Head of Product Design
Summary
Lead design for an AI-powered procurement intelligence platform serving industrial buyers; define how humans and agents collaborate and build a team of ~4 designers.
About the Role
This is a senior design leadership role at a fast-growing, Series A-backed AI procurement intelligence company serving large industrial customers across Europe. The platform combines AI agents with human expertise to make high-impact cost decisions — including should-costing, supplier benchmarking, and contract leakage — legible, trustworthy, and actionable for non-analyst buyers.
As Head of Product Design, you will define how humans and AI agents collaborate across the product, build and lead a team of ~4 product designers, and establish design as a strategic partner within the product trio (product, engineering, and design). This is a hands-on leadership role for someone who moves fluidly between vision-setting and pixel-level craft.
The role is based on-site in Munich, Germany. Visa sponsorship is not available.
What You'll Do
Define the interaction paradigm for an agent-native product — where AI agents execute procurement workflows and human buyers supervise, steer, and handle exceptions.
Create mental models, UI patterns, and frameworks that make complex procurement decisions legible and trustworthy for industrial buyers.
Translate technical procurement concepts (e.g. should-costing, raw material indices, contract leakage) into accessible, actionable UX for non-analyst users.
Own and evolve the design system and component architecture to support agent-driven development and rapid iteration.
Build, hire, and lead a team of ~4 product designers, setting standards for craft, speed, and strategic impact.
Establish and lead a UX research program — from planning and participant recruiting to study execution and insight synthesis — that drives product strategy.
Drive company-wide user understanding and advocate for real user problems across the organisation.
Champion design as a strategic partner alongside product and engineering.
What We're Looking For
Required:
6+ years in product design, with 2+ years leading design teams at high-growth technology companies known for design excellence.
Proven experience hiring, building, and managing a product design team of ~4 and establishing team processes and standards.
Proven experience owning a UX research program end-to-end (planning, recruiting, conducting studies, synthesising insights).
Deep experience designing data-heavy, workflow-driven enterprise products — making information density an asset rather than a liability.
Direct experience designing for enterprise procurement or complex B2B procurement workflows, with the ability to translate concepts like should-costing and contract leakage into clear UX.
Genuine fluency with AI as a design material — a clear point of view on LLMs, agents, and human-automation collaboration.
Strong systems thinking: you design in frameworks and patterns, not just individual screens.
Demonstrated ability to move between strategic leadership and hands-on craft as the situation demands.
Fluent in English (written and spoken).
Nice to Have:
German language skills (a plus, not required).
Experience at or with industrial, manufacturing, or supply chain organisations.
Background at companies in AI-enabled enterprise software, procurement tech, or complex B2B SaaS.
Location & Work Arrangement
Location: Munich, Bavaria, Germany
Work arrangement: On-site
Visa sponsorship: Not available — candidates must have the right to work in Germany