Vice President of Product Design

Octacs Systems is seeking a Vice President of Product Design to lead its overall product design strategy, design organization, and user experience vision. The role oversees product design, UX/UI, design systems, customer research, design innovation, cross-functional product development, and the growth of a high-performing design organization.

Responsibilities:

• Develop and execute the company's product design strategy in alignment with corporate and product objectives
• Establish design principles, standards, processes, priorities, and long-term design roadmaps
• Translate business and customer requirements into clear product design strategies
• Ensure design is integrated into product strategy and business decision-making
• Lead the development of intuitive, consistent, and high-quality product experiences
• Oversee user experience (UX), user interface (UI), interaction design, information architecture, and customer journey design
• Identify opportunities to improve usability, accessibility, customer satisfaction, and overall product experience
• Establish user-centered design practices throughout the product development lifecycle
• Develop research strategies to understand customer needs, behaviors, preferences, and pain points
• Oversee user research, usability testing, customer interviews, surveys, and other research activities
• Translate customer insights and behavioral data into actionable product and design recommendations
• Partner with Product, Marketing, Sales, and Customer Success teams to maintain a strong understanding of target customers
• Work closely with Product Management, Engineering, Technology, Marketing, and Business teams throughout the product development process
• Ensure design requirements and user experience objectives are incorporated from product concept through launch
• Participate in product planning, prioritization, prototyping, testing, and product reviews
• Balance customer needs, technical feasibility, business requirements, and design quality
• Establish and maintain scalable design systems, visual standards, interaction patterns, and design guidelines
• Ensure consistent product experiences across platforms, products, regions, and customer touchpoints
• Improve design efficiency through reusable components, standardized processes, and modern design tools
• Promote accessibility, usability, consistency, and quality across the company's product portfolio
• Lead design innovation initiatives that improve product differentiation and customer experience
• Monitor emerging design trends, technologies, tools, and methodologies
• Explore the use of artificial intelligence, automation, advanced prototyping, analytics, and other technologies to improve the design process
• Encourage experimentation, rapid prototyping, and continuous product experience improvement
• Establish design quality standards and review mechanisms across the organization
• Conduct design reviews and provide strategic direction for major products and customer experiences
• Identify design risks, usability issues, and experience gaps and develop improvement strategies
• Ensure product experiences meet appropriate quality, accessibility, usability, and brand standards
• Work closely with Executive Leadership, Product, Engineering, Technology, Marketing, Sales, Customer Success, Research, and other business functions
• Create effective collaboration mechanisms between designers, product managers, engineers, and business stakeholders
• Ensure design decisions support product strategy, customer requirements, brand positioning, and commercial objectives
• Represent the design organization in major strategic and product decisions
• Develop and manage the product design organization, including UX designers, UI designers, interaction designers, researchers, design system specialists, and design leaders
• Establish organizational structures, resource allocation models, workflows, and performance objectives
• Manage design budgets, external design partners, agencies, tools, and other resources
• Ensure design resources are aligned with strategic product priorities
• Build and lead a high-performing product design organization
• Develop senior design leaders, design managers, researchers, and individual contributors
• Establish talent development, succession planning, career frameworks, and performance management systems
• Foster a culture of customer-centricity, creativity, collaboration, innovation, experimentation, and design excellence

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree or above in Industrial Design, Product Design, Interaction Design, User Experience Design, Graphic Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Engineering, Business, or a related field
• Typically 15+ years of experience in product design, UX/UI, interaction design, industrial design, design research, or related fields, including 8+ years in senior design leadership positions
• Proven track record of leading product design organizations and developing successful products or digital experiences
• Strong experience in design strategy, user research, design systems, product development, customer experience, and cross-functional collaboration
• Experience managing multidisciplinary design teams across multiple products, platforms, or markets
• Strong design leadership, strategic thinking, customer empathy, creative problem-solving, communication, collaboration, and organizational leadership skills
• Master's degree or advanced qualification in Design, HCI, Product Development, Business, or a related discipline preferred
• Experience working closely with C-suite executives, Product leaders, Engineering teams, Marketing organizations, customers, and external partners preferred
• International or multi-market product design experience strongly preferred