Manager/Assistant Director - Product Design

You will play a crucial role in contributing to our design system by collaborating with cross-functional teams to develop reusable components, patterns, and guidelines that enhance user experience and accelerate the whole team. Regular audits and updates to components will be conducted to incorporate feedback and emerging best practices, and you will become an advocate for design system use at Instawork, helping others leverage and evolve components effectively. Your responsibilities also include partnering with product leads to define and drive the overall strategy for your product area, ensuring alignment with business goals and user needs. You will lead a lean but efficient design team from APAC while also contributing to the product design process. Coaching and mentoring designers and managers to help them perform at their best and achieve their career goals will be part of your leadership role. User research activities, such as interviews, surveys, usability testing, and competitive analysis, will be conducted and overseen by you. Analyzing and synthesizing research findings to inform design decisions and validate concepts will be crucial. You will advocate for user-centered design methodologies and ensure that user feedback is integrated into the design process. Collaboration with developers to ensure accurate implementation of design specifications and providing ongoing support during the development process will be essential. Facilitating design reviews and presenting design solutions to stakeholders at various project lifecycle stages will be part of your role. You are expected to stay current with industry trends, best practices, and emerging technologies in UX design and design systems. Building a culture of innovation and continuous improvement within the design team is key. Identifying opportunities to enhance the user experience and proposing creative solutions to complex design challenges will be part of your responsibilities. Building a culture that elevates the team, both in performance and morale, is also crucial. The ideal candidate for this role should have at least 7+ years of experience as a product designer, with a strong portfolio demonstrating expertise in design systems and user-centered design. Proven ability to recruit and retain talented designers, mastery in design tools like Figma, strong understanding of front-end technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript), and excellent communication, presentation, and collaboration skills are essential. Ability to think strategically and execute methodically in a fast-paced environment, strong analytical and problem-solving skills, and a keen attention to details are also required.,