Lead Product Designer

<div class="content-intro">Hi, We’re AffiniPay! AffiniPay is a leading fintech company, based out of Austin, Texas. As the market leader in professional services payments and practice management software, AffiniPay’s tech products serve legal, accounting, architectural, engineering and construction firms. AffiniPay has been recognized as one of Inc. 5000’s fastest growing companies in the U.S. for 13 years in a row, and as a result, our teams continue to grow as well! </div>As a Lead Product Designer, you will define, champion, and elevate the overarching UX vision and strategy across multiple product areas or an entire product line. You will lead and inspire a team of designers, providing strategic direction and hands-on mentorship. You'll collaborate cross-functionally at the highest levels to proactively identify strategic opportunities, solve highly ambiguous and complex systemic problems, and deliver groundbreaking user-centered design solutions that drive transformative business growth and user engagement.You will play a mission-critical role in shaping the strategic direction and holistic user experience of our products, directly influencing product roadmaps and organizational priorities. You'll establish and evolve design principles, patterns, and best practices, ensuring a cohesive, intuitive, and highly refined user experience across all touchpoints. You will demonstrate an exemplary ability to conceive, shape, and deploy innovative and highly impactful design solutions that set new standards for product features, end-to-end journeys, and strategic new initiatives.You will build and nurture strong collaborative partnerships with Product, Engineering, Research, Content, and Business Leadership. You'll translate complex, often undefined business objectives into clear, actionable design strategies and initiatives. You will champion design excellence, advocate for user needs at the executive level, and significantly contribute to building a world-class design organization by attracting, developing, and retaining top design talent.What You’ll Do:<ul><li>Define & Champion Strategic Product-Led Growth</li><ul><li>Define, articulate, and champion the overarching UX vision and strategy that directly drives transformative product-led growth across an entire product portfolio or strategic business unit.</li><li>Set the strategic direction for leveraging AI and automation across our products, identifying opportunities for competitive differentiation, new market creation, and exponential user value, ultimately ensuring sustainable business growth.</li><li>Own the holistic user journey and ensure design contributes meaningfully to core business objectives.</li></ul><li>Build & Lead Cross-Functional Partnerships</li><ul><li>Build and nurture executive-level partnerships with Product, Engineering, Research, Content, and Business Leadership to influence product roadmaps, organizational priorities, and overall company strategy.</li><li>Guide and empower design teams to collaborate effectively with engineering leadership, defining technical architecture implications of design decisions, especially for complex AI/ML systems and highly automated workflows.</li></ul><li>Cultivate User Empathy & Design Excellence</li><ul><li>Instill a deep culture of user empathy across the organization, advocating for the user at the highest strategic levels and ensuring design decisions are rooted in profound customer understanding.</li><li>Establish and evolve design principles, standards, and best practices across the design organization, ensuring a cohesive, intuitive, and highly refined user experience that considers the unique challenges and opportunities of AI/automation in user interfaces.</li></ul><li>Elevate Design Craft & Systemic Impact</li><ul><li>Set the bar for design excellence and innovation, leveraging a masterful command of user-centered design methodologies and tools, including cutting-edge applications of AI, generative design, and design automation, to solve the most ambiguous and impactful problems.</li><li>Own the vision, strategy, and evolution of the design system, ensuring it is a scalable, robust, and indispensable asset for design efficiency, consistency, and innovation across the entire product ecosystem, guiding its adaptation for future AI/ML applications.</li><li>Provide critical feedback and guidance to maintain the highest quality deliverables across the team.</li></ul><li>Inspire & Influence Design Organization</li><ul><li>Serve as a key strategic partner and influencer for Product, Engineering, User Research, and Data/Product Science leadership, shaping company-wide initiatives and ensuring design has a voice at every table.</li><li>Articulate complex, often undefined strategic problems and design solutions with unparalleled clarity and persuasive influence to executive stakeholders, fostering a truly innovative and AI-first design culture.</li><li>Mentor, coach, and inspire a team of designers, fostering their professional growth, advocating for their needs, and shaping the next generation of design leaders.</li></ul><li>Drive Organizational Scalability & Efficiency</li><ul><li>Define and implement design processes, tools, and strategies that optimize the entire product development lifecycle for scalability, maintainability, and maximum organizational impact, actively leading initiatives for design automation and AI-driven efficiencies.</li><li>Champion product-led strategies that enable exponential self-service adoption and minimize reliance on human intervention.</li></ul><li>Pioneer Innovation & Future Vision</li><ul><li>Anticipate future trends and technological shifts, particularly in AI, human-computer interaction, and product-led growth strategies, to define and champion innovative design solutions that position the company as a market leader.</li><li>Orchestrate advanced user research initiatives and collaborate strategically with research leadership to uncover foundational insights, address complex challenges like AI explainability, bias mitigation, and user trust, and drive breakthrough innovation.</li><li>Direct the development of visionary prototypes and strategic proofs-of-concept that push the boundaries of user experience, validate new market opportunities, and demonstrate the transformative power of AI/automation in creating novel user interactions and product capabilities.</li></ul></ul>About You:<ul><li>A bachelor's degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Graphic Design, or a related field, and/or the equivalent of 9+ years of experience in UX/Product Design, with 2+ years in a lead-level capacity.</li><li>An exemplary portfolio demonstrating a track record of defining and executing design strategies for entire product areas or platforms, significant organizational impact, and contributions to design culture and excellence.</li><li>Mastery of industry-standard design tools, capable of setting best practices and evaluating new tools/technologies for team adoption.</li><li>Expert knowledge of research methodologies and tools, with the ability to define research strategy for a product line or team.</li><li>Proven ability to define and drive strategic user research initiatives that inform product vision and strategy across multiple product lines or the entire product.</li><li>Experience collaborating at a strategic level with Research leaders.</li><li>Exceptional communication, presentation, and negotiation skills, capable of influencing executive leadership and building strong cross-functional partnerships at the highest levels (e.g., with VP-level stakeholders).</li><li>Ability to inspire and empower design teams and cross-functional partners.</li><li>Visionary understanding and application of user-centered design principles, usability, accessibility, and ethical design to establish new standards and drive innovation across an organization.</li><li>Ability to articulate and champion complex design strategies, their rationale, and their transformative impact on the business to executive stakeholders, while addressing organizational challenges.</li><li>Ownership of the vision, strategy, and governance for enterprise-level design systems, ensuring their scalability, adoption, and ongoing evolution to support the entire product ecosystem. Experience leading and mentoring designers in design system contribution.</li><li>This position is preferred to sit in Austin, Texas.</li></ul>Bonus Points:<ul><li>Experience with the fintech, legaltech or SaaS products.</li><li>Working knowledge of AI and automation technologies.</li></ul><div class="content-conclusion">Our StoryFounded in 2005, AffiniPay’s mission is to build technology products that helps professionals focus on the work they love. As the leader in the professional payments industry, AffiniPay’s products serve legal, accounting, architectural, engineering and construction firms. Our portfolio of software solutions include MyCase (Legal Practice Management Software), CASEpeer (Practice Management for Personal Injury Firms), and Docketwise (Immigration & Case Management Software). Our portfolio of payment solutions include LawPay (Legal), AffiniPay for Associations (Associations), CPACharge (Accounting Professionals), and ClientPay (Architect, Engineer, and Construction). AffiniPay’s products serve over one hundred thousand users, and we are noted as one of the fastest growing tech companies in Austin, Texas. We are constantly looking for talent to join our team to continue playing a key part in unlocking our potential.  Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at AffiniPayAt AffiniPay, we recognize that innovation occurs with a strong team of people who are diverse in background, personality, talent and ideas. Experience comes in many forms and ensuring a diverse and inclusive workplace where we continue to learn from each other is an integral part of our culture. We are committed to creating a welcoming and transparent environment for all that embraces those differences through education, equal access to opportunities and information, inclusionary programs, and community outreach.  Benefits that Benefit You! As a people first culture, we believe it is important that our teammates are happy, healthy, and productive.  In order to best support that, AffiniPay provides award-winning benefits that can make a difference in your life - right now and for the future.<ul><li>All employees receive fully covered medical, dental and vision coverage - Choose from our 2 available health plans based on what fits you and/or your family!</li><li>Have some fur babies? - We offer them insurance too!</li><li>RELAX and enjoy your time away with our flexible paid time off policy! </li><li>We will help you plan for your future - 401K, or RRSP if in Canada, with a company match</li><li>Competitive compensation packages that include mid-year and end-of-year bonuses and equity options for all full-time employees</li><li>Health Wellness Program that includes nutrition consultations, mental health apps, and access to discounted memberships</li><li>Have plans to grow your family? - Parental resources, including 16 weeks of paid time off for primary caregivers</li><li>Professional development opportunities including mentorships, leadership programs and our AffiniPayU courses</li><li>We believe it is important to give back with our Matching Gift Program and organized activities focused on donations, volunteerism and supporting the local communities throughout the country</li><li>D&I initiatives provide educational opportunities regarding multicultural issues, tolerance, and celebrating diversity among our entire staff</li><li>An incredible, in-office experience at our headquarters in Austin and San Diego including free lunch delivery, a fully stocked kitchen, and some “sweet” surprises for those afternoon pick-me-ups</li></ul>  Security AdvisoryOur hiring teams at AffiniPay are dedicated to recruiting top talent that share our passion for serving the professional services industry through innovative financial technology.  As such, our Talent Acquisition Team only follows legitimate hiring practices.  We will always communicate with our candidates using emails with the AffiniPay domain and will never ask for sensitive/personal data during the application process.  All interviews take place over phone call, Zoom/Google Meet or in person.  All offers are communicated verbally by our Talent Acquisition Specialists with a written offer letter as a follow up.   </div>

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