Director of Product Design

Summary

Join Lightspeed as their Director of Product Design to lead a global team of designers, shaping exceptional product experiences and championing user-centered innovation. You will guide and mentor your team, fostering collaboration and driving design quality. Translate nebulous concepts into specific product features, leveraging insights from user research, particularly regarding AI-enhanced functionalities. Partner with senior leaders in Product and Engineering to build innovative products. Cultivate a culture of innovation and own the evolution of the Hospitality Design System. Build strong relationships across the organization and advocate for design thinking. This role requires extensive product design expertise, strong leadership skills, and a deep understanding of AI's impact on user experience.

Requirements

• Strategic Curiosity & Vision: A deep curiosity and capacity to contribute to product strategy and vision. You're not just asking "how it looks" or "what we should design," but profoundly "why are we designing this at all, and how can AI responsibly enhance this vision?"
• Extensive Product Design Expertise: At least 10 years of practical, in-house product and/or consumer-facing UX/UI and visual design experience. A minimum of 3 years of industry experience in a people management role on a Design team. Enterprise experience, especially within technology-driven sectors, is highly preferred
• Acute Empathy & Self-Awareness: A deep understanding of human behavior and needs, coupled with profound empathy for both our customers (and their relationship with AI) and your team's goals
• Evolutionary Technology Perspective: A tenured, forward-thinking perspective on technology, product development, and design practices, with a specific understanding of the evolving landscape and implications of Artificial Intelligence
• Applied Service Design: Demonstrated experience with service design practices and a commitment to continuously evolving your design process to encompass end-to-end user journeys that may include AI interactions
• Holistic Design Thinking: An eagerness and ability to work across all digital, AI-powered, and, where applicable, physical manifestations of what we design, ensuring cohesive and intuitive experiences
• Mentorship for User-Centered Experiences: A passion for mentoring executives, product managers, and engineers to deliver truly user-centered solutions, particularly as they integrate and leverage AI
• Exceptional Communication & Visualization: Outstanding communication and data visualization skills. You can eloquently articulate design decisions, bring internal stakeholders on your design journey, and concisely support your recommendations, especially when explaining complex AI interactions and their impact
• Technical Design Proficiency: Expert proficiency in Figma , a strong understanding of Storybook , and a demonstrated ability to quickly adapt to and leverage new tools and technologies relevant to modern product design and AI integration

Responsibilities

• Lead and Inspire a Global Team: Guide, mentor, and empower a diverse team of product designers across geographies (North America, EMEA), setting clear goals, optimizing workload allocation, and ensuring their continuous growth and success on projects that span our entire product portfolio, including those with AI-driven features
• Empower Autonomous Teams: Foster an environment where designers embedded in highly autonomous product teams ("squads") can collaborate effectively through both synchronous and asynchronous methods, driving design quality and efficiency
• Translate Vision into Impact: Guide teams in the practice of transforming nebulous concepts into specific, useful, and delightful product features, adeptly navigating the complexities introduced by AI and machine learning capabilities
• Drive Insight-Driven Solutions: Champion the process of extracting powerful insights from user research, with particular attention to how users interact with and perceive AI-enhanced functionalities, and translating these insights into tangible, impactful design solutions
• Strategic Cross-Functional Partnership: Serve as an equal partner to senior leaders in Product and Engineering, influencing product strategy and collaborating deeply to build innovative products that customers love and are willing to invest in, including those leveraging AI
• Cultivate a Culture of Innovation: Instill and amplify a culture of innovation within the Design team and across the organization, actively identifying and celebrating groundbreaking ideas—especially those that explore the frontiers of AI in user experience
• Elevate Our Design System: Own the evolution and maintenance of our Hospitality Design System, ensuring its growth accommodates new interaction patterns and components required for AI-driven experiences, in close partnership with Engineering
• Build Organizational Trust & Advocacy: Develop strong, trusted relationships across the entire organization, leveraging your influence and industry connections to advocate for the design team and champion the value of design thinking, particularly in the context of intelligent systems
• You may be asked to contribute as part of the wider Lightspeed team to achieve organizational objectives even if this means doing things that aren’t strictly within the scope of your role!

Benefits

• Lots of autonomy, flexible work culture, and the possibility of remote work
• Development of very high-traffic products used at a global scale
• Exposure to modern and proven technology
• Opportunity to learn and expand your skill set
• Tons of growth opportunities in technical or people management roles
• Excellent benefits & perks, including equity for all Lightspeeders
• Opportunity to join a fast-paced, high-growth company
• Become a valued part of the diverse and inclusive Lightspeed culture
• Lightspeed share scheme (we are all owners)
• Flexible working policy
• Mental health online platform and counseling & coaching services
• Health and wellness benefits
• LinkedIn Learning license (learning is always ongoing)
• Volunteer day to be able to give back to society!