Design Researcher | HCD Team (Job Ref.: AICOS_Jobs_2025_06) | Porto, Portugal Porto

Design Researcher | HCD Team (Job Ref.: AICOS_Jobs_2025_06) | Porto, Portugal
Porto
Porto, Porto District, Portugal

Job Salary: Depending on the academic degree and professional experience of the candidate

Job Location: Porto

Job Description and Responsibilities:

The
- centered design department at Fraunhofer Portugal AICOS is composed of a multidisciplinary team with backgrounds in design (graphic, interaction, industrial, service),
- computer interaction, and health sciences. Together with the other departments, looking at artificial intelligence and cyberphysical systems, the
- centered design department has a record of
- winning work in projects for industry clients as well as in publicly funded research. We are especially versed in conducting
-
- wild user research,
- design, and technology assessment in the fields of healthcare and manufacturing.

We are looking for a design researcher with experience in client-facing interactions, who can contribute to our team and projects with their knowledge and practice in design research and interaction design. The candidate should be experienced with human-centered design methods and in explaining to clients the value of such methods. The candidate should have exceptional design skills (visual and interaction design), understand the fundamentals of user experience, and be able to test designs next to future users.

For this position, we are expecting a person who is proficient in English and in Portuguese, and who can easily communicate ideas, processes, and results in writing and speaking.

Professional Experience:

1. Experience in user research;
2. Experience in planning and conducting usability studies;
3. Experience in
   - facing interactions;
4. Portfolio demonstrating exceptional design skills and impact of the design (research) work;
5. Ideally, experience in designing with and for niche audiences.

Personal Skills:

1. Highly developed aesthetic sensitivity;
2. Highly developed sense of ethics in working with human subjects;
3. Ability to interact directly with clients;
4. Good team player;
5. Accountability.

Academic Qualifications:

MSc in Design.

We offer you a great place to work with:

1. Opportunities to develop your ideas: Be part of a
   - centric workplace that fosters creativity and
   -
   -
   - box thinking. We encourage the development of new ideas and ensure that every voice is heard;
2. Purpose and
   - driven research: Engage in projects that sit at the intersection of research and
   - world applications, contributing to technology that makes a tangible difference in society;
3. Networking: Access to a large international network of research centers, other Fraunhofer institutes across the world, and companies;
4. Multidisciplinary teams: Collaborate with professionals from diverse backgrounds, enhancing your learning and professional growth;
5. Supportive culture: Join a team with an excellent spirit, where collaboration, mutual support, and team achievements are celebrated;
6. Learning opportunities: Work within a culture that upholds professional standards and best practices, promoting continuous improvement and excellence, as well as regular
   - sharing events;
7. Flexible work arrangements: Benefit from flexible working hours and opportunities to work from home, supporting a healthy
   - life balance;
8. Comprehensive Benefits: Private health insurance plan, meal allowance, possibility of yearly salary bonus.

Application Process:

Applications are permanently open until the ideal candidate is selected. A first “cut-off” to evaluate applications day will occur on February 28, 2025.

The selected candidate is expected to start working in April 2025.

- Recommendation Letters are optional but also welcome.

Observation:

The research activities in the scope of this job opportunity are planned to be developed within the following projects:

- ACHILLES – Human-centred Machine Learning: Lighter, Clearer, Safer, with Notice No. HORIZON-CL4-2024-DATA-01-01 and Project Reference No. 101189689 (Horizon Europe Framework Programme - HORIZON);

- Connected
Health – Smart and End-to-end Healthcare Management Platform, with Notice No. 26/SI/2016 and Project Reference No. POCI-01-0247-FEDER-046858 (PT2020 - SI I&DT Co-promoção);