Director, Product Design

Travel is not just about the destination; it's about every memory made along the way. We are dedicated to shaping the future of travel by partnering with 200+ airline, hospitality, cruise, passenger rail, and financial services companies to create new, meaningful revenue streams through incredible customer experiences. Rooted in our core values of being ambitious, innovative, and collaborative, we are driven to continuously raise the bar, exceed expectations, and bring out the best in everyone, fostering a culture where we believe we are better together, working towards an extraordinary future in travel. Come help us transform everyday travel into extraordinary experiences.

As the Director of Product Design joining our Product team, you will be responsible to lead our growing product design team and collaborate across all areas of the business to ensure we are continuously researching and implementing e-commerce design trends and industry best practices.

In this role, you will be a key driver in creating user-centered and innovative design solutions that delight our partners and their customers, while contributing to Plusgrade's continued success. You will play a critical role in building and evolving a robust design system that caters to the needs of our diverse global partner base.

• Leading and Inspiring a World-Class Diverse Team: You will continue to build, mentor, and inspire a high-performing team of product designers. You will foster a culture of creativity, collaboration, and continuous learning, empowering your team to deliver exceptional design solutions.

• Shaping the Product Vision: You'll collaborate closely with the VP of Product and Engineering to define the product vision and strategy, ensure design is at the forefront of our product development process, and translate business objectives into a cohesive and compelling design direction.

• Driving Design Excellence: You'll champion user-centered design principles and best practices, establishing and maintaining high standards for design quality across all Plusgrade products.

• Creating Seamless User Experiences: You'll lead the design of intuitive and engaging user experiences for our partners and their customers, across various platforms and touchpoints.

• Championing Innovation: You'll stay ahead of industry trends and emerging technologies, exploring new design approaches and pushing the boundaries of what's possible in the travel technology space.

• Building a Global Design System: You will lead the development and evolution of a comprehensive multi branded atomic design system that supports 70 + partners across our main 7 products . This system will be flexible and scalable to accommodate the regional differences of our global partner base, ensuring a consistent and localized user experience.

• Ensuring Future-Proof Design: You will stay informed about emerging technology trends and incorporate them into our design strategy, ensuring our applications remain adaptable, high-performing, and relevant in a constantly changing technological landscape.

• Leading with Data and Research: You will champion an iterative and agile design process, leveraging data, user research, usability testing, surveys, and other methods to inform design decisions and continuously improve our products. You will guide your team in forming hypotheses, testing assumptions, and iterating on designs based on evidence and user feedback.

• Lead internationalization and accessibility efforts by ensuring the designs accommodate diverse global markets, languages, and cultural nuances while implementing accessibility best practices beyond color contrast, including screen reader optimization, keyboard navigation, and cognitive accessibility considerations.

• Proven Leadership: 10+ years of experience in product design, UX design, or a related field, with at least 7 years in leadership roles with growing responsibilities. You have a demonstrated track record of building, leading, and motivating high-performing design teams.

• User-Centered Vision: Deep expertise in user-centered design principles and a passion for crafting intuitive, engaging, and accessible experiences.

• Strong Design Expertise: You possess a strong portfolio showcasing your design skills and experience across various platforms and touchpoints.

• Exceptional Communication: Strong interpersonal, presentation, and storytelling skills, with the ability to articulate design decisions, influence stakeholders, and advocate for design at all levels.

• A Collaborative Spirit: A team player who thrives in cross-functional environments, working closely with product, engineering, and business teams to drive shared success.

• Experience with multibranding design systems: Proven experience in designing, implementing, and scaling multi-branded atomic design systems for complex B2B2C applications, with a focus on maintainability, internationalization, and accessibility.

• Forward-Thinking Mindset: You possess a strong understanding of emerging technologies and their potential impact on design, demonstrating the ability to adapt and innovate in a rapidly evolving technological landscape.

• Strategic Alignment: You have a proven ability to align design strategy with business objectives and translate high-level goals into actionable design initiatives.

• Data-Driven Approach: You strongly advocate for data-driven design and have experience implementing iterative and agile design processes, utilizing user research, usability testing, and data analysis to inform design decisions.

• Forward-Thinking & Innovative: Deep understanding of emerging technologies and their impact on design, with the ability to adapt, experiment, and drive innovation in a rapidly evolving digital landscape.

• Strategic Alignment: Strong ability to connect design strategy with business objectives, translating vision into actionable initiatives that deliver measurable impact.

• Data-Driven Approach: Passionate advocate for data-informed design, leveraging user research, usability testing, and analytics to drive continuous iteration and improvement.

• Experience in the travel or aviation industry.

• Familiarity with agile development methodologies.

• Experience with design systems and component libraries.

🏦RRSP/401(k) Matching

🏥Comprehensive health plans

📅Flexible Paid Time Off

✈️Annual upgrade credit

🏋️‍♀️Annual physical wellness credit

🧘Annual mental wellness credit

📍Flexibility to work remotely

🍼 Parental Leave Top Up

🌍 Adventure Pass

Plusgrade is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to providing an accessible recruitment process. We welcome applications from all qualified individuals and are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of gender identity or expression, race, ethnic origin, creed, place of origin, age, sex, marital status, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, and any other category protected by law. Upon request we will provide accommodation for applicants with disabilities.

We believe in diversity and inclusivity and that is why our interview process is designed for a positive candidate experience and to ensure every candidate is evaluated equally. All applications will be reviewed from our Talent Team and the successful candidate(s) will go through the following recruitment process:

• Recruiter Phone Interview

• Hiring Manager Interview

• Team Interview