About Us
The appliedAI Initiative elevates Europe’s industry to become shapers in the age of AI, creating a future that we desire to live in. Through our ecosystem of strong partners, comprehensive programs, services and solutions we advance companies holistically on their AI journey. With our uniquely diverse, interdisciplinary, and driven team, we build on deep technical expertise while specializing on applicability of the solutions. We share a mindset of collaboration and openness with our ecosystem of leading companies and tech players. Our common goal is to strengthen the European landscape, jointly creating unique knowledge for applying trustworthy AI. We believe that AI Agents will be the dominant topic for AI in the near future and that appliedAI with its partner ecosystem will impact how this technology is being used in industry and beyond in Europe.
Your mission
Most AI projects don't fail on the model - they fail because nobody wants to use what was built. As our Principal UX Designer, you'll be the specialist authority who makes sure that never happens for our clients: the person our AI Engineers, AI Consultants, and client teams turn to when the experience layer of an engagement is the hardest part of the problem, and when trustworthy, responsible AI needs an interface people actually trust. You'll operate at the intersection of individual client engagements - spanning DAX corporations to leading “Mittelstand” businesses - and appliedAI's broader design practice, working closely with adjacent teams such as Change & Enablement and Trustworthy AI to turn deep UX expertise into real-world impact.
Your tasks will include:
Own the user experience strategy across our most demanding client AI engagements - from discovery and early concept through validated, handover-ready designs that clients' engineering teams can build with confidenceShape UX and CX strategy across engagements - framing the actual problem before a single screen is designed, running discovery and moderated research sessions with operators, planners, and engineers, so design decisions rest on evidence rather than opinionDefine the interaction patterns agentic systems need - human-in-the-loop approval, latency and status communication, source attribution, uncertainty and error states, and safe defaults for irreversible actionsSet the standard for how we design and modernize complex, operationally critical systems - dense data, high stakes, long-lived workflows, and users who cannot afford to guess what the system just didDrive adoption of shared design systems and component libraries across engagements - specifications and patterns that make the next project faster, not a slide deck about consistencyEstablish DesignOps and design governance across our project portfolio - methodologies, review rituals, and quality bars that scale experience maturity across multi-stakeholder programs, with accessibility (WCAG 2.2 AA / EN 301 549) as a non-negotiable design requirement validated in close partnership with engineeringOwn and evolve appliedAI's experience and design standards across the whole professional services organization, and raise the craft bar through review, critique, and mentoring
Your profile
Extensive experience, typically 10+ years, in experience design and design leadership, including leading or growing a multidisciplinary UX/design practice, with deep command of the end-to-end product design process from research through detailed interaction and visual designComfortable working at the boundary with engineering and being able to translate a design system into implementation-ready specifications and hold a high bar in review, without needing to ship production code yourselfA track record designing for complex, data-dense, operationally critical enterprise systems like industrial, infrastructure, control-room or comparable environments, delivered inside multi-stakeholder programsProven experience establishing DesignOps, governance models, and design methodologies that raise experience maturity beyond your own projects with designing systems, quality gates, and process frameworks that other teams actually adoptExperience designing for AI or data-heavy products is a strong plus - non-deterministic output, latency, trust, and explainability change the design problem fundamentallyA trusted strategic advisor in ambiguous, client-facing settings, facilitating workshops, navigating conflicting stakeholder interests, and delivering difficult messages diplomatically, with the credibility to operate from C-suite conversations down to the operators who use the systemFluent in English, German a strong plus as part of our client work happens in German
What We Offer
A highly qualified and motivated team of ~90 people is on a journey to change the rapidly evolving European AI LandscapeExperience the best of both worlds with our hybrid work model: You can choose to work from our vibrant offices - either at the IPAI in Heilbronn or the House of Communication in Munich - while also enjoying the flexibility to work remotely a few days each weekOpportunity to shape a variety of projects and the development of new, original content based on the latest developments in AI and its adoption in businessesAn atmosphere that encourages to think and experiment in new ways with software, hardware, and processesA highly visible initiative that helps you build a large and high-level network of start-ups, partners, and tech companiesA flexible development budget that’s yours to shape - invest it in training, certifications, conferences, or new challenges, however you want to growSports membership with Wellpass to access thousands of sports facilities all over Germany (and beyond), as well as online coursesJobRad: Lease a bike for a cheaper rate via JobRad and we cover the bike insurance on topSabbatical option: You can take a sabbatical of up to 3 months after min. 3 years of employment - because sometimes 30 vacation days are not enough to explore the beauty of this worldPME Familienservice: A 24/7 support for a successful work & life in any life situation. Benefit from free support in areas like life coaching, child care and many other optionsMobility budget: Every month we contribute to your individual mobility usage with public transport or shared mobility offers within the app MoovsterWorkation: Work from anywhere in the EU/EWR area for up to 3 months per year - combining working at a nice place and spending your leisure time in the evening like vacation
Contact
Lucas Fernandes - Senior Talent Acquisition Specialist
appliedAI Initiative GmbH, August-Everding-Str. 25, 81671 München
About Us
Find out more on https://www.appliedai.de/ and https://www.appliedai-institute.de/
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