Director of Product Design

FMX is a cloud-based software company headquartered in Columbus, Ohio, specializing in facility maintenance and management products. They are seeking a Director of Product Design to lead the design team, set design strategy, and ensure high-quality design across all product suites while remaining hands-on in delivery.

Responsibilities:

• Own the design work for one product-suite trio: frame problems, map user flows, and design and validate solutions with customers
• Use AI-powered design and prototyping tools to explore workflows and UI patterns quickly, and co-build coded prototypes with engineers to test with users
• Run rapid, formative usability tests on concept builds and drive iteration before delivery
• Own the design vision across all product suites and align it with the company's product and business strategy
• Define what good looks like for FMX design, and build the roadmap to raise design maturity from where it is today to a consistent, strategic function
• Bring an outside-in point of view on where design and AI-accelerated workflows are heading, and decide how FMX should adopt them
• Manage, mentor, and develop the design team through regular 1:1s, constructive critique, and career development matched to each person's strengths and goals
• Give the team air cover. Buffer designers from misalignment so they can focus on the work, and represent design's priorities with Product and Engineering
• Own hiring, onboarding, and the design career and progression framework, and build the team structure that scales with the org
• Set and hold the quality bar across suites through critique and clear standards, so the experience stays coherent as trios go deeper into their own products
• Own the design system, including the component library, design standards, and interaction patterns (for example, when to use a form versus a natural-language experience), and keep FMX's UX modern, coherent, and appropriate for our user roles
• Set standards for the AI-accelerated workflow: decide what to speed up with AI and what still needs human research and judgment, so faster cycles don't come at the cost of quality, accessibility, or ethics
• Work with Product and Engineering leadership to fold design into how bets are shaped, scoped, and delivered
• Advocate for the value of design and user research with executives and across departments, and make the case with evidence: usability findings, analytics (Userpilot), and outcome data

Requirements:

• 8+ years in product or UX design, including several years leading, managing, and growing designers
• A track record of setting design strategy and raising the quality and maturity of a design function, not just shipping individual projects
• A strong portfolio and design point of view: you can still read a screen, run a critique, and tell great work from good work
• Demonstrated judgment about AI-assisted design and prototyping workflows: where they speed teams up, and what should not be delegated to AI
• Experience owning a design system and a set of standards across multiple teams or product areas
• Fluency in user-centered design, user research, and usability testing, and comfort using analytics and behavior data to inform and defend decisions
• Excellent communication and executive presence, with the ability to influence peers in Product and Engineering and keep teams aligned async without relying on constant live meetings
• Comfort operating in a remote, fast-moving environment
• A match with our core pillars: Teamwork, Excellence and Integrity
• Expertise in Figma