CQUELLE GmbH · Hamburg, Germany · Fully remote (CET/EET) · Part-time, ~10—20 h/week
CQUELLE is a boutique software company: eleven engineers, most senior, distributed across Hamburg, Ukraine, Poland, and Romania, building platforms for EdTech, HealthTech, and FinTech clients in Europe and the US. Design has so far been partnered out or done by engineers. You would be our first designer — establishing the design practice, not inheriting one.
What you will work on
UX audits and design systems for existing React products: consistent components, role-specific dashboards, reporting views and data visualizations.
Developer-ready handoff: high-fidelity screens and specs in Figma that a React/TypeScript team can implement without guessing — responsive across desktop and tablet.
The seam our clients actually live in: they arrive with AI-generated clickable prototypes; we take those to production. You shape what survives that transition — flows, states, edge cases the prototype skipped.
Accessibility passes on products used in healthcare and education settings.
Occasional brand-side work against our existing kit (Barlow headings, DM Sans body, documented color tokens) — the brand exists; product design is the gap.
How we work
“Genuinely convenient to use” is part of our definition of done — design decisions happen early, during user stories and refinement, not as a late coat of paint.
You will talk to clients and developers directly. Best status report is a working demo or a clickable flow, not a deck.
We work distributed on European hours (CET/EET), in English, over Slack and Teams.
AI tooling is used daily under a written internal policy — comfort with AI-assisted prototyping is a plus, judgment about it is a requirement.
What we expect
3+ years designing web products that shipped — not only marketing sites.
Fluent Figma, including component libraries and handoff specs.
Enough front-end literacy to know what is cheap and what is expensive to build in React.
Fluent English; German is a plus for DACH clients but not required.
This is probably not for you if
You need an existing design system, a design team, or a creative director — there is none of that here yet.
You want full-time hours or purely visual work with no user research, states, or specs.
You prefer polishing screens over arguing (kindly) with engineers about a flow.
You expect someone to assign, chase, and check your work. Nobody here polices status — you plan your part-time hours yourself, keep your tasks’ real state visible on the board, and we act on what you write there.
Practicalities
Fully remote, part-time (~10—20 hours/week, flexible), contract through CQUELLE GmbH (Hamburg) under EU law. Compensation discussed directly with the founder in the first call. Apply with a portfolio — two or three shipped products with a note on what problem each solved.
CQUELLE GmbH · Hamburg, Germany · www.cquelle.com
