be transparent:

• You’re looking for a highly stable long-term internal role with fixed scope and predictable allocation
• You prefer highly structured environments with rigid processes and very defined requirements
• You’re uncomfortable navigating ambiguity or fast-changing product contexts
• You’d rather avoid collaboration with engineers, product teams, or clients
• You dislike balancing business constraints, user needs, and delivery realities simultaneously

There’s nothing wrong with any of that — it’s just not how these engagements usually operate.

One last thing

To participate in this selection process, you must:

• Have a valid business registration in your country (CNPJ, VAT, EIN, or equivalent)
• Have a bank account eligible to receive USD payments
• Be able to issue invoices accordingly

These requirements are necessary for contractor engagement and payment processing.