Head, Product & Experience Design Lab

About the Role The Head, Product & Experience Design Lab leads Polaris Bank's product and experience design functions, shaping a human-centered, differentiated digital banking offering. This is a leadership role that sets product and design vision and builds and directs specialist teams across four disciplines—Product Management, UX Research, UI/UX Design, and CX Design—rather than performing hands-on work in all areas. What You'll Do

• Define the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for digital banking products in partnership with business stakeholders.
• Oversee prioritization frameworks and ensure roadmaps reflect both customer needs and business objectives.
• Manage stakeholder expectations across business, technology, and executive leadership.
• Oversee UX Research: ensure customer research, journey mapping, and usability testing are embedded in the product development lifecycle; champion evidence-based design decisions and ensure findings inform product and design direction.
• Oversee UI/UX Design: set and enforce design system and visual consistency standards; oversee outputs to ensure interfaces are intuitive and on-brand.
• Oversee CX Design: end-to-end customer journey design across all touchpoints (digital and physical, where relevant) and identify/close gaps in the customer experience.
• Lead across four disciplines (Product Management, UX Research, UI/UX Design, CX Design) and guide strategy, rather than executing all hands-on work. What We're Looking For
• Bachelor's degree in Design, Business, Human-Computer Interaction, or related field; relevant certifications advantageous.
• 10+ years across product and design disciplines, including 4+ years in a leadership role spanning product and design.
• Demonstrated track record leading product and/or design functions, ideally in banking, fintech, or a digital-first environment.
• Strong product strategy and roadmapping capabilities; design leadership with credible critique of research, UI/UX, and CX work.
• Excellent stakeholder management and cross-functional influence.
• Customer empathy translated into commercial product decisions.
• Familiarity with tools including JIRA, Confluence, Productboard, Aha!, Miro; UserTesting, Dovetail, Hotjar, SurveyMonkey; Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Zeplin; Smaply / customer journey mapping platforms. Nice to Have
• Leadership experience across multiple design disciplines; experience scaling design in a banking/fintech context. Compensation & Benefits
• Salary and benefits not disclosed.