Product Design Intern
Required skills
Job description
Xaver posted this role. Below, we break down what it means for a working student in Cologne: your weekly hours, take-home pay and visa limits. You can also open ChatGPT or Claude with a ready-made prompt to tailor your CV, check your fit, draft a cover letter or prep for the interview.
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Description provided by Xaver
We’re a fast-scaling FinTech, founded by an experienced team that has previously built multi-million Euro companies. Over the past three years, we have established ourselves in a regulated €100bn+ market and are backed by leading founders, senior industry executives, and top-tier global VCs.
You will join a growing team at a pivotal stage and work closely with our engineering and design teams to scale our product further.
We are looking for a Product Design Intern to join us full-time asap.
Your Role:
As a Product Design Intern at Xaver, you will play a vital role in shaping the user experience of our AI-native Sales and Advisory platform. Working closely with our Head of Product Design, product managers, and engineers, your contributions will significantly impact the strategic direction of our products, ensuring they meet high standards of usability and customer satisfaction.
This isn't a shadowing role or an internship spent working on isolated side-projects that never see the light of day. We definitely don't expect you to be designing new product journeys on day one. But we do hire people we trust to take real ownership quickly once they are ramped up, and we back them when they do. You will actively contribute to our design infrastructure, participate in product discussions, and play a tangible role in building the foundation of our FinTech platform.
Your Key Responsibilities:
User Experience & Product Design:
- Support the user experience of our product from conception to launch in collaboration with product designers, product managers, and engineers.
- Assist in designing and refining product design experiences for key features and user personas to enhance user success and engagement.
- Translate analysis and research insights into new ideas and concepts with the help of our analysis and research teams.
- Apply brand themes to our products as part of our white-labelling strategy.
- Contribute to and help maintain our budding design system.
Strategic Contribution:
- Participate in strategic decisions about the future direction of Xaver’s products.
- Shared accountability to drive progress towards OKRs and improved user experience.
- Represent design in various forums with peers across product and engineering teams to ensure a consistent and cohesive user experience across all touchpoints.
Continuous Improvement & Design Community:
- Continuously seek opportunities for self-improvement and skill enhancement.
- Be an active participant in our design community, sharing ideas, best practices and insights to elevate our design standards.
Collaboration & Stakeholder Engagement:
- Build strong relationships with internal teams to ensure seamless collaboration and communication.
- Engage with external partners and stakeholders to gather feedback and insights that inform the design and development process.
Your Qualifications:
- Currently pursuing a degree in Product Design, UX/UI Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field.
- Can-do attitude and willingness to grow and learn.
- Basic knowledge of user experience principles and product design processes.
- Familiarity with design tools such as Figma; prototyping skills are a plus.
- Ability to translate research insights into actionable design actions and concepts.
- Excellent communication and collaboration skills. English is necessary, German is a plus.
Nice to Have:
- Work samples or projects showcasing your design or creative projects.
- Basic animation skills (e.g., AfterEffects) are advantageous.
- Experience in graphic design for print and/or marketing.
What We Offer:
- Real influence on the product and company from early on, working alongside founders who've built successful companies before and a team who love their craft.
- A real growth path - increasing ownership, mentorship, and scope as you prove yourself, with the potential to transition into a full-time design role.
- Competitive remuneration. Additional company perks such as gym memberships round up an individual package.
- An amazing office in the centre of Cologne.
- A collaborative, inclusive, and forward-thinking work culture.
Working student essentials
What this Design internship in Cologne means for you: the pay rules, the social contributions, and what international students should check before applying.
Weekly hours
Internships have no 20-hour cap, but a voluntary internship longer than three months generally has to pay at least the German minimum wage. Mandatory internships in your study programme are exempt.
Working student rulesSocial contributions
Mandatory internships are largely exempt from social contributions. Voluntary internships are treated like regular employment once they run long enough, so contributions usually apply.
Check your insuranceInternational students
Non-EU students can work 140 full or 280 half days per year (raised from 120/240 in March 2024). A working student contract usually fits within this — confirm the exact limits printed on your residence permit.
Studying in Germany
