---
title: 'Staff Product Designer, Mobile focus at KAYAK'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/staff-product-designer-mobile-focus-kayak-berlin-h9x3z2phfw6a'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-09-12'
---

# Staff Product Designer, Mobile focus at KAYAK

- **Company:** KAYAK
- **Location:** Berlin, Germany
- **Employment:** full-time
- **Posted:** 2026-07-27
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-09-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/kayak/0f1404b0-f789-4b46-8f8d-aee5530b811f

## Job description

KAYAK, part of Booking Holdings (NASDAQ: BKNG), is the world’s leading travel search engine. With billions of queries across our platforms, we help people find their perfect flight, stay, rental car and vacation package. We’re also transforming business travel with a new corporate travel solution, KAYAK for Business. As an employee of KAYAK, you will be part of a travel company that operates a portfolio of global metasearch brands including momondo, Cheapflights and HotelsCombined, among others. From start-up to industry leader, innovation is in our DNA and every employee has an opportunity to make their mark. Our focus is on building the best travel search engine to make it easier for everyone to experience the world. KAYAK is seeking a Staff Product Designer, Mobile to own the design direction across our apps and lead the craft of every designer who works on them. This is a senior individual contributor role with manager-level scope: you carry the design direction and UX/UI patterns across three teams (Apps Meta, Apps Retention, and Mobile Design Systems) while still designing and shipping yourself. You set the quality bar for all Apps design output, you hold it across teams, and you keep engineering pointed at the right work. You are the technical lead for apps design, accountable for the quality and velocity of what the apps designers produce, without managing them directly. This role is required to work from our Berlin office 3 days per week.

In this role, you will:

- Own the design direction and the UX/UI pattern system across the apps surface. Navigation, mental models, and UI consistency cut across Apps Meta, Retention, and Design Systems at once, and you hold that cross-cutting direction so three teams ship one coherent experience rather than three versions of it.
- Set the quality standard for apps design and hold it as a discipline, not a project. Make the bar visible where teams miss it, and close gaps across teams that you did not personally create. You are accountable for the quality and velocity of all apps design output.
- Run planning and discovery for all three teams. Break multi-team, loosely defined problems into clear design direction the designers can run with.
- Partner with the Director of Product for Apps and the apps PMs on core initiatives, influencing roadmap and prioritization through design rationale.
- Lead native craft across iOS and Android. Set the approach for resizability, foldables, new screen sizes, and solve how KAYAK responds to platform chrome shifts like Liquid Glass and Material 3 Expressive.
- Lead the design approach for mobile AI features: how we integrate AI into the apps, the UI, and the navigation around it, so it lands as a native part of the experience.
- Drive the brand differentiation work for our portfolio of hero brands apps like momondo to ensure local market dominance.
- Raise the ceiling for the other apps designers through critique, shared standards, and patterns they build on. Designers should get better by working alongside you and using what you establish, not only through direct mentorship.

Required Skills

- 10+ years in product design, with a portfolio of shipped, high-impact mobile work at consumer scale.
- Deep native expertise across iOS and Android. Mastery of Apple HIG and Material Design, and the judgment to know when to converge and when to honor platform difference. Hands-on experience with resizability, foldables, and iPad, and a point of view on platform chrome directions like Liquid Glass and Material 3 Expressive.
- A track record of raising design quality across a discipline beyond your own projects, through standards you set, critiques you ran, or systems others still use.
- Experience driving design direction across multiple teams or product areas, with the ability to influence without authority.
- Experience building or evolving mobile design systems and scalable patterns.
- Strong with Figma, and fluent with AI-assisted design and prototyping tooling (for example Claude Code or Cursor).
- Comfort using data and research to set direction and measure outcomes.

Please apply if you have:

- Experience managing or leading designers. This is an IC role, so it counts as a strong plus rather than a requirement.
- Driven design vision across teams in a way you can tie to outcomes, not just deliverables.
- Formal education in design (BA, BFA, MFA) or equivalent practical experience.

Benefits and Perks:

- Work from (almost) anywhere for up to 20 days per year
- Focus on mental health and well-being:
- Company-paid therapy sessions through SpringHealth
- Company-paid subscription to HeadSpace
- Company-wide week off a year - the whole team fully recharges (and returns without a pile-up of work!)
- No meeting Fridays
- Paid parental leave
- Paid volunteer time
- Focus on your career growth:
- Development Dollars
- Leadership development
- Access to thousands of on-demand e-learnings
- Travel Discounts
- Employee Resource Groups
- 6 weeks paid vacation + a day off for your birthday
- Free lunch 2 days per week
- Pension plan contributions
- Public transportation subsidies
- Bike leasing program
- Monthly social events, Thursday happy hours, sports teams
- An awesome office in Friedrichshain, Berlin

Inclusion At KAYAK, we want everyone to have the space to grow, share ideas and do great work. That’s why we’re focused on hiring the best talent from all walks of life and experiences, supporting them well and making sure no one feels like they have to fit a mold to belong here. Need any adjustments for the interview, application or on the job? No problem - just give us a heads-up. We’ve got you.

## #LI-AS1

## About KAYAK

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: KAYAK is the world’s leading travel metasearch engine, enabling travelers to compare flights, hotels, rental cars, and vacation packages from hundreds of sites in one place.
- **Entity Type**: Private (subsidiary of Booking Holdings Inc., NASDAQ: BKNG)
- **Headquarters**: Stamford, Connecticut, USA (with 15 international offices)
- **Founded**: 2004
- **Founders**: Steve Hafner (former CEO until February 2026) and Paul English

## Core Business
- **Primary industry/industries**: Online travel, travel technology, metasearch.
- **Target customers**: B2C (leisure and business travelers) and B2B (travel providers, advertisers, and corporate clients via KAYAK for Business).
- **Mission or purpose statement**: To help travelers make confident travel decisions by providing transparent, comprehensive search results that put control back in their hands. KAYAK believes “travel makes the world better.”

## Products & Services
- **KAYAK Metasearch**: Core product allowing comparison of flights, hotels, rental cars, and vacation packages from hundreds of travel sites.
- **KAYAK for Business (K4B)**: Free corporate travel solution for business travelers.
- **KAYAK Mobile App**: iOS and Android app offering seamless travel planning, price forecasts, price alerts, trip management, and AI-powered search.
- **KAYAK.ai**: AI-powered travel assistant providing personalized tips, live pricing, and conversational booking.
- **Explore Tool**: Inspires spontaneous travel by showing destinations within a chosen budget.
- **Trips**: Personal travel assistant for organizing, managing, and sharing itineraries with real-time flight status.
- **Price Forecast & Alerts**: Predicts price trends and notifies users of changes for flights, hotels, and car rentals.
- **KAYAK for Partners & Advertisers**: Commission-based and advertising revenue models.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation/Market Cap**: Not publicly disclosed as a subsidiary; parent Booking Holdings has a market cap of ~$150+ billion (as of mid-2025).
- **Key Metric**: Processes billions of searches annually; 800+ team members; 60+ international sites in 25+ languages.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: Owned by Booking Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: BKNG), which acquired KAYAK in 2013. Partners with hundreds of airlines, hotels, online travel agencies, and car rental companies.
- **Growth Signals**: 
  - Named #1 Best Airfare Search Site by Frommer’s (2024, 2025).
  - Won World’s Best Flight & Hotel Comparison Website at World Travel Tech Awards (2022–2024).
  - Recognized by Statista & COMPUTER BILD as a Top Online Platform 2025.
  - First mainstream travel company to introduce AI-powered conversational search (KAYAK AI Mode).
  - Expanded portfolio of 7 travel search brands globally.

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-mover in travel metasearch**: Pioneered the concept in 2004, creating a trusted, comprehensive comparison platform.
- **Unbiased results**: Displays fares from all major providers without favoritism, clearly labeling booking sources.
- **Massive data advantage**: Processes billions of searches, enabling powerful AI/ML tools like Price Forecast and AI Mode.
- **Global brand portfolio**: Manages 7 brands (KAYAK, SWOODOO, checkfelix, momondo, Cheapflights, Mundi, HotelsCombined) with a global footprint.
- **Strong financial backing**: Part of Booking Holdings, providing stability and resources for innovation.
- **High trust & recognition**: Consistently ranked #1 by leading travel publications and awards.

## Strategic Focus
- **AI & personalization**: Leading with AI-powered search and conversational planning to improve user experience.
- **Expanding corporate travel**: Growing KAYAK for Business as a free, self-service corporate travel tool.
- **Global scale**: Continuing to expand international sites and language support.
- **Innovation in search tools**: Developing new features like Price Forecast, Explore, and real-time trip management.
- **Maintaining transparency**: Strengthening trust through clear labeling and fair marketplace practices.

## Why Work Here
- **Culture**: Mission-driven, data-obsessed team of 800+ passionate about travel technology; emphasis on career growth, skill development, and individual learning.
- **Work policy**: Hybrid model – team members work from the office three days a week, with flexibility to come in more often. Some roles are fully remote (US-based).
- **Perks**: Part of a global network including OpenTable and a portfolio of travel metasearch brands; employee-resource groups for under-represented communities; global equal-pay policy.
- **Engineering culture**: Strong focus on data, AI, and scalable systems (billions of queries); tech stack includes modern Java, frontend frameworks, and ETL tools.
- **Global opportunities**: 15 international offices with opportunities to work across teams.
- **Recognition**: Named a top employer by Built In and industry awards.
- **Caution**: KAYAK warns of fraudulent job ads – all genuine recruitment ends with @kayak.com, and no payment is ever requested from candidates.

## Sources
1. [kayak.com](https://www.kayak.com/careers/)
2. [kayak.com](https://www.kayak.com/about)
3. [kayak.com](https://www.kayak.com/c/help/about/)
4. [builtin.com](https://builtin.com/company/kayak)
5. [linkedin.com](https://www.linkedin.com/company/kayak)

## Other roles at KAYAK

- [Senior Account Manager, K4B](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-account-manager-k4b-kayak-cambridge-5jxzvd82rfw9) — Cambridge, MA
- [Senior Account Manager, K4B](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-account-manager-k4b-kayak-london-563en6b4wqg8) — London, United Kingdom
- [Senior Compliance Specialist, FCRM & Ethics](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-compliance-specialist-fcrm-ethics-kayak-concord-xgbe3n27h5f2) — Concord
- [Senior Software Engineer, Meta AI](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-software-engineer-meta-ai-kayak-berlin-xe0adsbzxct1) — Berlin, Germany
- [Director, Finance Transformation](https://feeny.ai/job/director-finance-transformation-kayak-london-5jg71779enhr) — London, United Kingdom
- [Director, Finance Transformation](https://feeny.ai/job/director-finance-transformation-kayak-ireland-74hzfnb2rptq) — Ireland
- [Technical Product Manager, Experimentation Platform](https://feeny.ai/job/technical-product-manager-experimentation-platform-kayak-concord-80bh3prtas7h) — Concord
- [Senior Product Designer, K4B](https://feeny.ai/job/senior-product-designer-k4b-kayak-berlin-fxsbryjqesqk) — Berlin, Germany
- [Director of Cyber Security](https://feeny.ai/job/director-of-cyber-security-kayak-concord-dt09ta85a7a8) — Concord
- [Sr. Director, Media Planning and Buying](https://feeny.ai/job/sr-director-media-planning-and-buying-kayak-cambridge-nqcw2rgjtws9) — Cambridge, MA