Senior Director, Product Design

Job Description

AffiniPay is seeking an innovative Senior Director of Product Design to join our growing Product and Design team. In this role, you will spearhead a comprehensive Product Design refresh, driving the evolution of our user experience to meet modern standards and exceed customer expectations. Your expertise will be pivotal in driving our new product design strategy, fostering scalable solutions, and ensuring ease of use remains a cornerstone of our software. As a leader, you will guide and mentor a talented team, advancing the maturity of our product design practice and cultivating the next generation of design excellence at AffiniPay. This is a unique opportunity to shape the direction of our product design efforts and contribute significantly to our distributed team’s growth, setting the stage for a transformative era of innovation and impact.

What you’ll do

• Define and Drive Product Design Vision: Lead the development of a forward-thinking Product Design strategy and vision that aligns with long-term business goals, ensuring a best-in-class user experience and positioning ease of use as a differentiator for AffiniPay’s products.
• Oversee Strategic Execution: Guide the team in crafting and executing Product Design strategies for products both on and off the roadmap, balancing innovation with operational excellence to meet user and business needs.
• Lead Complex Design Transformations: Bring expertise in steering large-scale redesign initiatives, including implementing modern design systems and front-end technologies. Leverage experience to guide cross-functional teams through phased rollouts, ensuring seamless execution and alignment with product, engineering, and business strategies.
• Make High-Impact Decisions: Shape the high-level direction and strategy of the Product Design team, approving multi-quarter initiatives and key objectives that drive significant impact on user experience, product performance, and revenue.
• Elevate Best Practices: Establish and refine scalable design standards, such as design systems and cross-app workflows, to ensure consistency, efficiency, and alignment with business and user goals.
• Foster Cross-Organizational Alignment: Oversee collaborations across functions and teams, ensuring Product Design strategy and decisions are integrated into broader organizational goals and driving alignment across large-scale projects.
• Deliver Customer-Centric Insights: Partner with product and business leaders to define a long-term Product Design vision, leveraging user research, hypothesis-driven experiments, usability testing, and impactful insights to inform product design decisions.
• Promote a Unified User Experience: Advocate for a cohesive cross-platform experience by championing scalable design systems, constructive design critiques, and consistent standards of quality in collaboration with engineering teams.
• Grow the Team and Talent: Hire, onboard, and develop team members to align with evolving business needs, while nurturing existing talent to advance their careers and excel in their roles.
• Champion User-Centered Design: Evangelize design thinking across the organization by leading workshops, cross-functional activities, and promoting the integration of design into agile product development processes.
• Collaborate to Drive Excellence: Partner with other design leaders and engineering counterparts to uphold standards of operational and design excellence, ensuring a seamless integration of design in product development.

About you:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer Science, Design, Psychology, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience in product design, including a proven track record of leading teams and managing complex, high-impact design projects.
• Proven experience leading a comprehensive product design refresh or redesign at scale, demonstrating the ability to balance strategic vision with execution to deliver transformative user experiences.
• Deep experience across all phases of the design process, including research, strategy, ideation, prototyping, and testing, with a focus on delivering user-centric solutions.
• Demonstrated ability to define and implement product design strategies and roadmaps that drive measurable business results and enhance user experience.
• Experience in a senior leadership role within a product- or technology-driven organization, guiding teams through complex challenges and delivering impactful solutions.
• Strong presentation and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively influence and build consensus among stakeholders across all organizational levels.
• A strong understanding of technical concepts, curiosity for innovation, and a genuine enthusiasm for products, people, and exceptional user experiences.
• In-depth knowledge of Agile and Lean methodologies, with hands-on experience driving design excellence in collaborative, iterative, and agile environments.
• Proven ability to work seamlessly with product management, engineering, marketing, and other cross-functional teams to align on goals and deliver cohesive design outcomes.