Senior Director of Product Design

At Factorial, design leadership is not a service function, an operations role, or a people-coordination job. It's not even mostly about UX/UI.

We're looking for a Senior Director of Product Design who operates at the level of value creation. Someone who understands the gap between a usable product and a profitable one, and knows how to close it.

About us

At Factorial, we are building the self-operating system that helps companies get the most out of their people, money, and resources. A software that runs the work itself instead of asking people to.

Today, those three worlds are fragmented. Headcount decisions happen without cost visibility. Payroll runs disconnected from time and expenses. IT access lives in spreadsheets and tickets. We're connecting all of it into one system, so every decision around hiring, onboarding, compensation, and technology is made with full context and real-time cost visibility.

We're at €100M+ in annual recurring revenue, serving 16,000+ companies in 60 countries with 1,500+ employees, and we recently closed a €150M round at a €2.5B valuation. The next phase is connecting the dots at a platform level, and design is leading that shift.

Designers at Factorial are expected to understand how customers' processes actually work end-to-end, frame problems in terms of business impact, and help decide what to build, not only how. Success is measured in revenue created and churn prevented, not in NPS or activity disguised as impact.

Building a self-operating system for companies requires us to work in an AI-first environment, which is not about the tools but the thinking. The core of the work is framing the problem and designing the system: what it should do, what it should decide on its own, and what humans still orchestrate. Screens come last. Designers stress-test that thinking with the model, prototype with tools like Claude and Cursor, validate with real customers, implement part of their solutions, and stay accountable until the work is live and moving the metric.

AI is the tool, and we expect you to use it relentlessly, even building your own agents to understand the agentic products you're designing. But it's not what we pay for. We pay for your judgment: the framing, the taste, the calls no model can make.

The role: IT space

This position owns the IT space, a domain where a bad experience is still socially accepted. The laptop arrives late. Access is missing. Tickets everywhere. Employees start their first week with zero sense of control, and nobody is surprised.

We're rebuilding this layer to run itself. Not another integration on top of a broken stack, but a single platform that is actively becoming agentic, where IT, onboarding, and access coordinate themselves across legal, payroll, talent, and finance.

The design challenge is not the flow. It's the boundary: what the system should provision, grant, and decide autonomously, and where IT and employee judgment still belong.

The goal is to take this product from 0 to €5M in 2026. You'll define the strategy, build and lead a team of 4 to 7 high-caliber product designers, and own a €3–4M budget.

Required skills

You're a good fit if:

• Experience: 10+ years building digital products, 3+ leading teams, at a level where design drove measurable business outcomes.

• Business mindset: You use business data to shape decisions, and see user needs and business goals as the same conversation.

• Agentic AI: You've shipped or seriously prototyped agentic products. You're fluent in the building blocks (agents, tools, skills, context, evals) and move between the design and technical layers without a translator.

• Talent development: You've built design teams end-to-end: hired top talent, developed people over time, and made difficult decisions when necessary.

• Research & problem framing: You combine qualitative research, direct customer conversations, and business data to uncover insights and articulate clear decisions.

• Systemic thinking: You think in systems before experiences — mapping how a product creates, captures, and destroys value across complex stakeholder ecosystems.

• Design & craft: You know the difference between something that works and something truly well made, and you hold that standard for yourself and your team.

• Communication: Fluent in English, written and spoken.

You have a plus if:

• You’ve worked in B2B SaaS where buyer, user, and economic decision-maker are different people

• You’ve built products from 0 to millions of euros in revenue

• You’ve operated in high-growth environments with constant ambiguity

• You can independently pull and interpret data using BI tools

Is this role for you?

This role is not the right fit if:

• You expect predefined business requirements to work with

• You see management primarily as process optimization and people coordination

• Your main focus is user satisfaction and usability alone

• Figma is where you hide from the business conversation

If any of this is true, this will feel like a misalignment. That’s okay.

You will probably love this role if:

• You see design as a value stream, not just an experience lever

• You don’t treat design as a bridge between users and business. You treat it as business

• You’re comfortable debating trade-offs and outcomes, not just outputs

• You want real influence and accept the responsibility that comes with it

Designers at Factorial own part of the business impact. That comes with more influence and more exposure.

Compensation

€118,000 to €150,000, plus an additional 50% in equity (phantom shares), based on impact and capability. We care more about your ability to create value than the years on your CV.

We offer equity because this role is not a job, it's ownership. If you're helping shape this platform, you should participate in the value it creates. If we succeed at the level we're aiming for, the upside shouldn't be symbolic.

What the process looks like

• People Interview (30 min): A first conversation to align expectations. Ask anything.

• VP/Director Interview (1-2 h): We go deep into your experience, open Figmas together, and explore how you lead decisions from problem definition through execution. You'll get a clear view of expectations, team structure, and how we work.

• Challenge Interview (1.5 h): A briefing to assess how you evaluate talent and guide designers. You'll receive it a few days in advance to prepare.

• Meeting the Team: Before any final decision, you'll meet other Product Leaders and designers you'd potentially work with. This is for both sides.

• Offer Letter: If everything aligns, we make a formal offer.

How do we work?

At Factorial, we believe the best products are built when people come together, in person, to collaborate, challenge ideas, and move fast. That’s why our Product team follows an office-first, flexible approach.

We work on-site several days a week (80%), using that time to connect, align, and innovate as a team. However, we also understand the importance of focus and flexibility, so we support remote work when it makes sense (20%): whether for deep work, personal needs, or just a change of scenery.

This balance helps us stay agile, creative, and closely connected—while giving everyone the space to do their best work.

Our Values 🫀

• We own it: We take responsibility for every project. We make decisions, not excuses.

• We learn and teach: We're dedicated to learning something new every day and, above all, share it.

• We partner: Every decision is a team decision. We trust each other.

• We grow fast: We act fast. We think that the worst mistake is not learning from them.

• We believe in diverse talent: We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and strongly encourage people of diverse experiences and identities to apply.

• We believe in inclusion: We are committed to equal opportunities and actively promote workplace inclusion of people with disabilities. If you would like to learn more about our inclusive recruitment processes, you are welcome to indicate so optionally and we will share additional information with you.

Perks of being part of our team💆

We care about people and we also offer a lot of benefits for employees:

• High growth, multicultural and friendly environment 🫱🏽‍🫲🏿

• Competitive ESOP plan 📈

• Alan as private health insurance 🩺

• Healthy life with Wellhub (Gyms, pools, outdoor classes) 🧘🏽‍♀️

• Save expenses with Cobee 💰

• Language classes 👩🏽‍🏫

• Breakfast in the office and organic fruit 🍏

• Nora discounts 🍱

• Free caffeine and theine ☕

• Pet Friendly 🐕

Wanna learn more about us? Check our website!

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