Head of Product Design

Your role: Designing the future of global trade

We are on a mission to simplify global trade and lead the industry into a more sustainable future. To achieve this goal, Forto’s design team creates delightful end-to-end experiences, empowering customers to focus on what matters along their entire supply chain.

We are seeking a visionary and outcome-focused design leader to join us as Head of Product Design. You will lead a diverse team of design talent and raise the bar to achieve design excellence in a complex B2B environment. In this role, you will partner with peers in Product Management, Engineering, and Research to define the roadmap and execute Forto’s vision. As a design leader, you will advocate for customer centricity and ensure our solutions scale, innovate, and delight. 

You will

• Develop and execute a cohesive design strategy aligned with business objectives to enhance customer experiences and drive business impact.
• Lead, inspire, and grow a team of product designers, nurturing creativity, efficiency, and skill development.
• Inspire and push the boundaries of established thinking to create outstanding experiences within a complex B2B domain.
• Empower the team to tackle complex challenges and potential cross-team dependencies efficiently and effectively.
• Foster data-driven decision-making by incorporating data analysis, user testing, and concept validation into the design process.
• Collaborate closely with Product and Engineering Leads to shape product strategy and anticipate design needs.
• Conduct regular design critiques and reviews, nurturing a constructive feedback culture and creating visibility on the quality and output of design initiatives.
• Drive key initiatives forward with hands-on support and guidance when necessary.
• Own and refine the design system, guidelines, and governance, to ensure consistency across products and and efficiency and quality of implementation.
• Cultivate a culture of innovation, integrating industry trends and best practices within the design team.
• Oversee design execution from concept to delivery, measuring impact on user experience and business outcomes.
• Work closely with the Research team to identify, scope, and execute research initiatives.
• Collaborate with Engineering Leads to ensure the quality of implementation meets design requirements.
• Advocate for design-led thinking, emphasizing customer experience as a strategic priority.
• Communicate design decisions effectively to stakeholders at all levels.

What you bring

• 8+ years relevant experience in product design, of which 2+ years leading a team of designers.
• Ability to untangle execution challenges, and enable your team to ship high quality work with speed.
• Experience in driving strategy, aligning stakeholders on a vision, and evangelizing the work that your team is doing to the broader company.
• A strong view on how design drives product success and quality and the ability to clearly articulate to a variety of stakeholders how this should look like.
• Experience in driving design team processes such as design critiques, guiding the team to ask the right questions to elevate the quality of the user experience.
• Experience in collaborating effectively within cross-functional teams, driving consensus around design, resolving conflicts with ease.
• Hyper-organized and able to prioritize and manage time effectively in a fast-paced, ever changing environment.
• Strong technical acumen and ability to build strong relationships with engineering counterparts in an agile environment.
• Strong business acumen and ability to build strong relationships with business stakeholders across sales and operations.
• Strong communication, storytelling and presentation skills.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English, German is a plus.
• Experience in a B2B industry is a plus. 

Please provide a link to your portfolio with your application, demonstrating your product design and leadership experience.

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Forto is an internationally growing company

Company language: English 17+ offices across Europe & Asia 800+ employees 30+ nationalities represented 2500+ customers

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Team:

• At our core, we are in love with progress and cannot cope with the standstill.
• We are constantly striving for ways to be even better tomorrow. We are facilitators, we are explorers, we are visionaries.
• Forto provides a sense of belonging, where everyone has equal access to opportunities, career advancement and recognition. It stands for a workplace where people from all walks of life, with diverse perspectives and experiences can do their best work, while being their authentic selves. That’s why we encourage people of all backgrounds, genders, ages, races, religions, and abilities to apply for our opportunities!

Work Life:

• Experience a company culture where we work on eye level and knowledge sharing, as well as mentoring is on our daily agenda.
• We love our work and tackling business challenges but also believe in the importance of having a healthy balance with our personal life. That's why we appreciate a flexible work setup that fits around family, friends, and physical health.
• We have the freedom to work in a hybrid setup.

Company Offering:

Sustainability Team Emission Offsetting Green Energy Organic Food Paperless Office

Inspiring Office Spaces Flexible Working Hours Team & Company Events Hybrid Work

Peer Learning Program Mentorship Program Leadership Training L&D Budget

Best Onboarding Program Visa & Relocation Support Remote Onboarding Buddy Program