Director, Product Design And Research

About the role:

As the Director, Product Design and Research, you will lead and manage our product design and research team to create an innovative, impactful, user centric product experience. Reporting into the VP of Product, you will be responsible for setting the product design strategy within Unbounce, lead researchers and product designers demonstrating first hand what a culture of empowered design excellence is that drives business outcomes.  You demonstrate a strong understanding in all Design areas including discovery, design execution, validation, and delivery. You have deep-rooted design instincts and apply design thinking to solve complex problems while remaining flexible, adaptable and focused even in ambiguous situations.  You are capable of leaning in to help the team design assets in order to help streamline execution, when required. The ideal candidate will have a proven track record of fostering an environment of creativity, translating research insights into compelling and iterative solutions through an efficient process that is reinforced by continuous improvement.

What you’ll be doing: 

• Partner with leadership to elevate our Product Design & Research team by providing coaching, establishing best practices, and fostering individual and team growth to optimize product design and development through empowered teams
• Cultivate robust relationships with Product Management, Engineering, and other key stakeholders to deliver customer value that aligns with our business objectives.
• Support the design team throughout the Product Development Lifecycle, ensuring effective collaboration, efficient execution, high-quality experiences, and continuity across the product portfolio
• Own and drive Research & Product Design initiatives that align with our business and product strategy, market research, and customer feedback.
• Champion user needs, build deep empathy and perspectives to create intuitive, end-to-end solutions that address the root causes of customer pain points.
• Development and upkeep of a comprehensive design system that scales with the team and business.
• Develop and communicate the design vision, strategies, and insights, sparking excitement and insight across the organization.
• Create wireframes, mockups, and prototypes to visualize design concepts and facilitate feedback and iteration, as needed.
• Stay current with industry trends, emerging technologies, and UI/UX and design best practices.
• Identify opportunities to grow and/or optimize Product Design & Research

A little bit about you:  

• 8+ years of experience in UX & interaction design, with at 5+ years designing consumer experiences and leading Product design teams with fast-paced SaaS companies
• Experience designing for a multiple product lines, form factors, and device types, including mobile and desktop
• Fluency in best practices for information architecture, optimized UIs, as well as strong knowledge of design principles and processes
• Proficiency with tools like Figma, Dovetail, Mixpanel, Miro
• Strong collaborator that can gain alignment and buy-in by effectively communicating/ presenting design rational and concepts to any stakeholder
• Ability to visually communicate complex systems and processes
• Excellent communication, leadership, organizational  and analytical skills
• Demonstrated history of using product analytics tools and acquiring user insights (e.g., conducting usability studies, user interviews, contextual inquiry) to define and validate hypotheses
• Experience at both startups and scaleups,  highly agile/scrum environment, and iterative design processes that can adapt within a dynamic environment
• A strong portfolio of innovative design work that demonstrates proficiency in UX/UI 
• Background in both Generative and Evaluative design research practices

Share our values: 

• Courage
• Ambition 
• Being Real
• Empathy
• Diversity 
• Connect
• Amplify
• Bias for Action
• Grow People
• Create the Future
• Self Leadership

What’s in it for you:

💵 Compensation range

• $159,610 - $185,000

🤝 Flexibility and time off

• A digital-first, distributed working model with flexible hours -- for this role, we will consider all applications from those based in Canada*, with the option to work from our Vancouver office
• 20 vacation days
• Holiday Closure:  December 25th - January 1st
• One paid day off on your birthday
  One paid volunteer day per year

🩺 Health and wellness

• A comprehensive benefits package including medical, dental, vision, and generous mental health support options – all available on day 1
• 12 personal wellness days
• $500 health and wellness allowance**
• Parental leave and planned reintegration program

🎓 Growth

• Org-wide and employee-led DEI and growth initiatives
  Professional development time and budget

🌟 More perks!

• One-time work-from-home allowance - $500
• Annual work-from-home allowance after your 1st year - $250
• An annual allowance of $1,000 that you can choose to use towards your vacation, or put toward your RRSP contribution**

* Please note that we currently do not have a legal entity set up to operate as an employer of record in Quebec. We thank you for your consideration but we are unable to accept candidates from Quebec at this time.

** These amounts will be prorated based on your start date.