Director Of Product Design

Description:

As a Director of Product Design, you'll own the design agenda for a major area of the Deel platform, and you'll be accountable for how it connects to everything around it. You'll lead a team of designers, set the bar for craft and judgment, and shape strategy alongside Product and Engineering leadership as a peer.

This isn't a role for someone getting ready for the step up. We're looking for design leaders who are already operating at Director level today and who will raise the bar from day one. The specific product area you lead will be shaped by your experience and strengths. We match Directors to areas through the interview process, not before it.

What You'll Own

Team and Organization. You'll build and run a design team, typically five to nine designers in a flat structure. You'll hire and develop designers, set craft standards and operating rhythms, and decide where to invest design capacity as your area grows. You stay close enough to the work to unblock a launch, reset a review, or step into a hard, ambiguous problem yourself rather than managing it from a distance.

Vision and strategy. You'll sit with Product and Engineering leadership as a peer in shaping your area's strategy, not just design's execution of it. Where AI takes over and where humans stay in the loop, how your area connects to the rest of the platform, and what the experience should look like a year and three years out: you co-own these calls at the strategy table, and you're accountable for the design point of view holding up under scrutiny from company leadership.

You'll bring the systems thinking that ties the platform together. Today, an admin running payroll, an employee checking their benefits, a manager making a hire, and an ops agent resolving a ticket can all experience a different Deel. Closing that gap means aligning multiple teams, roadmaps, and leaders around one coherent platform experience, often without formal authority.

You'll lead how AI changes both the product and the way your team works. That means shaping AI-powered experiences customers rely on, and building the tools, workflows, and habits that make your team faster and better.

Craft and quality. You will stay close enough to the work to unblock a launch, reset a review, or raise the bar personally when it matters.

Cross-functional leadership. Hold the senior Product, Engineering, and business stakeholder relationships for your area. Be the design voice in strategy conversations, not just design reviews.

Organizational impact. Contribute to how the broader design org works — shared standards, hiring practices, AI-forward workflows beyond the boundaries of your own team.

Accountability. Own the outcomes of what ships in your area: design quality, business impact, and whether the work holds up under scrutiny from company leadership.

What We're Looking For
 

• 10+ years in Product Design, with current or recent experience at Director level or equivalent scope
• A proven track record leading a team of seven or more designers, including hiring, developing talent, and setting the craft bar
• Experience at growth-stage or scaled SaaS, fintech, or technology companies. Experience with HR, payroll, or workforce products is a plus, not a requirement
• Strong craft across interaction and visual design, and comfort across complex B2B and enterprise products that serve multiple personas, such as admins, employees, finance teams, and partners
• Comfortable with complex system architecture, technical constraints, and compliance-heavy domains
• A track record of design changing what got built: you can point to specific decisions where design's perspective shifted the outcome with Product, Engineering, and business leadership
• Strong influence and alignment with Director-level peers in Product and Engineering, built without a reporting line
• AI: you've materially changed how you and your team work with AI in the last 12–18 months. You've built AI solutions, embedded AI into your team's practice, or shipped AI-powered product experiences, and you have a considered view on where humans should stay in the loop
• Data-savvy and comfortable measuring success through product and business outcomes
• Solid understanding of both enterprise and startup needs
   

You Should Be Someone Who
 

• Thrives in velocity and doesn't wait for perfect clarity
• Makes good decisions under pressure
• Puts the team first and holds a high bar for yourself and others
• Leads by example and stays hands-on with the work
• Can facilitate execution while raising, not lowering, the quality bar
• Cares about details and outcomes
• Integrates research into product decisions naturally