VP of Product Design
Sydney / Melbourne / Brisbane / Hobart
Product – Product Design /
Full-time /
Remote
Who are we?
UpGuard’s mission is to protect the world’s data. We obsessively seek out elegant, robust ways to enable our customers to find, acknowledge, and remediate cyber risk. With UpGuard, organizations leverage our security expertise and software to automate what was once laborious, spreadsheet-driven processes–whether it's monitoring the attack surface of hundreds of vendors or assessing the security of their own infrastructure. UpGuard is used by some of the world’s largest, fastest-growing, and most innovative companies.
Our Product team at UpGuard comprises of our Product Management, Product Support, Engineering, Design, Data Leaks Detection, and Third Party Risk Management Services. Our Product team’s vision is to become the leader in the Cyber VRM category by providing a best-in-class SaaS platform for organizations to manage their third-party risk and external attack surface. Our purpose as a Product team is simply to build a product that enables this. We aim to build a product that users love and come to rely on, and one that regularly and consistently improves.
Where does this role fit in?
We're entering a new phase of growth, expanding our product suite and user base and product design is a key strategic differentiator in this evolution. As VP of Product Design, you'll sit at the heart of this transformation, reporting to the Chief Product Officer and leading a growing team of designers and a UX writer. You'll scale our design system, drive the adoption of AI tools to improve efficiency, and help shape a unified, world class experience across every touchpoint in close partnership with Product, Engineering, and Brand.
Reporting to the Chief Product Officer, you'll lead a team of five Product Designers (with plans to grow) and a UX Writer. You'll be responsible for scaling our design system into a robust foundation that enables consistency and speed, while championing AI-assisted design tooling to reduce repetitive work and maximise time spent on solving user problems. You'll also partner closely with the VP of Product, VP of Engineering, and Brand & Marketing Design to ensure a unified, world class experience across all touchpoints.
Drive Design Vision & Strategy
- Craft and socialise a compelling design vision that aligns with UpGuard’s product strategy and brand.
- Establish a design‑system roadmap that scales across multiple products and future use cases.
- Define success metrics e.g. adoption of the design system, usability/NPS increases, reduction in design‑to‑dev cycle time and report progress to executives.
Build & Scale a Modern Design System
- Lead and accelerate the evolution of our token‑driven Figma design system, formalising governance, documentation, and contributor workflows.
- Formalise design‑ops processes (versioning, governance, documentation) so patterns remain consistent as the suite grows.
- Ensure collaboration with Brand & Marketing Design to keep visual language unified.
Lead & Empower the Design Team
- Hire, mentor, and grow a high‑performing team of Product Designers.
- Provide coaching, clear career paths, and effective feedback loops so designers produce their best work.
- Foster a culture of rapid prototyping, user testing, and measurable learning.
Integrate AI Into the Design Workflow
- Identify and deploy generative‑AI tools (e.g. for ideation, content, asset generation) that streamline designer workflows.
- Partner with Engineering and Product teams to experiment with AI‑driven UX patterns inside the product itself.
Cross‑Functional Leadership & Execution
- Collaborate daily with Product, Engineering, Customer Success, and Support to ship features that delight users.
- Translate complex cybersecurity concepts into simple, intuitive experiences.
- Balance strategic initiatives with hands‑on design reviews and execution oversight.
What do we need from you?
- Proven leadership: Multiple years leading product‑design teams (Director/Head/VP level), ideally in a high‑growth B2B software environment, but we value exceptional accomplishments regardless of sector.
- Track record of impact: Clear examples where your leadership elevated product usability, visual quality, or speed of delivery.
- Design‑system expertise: Experience building or scaling a component library and token system in Figma (or similar).
- AI mindset: Familiarity with generative‑AI tools and a passion for integrating them into design workflows.
- Collaboration skills: Excellent communication and influence across Product, Engineering, and Brand teams.
- User‑centred craft: Ability to pair data‑driven insights with strong product‑thinking and interaction‑design chops.
- Domain exposure: Experience in B2B SaaS is highly valued; cybersecurity familiarity is a bonus but not mandatory.
- Location: Must be based on Australia’s east coast (AEST/AEDT time zone) and able to work remotely or from our optional offices.
What would give you an edge?
- Demonstrated success introducing AI‑assisted processes that measurably improved design velocity or quality.
- Experience scaling design orgs from single‑product to multi‑product platforms.
- Contributions to open‑source or public design systems.
- Familiarity with accessibility best practices and inclusive‑design methodologies.
What's in it for you?
- Monthly Lifestyle subsidy: use this for financial, physical and mental wellbeing (all regions)
- WFH set-up allowance: to ensure you have the right environment to work in, we will help you get set up within your first 3 months at UpGuard (all regions)
- $1500 USD annual Learning & Development allowance: to support your career development all team members will be able to expense development opportunities against this allowance (all regions)
- Generous Annual Leave/PTO allowances: time to recharge your batteries (all regions)
- 18 weeks paid Parental Leave: irrespective of parenting role (all regions)
- Personal Leave allowance: this includes sick & carer’s leave (all regions)
- Fully remote working environment: whilst we have physical offices in Sydney & Hobart, we do not mandate compulsory attendance (all regions)
- Top-spec hardware: all team members will be provided with top-spec laptops for their role (all regions)
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UpGuard is a Certified Great Place to Work® in the US, Australia, UK and India, establishing its position as a leading global technology employer. 99% of team members agree that UpGuard is a great place to work, apply now to find out why!
As an Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer, qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender perception or identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, or disability status.
For applications to positions in the United States, please note, at this time we can only support hiring in the following US states: CA, MD, MA, IL, OR, WA, CO, TX, FL, PA, LA, MO, or DC.
Before starting work with us, you will need to undertake a national police history check and reference checks. Also please note that at this time, we cannot support candidates requiring visa sponsorship or relocation.
