Senior Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Product Designer

Company: Partly

Location: Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Product Design / User Experience

Date Posted: 2026-01-27

Experience Level: 5-10 years

Remote Status: Hybrid (2 days in office per week)

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead end-to-end product design for complex, large-scale product areas within a fast-paced, data-rich, mission-critical domain.

• Drive product strategy, user experience, and high-quality visual and interaction design for a global platform focused on replacement parts, starting with auto parts.

• Foster a collaborative environment, partnering deeply with Product Managers, Engineers, Researchers, and Customer teams to define and deliver impactful solutions.

• Champion a culture of design excellence, influencing product direction, mentoring peers, and ensuring design decisions are rooted in user needs and business outcomes.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as a senior individual contributor within the product design function. The emphasis on "ownership," "end-to-end," and "influencing strategy" indicates a need for a candidate who can operate with significant autonomy and strategic foresight, typical of senior-level roles in high-growth startups. The focus on a "data-rich, mission-critical domain" and "complex product areas" suggests a need for experience with intricate systems and a data-informed design approach.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Lead the entire design lifecycle for significant product areas, encompassing problem discovery, strategy definition, user research, ideation, prototyping, iteration, and successful delivery.

• Translate complex user needs and business requirements into elegant, scalable, and intuitive user interfaces and interaction flows for a global platform.

• Collaborate closely with Product Managers and Engineering teams to define product roadmaps, break down initiatives into manageable milestones, and ensure timely, high-quality execution.

• Employ first principles thinking and strong product judgment to make informed trade-offs between speed, quality, and long-term system health, clearly articulating rationale.

• Advocate for the buyer and end-user by leveraging research, customer insights, and data to inform design decisions and influence product prioritization.

• Uphold and elevate the bar for design craft, ensuring visual consistency, interaction quality, and overall system coherence across the product.

• Facilitate cross-functional workshops, design critiques, and working sessions to build alignment, drive clarity, and foster effective communication.

• Contribute to the broader design culture by actively participating in critiques, mentoring junior designers, and promoting a culture of continuous learning and high standards.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of strategic thinking, hands-on design execution, and strong collaborative leadership. The emphasis on "end-to-end ownership," "partnering deeply," and "exercising strong product judgment" suggests the need for a proactive individual who can not only execute design tasks but also shape the product strategy and influence decision-making. The mention of "data-rich, mission-critical domain" implies a need for analytical rigor and the ability to design for complex, operational workflows.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is mandated, a strong understanding of design principles, user-centered design methodologies, and human-computer interaction is expected, typically gained through formal education or equivalent practical experience.

Experience: Significant experience (5-10 years recommended) designing and shipping complex software experiences in a product-driven, fast-paced environment, ideally within a startup setting. Proven track record of independently driving work from initial discovery through to successful launch.

Required Skills:

• Product Design Expertise: Demonstrable experience in end-to-end product design, from discovery and strategy to delivery of complex software experiences.

• Portfolio Excellence: A strong portfolio showcasing exceptional design fundamentals, polished UI craft, clear product thinking, and successful product outcomes.

• Independent Execution: Proven ability to independently manage and drive design projects from inception to launch with minimal supervision.

• Interaction & Prototyping Fluency: Proficiency in interaction design principles and advanced prototyping tools to explore, test, and communicate complex ideas effectively.

• Systems Thinking: Ability to design solutions that are scalable, coherent, and function effectively as part of a larger product ecosystem.

• Strategic Thinking & Ambiguity Navigation: Confidence in shaping product direction, making reasoned decisions in ambiguous situations, and influencing strategy.

• Exceptional Communication: Strong verbal and written communication skills, with the ability to clearly articulate design rationale, influence cross-functional partners, and present complex ideas.

• Customer Empathy & Data-Informed Design: Ability to represent the voice of the customer, using research, data, and direct insights to ground design decisions.

• Ownership & Accountability: A high degree of personal ownership, urgency, and accountability for delivering measurable outcomes.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience designing for workflow-heavy, data-dense, or technically complex B2B or marketplace products.

• Experience collaborating closely with user researchers or leveraging quantitative data to validate design decisions.

• Experience contributing to, evolving, or managing design systems to ensure consistency and efficiency.

• Familiarity with modern design workflows, including AI-assisted design tools where they enhance speed and quality.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Optional (but valuable)" section has been integrated into preferred skills. The emphasis on "first principles," "ambiguity," and "ownership" points towards a candidate who is not just a skilled designer but also a strategic thinker and proactive problem-solver, capable of thriving in a startup environment. The mention of "AI-assisted design" suggests an openness to leveraging new technologies.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• End-to-End Case Studies: Showcase 2-3 comprehensive case studies detailing your process from problem discovery and user research through to final design delivery and impact.

• Problem Framing & Strategy: Clearly articulate the problem you were solving, the strategic approach taken, and how it aligned with business objectives and user needs.

• Design Process & Iteration: Demonstrate your design methodology, including user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity mockups, highlighting key iterations and decision-making.

• Impact & Outcomes: Quantify the impact of your design solutions using relevant metrics (e.g., conversion rates, user satisfaction, efficiency gains, adoption rates) and explain how you measured success.

• Collaboration & Influence: Illustrate how you collaborated with Product Managers, Engineers, and other stakeholders, and how you influenced product direction.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Design & Optimization: Examples of designing or optimizing complex workflows to improve user efficiency and task completion.

• Systemic Thinking: Demonstrations of how you considered the broader product system and designed solutions that scale and maintain consistency.

• Data Integration: Show how data was used to inform design decisions or how your designs facilitate data capture and analysis.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the senior nature of the role and the emphasis on end-to-end ownership and impact, a robust portfolio is crucial. The portfolio should not just showcase visual polish but also a deep understanding of the design process, strategic thinking, collaboration, and the ability to drive measurable business outcomes. This aligns with operations expectations for demonstrating process improvement and ROI.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: Based on industry benchmarks for Senior Product Designers in New Zealand with 5-10 years of experience, and considering the company's growth stage and investor backing, a competitive salary range is estimated between NZD $120,000 - $170,000 annually. This range can vary based on specific experience, skills, and the candidate's negotiation.

Benefits:

• Competitive Base Salary & Equity: Attractive salary package coupled with generous equity options, ensuring alignment with company success.

• Flexible Working Hours: Complete autonomy over working hours, allowing for peak productivity without mandatory set times.

• Focus Days: Two dedicated days per week with zero meetings, designed for uninterrupted deep work and focused design execution.

• Generous Leave Policy: A "red face test" approach to leave, where employees can take time off as needed, even if it results in a negative leave balance, promoting well-being and trust.

• Office Perks: Well-equipped offices in Christchurch CBD and Auckland, featuring standing desks, healthy snacks, quality coffee, and drinks.

• Learning & Development: Opportunities to learn from industry leaders through "Lunch n Learns," Fireside chats with unicorn CEOs, and continuous professional growth.

• Team & Cultural Events: Regular team events including quarterly "Season Openers" (in-person collaboration weeks), an annual global offsite, monthly team lunches, and celebrations.

• Parental Leave: Comprehensive parental leave policies, including flexible return-to-work options such as 4-day weeks at full pay for primary carers for the first 12 weeks.

• Payroll Giving: Support for charitable giving, with the company encouraging and facilitating donations to high-impact charities.

• Relocation Assistance: Support for relocation costs for candidates moving to Christchurch, New Zealand, from overseas or within NZ.

Working Hours: Flexible working hours with no mandatory set times. Two "Focus Days" per week are designated for deep work with no meetings. The role is hybrid, requiring approximately 2 days per week in the Christchurch office.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary estimation is based on market data for senior design roles in New Zealand, adjusted for a high-growth tech startup. The benefits are extensive and reflect a culture emphasizing trust, flexibility, and employee well-being, which are attractive to experienced professionals. The "Focus Days" and flexible hours are particularly relevant for design roles requiring deep concentration.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology (SaaS, E-commerce Platform, Marketplace) within the Automotive and General Replacement Parts sector. Partly aims to build the first global platform for replacement parts, addressing a $1.9 trillion industry with a focus on sustainability and waste elimination.

Company Size: Growing rapidly, having tripled its team in the last 12 months and expecting to double again. It spans teams across Europe and Australasia.

Founded: Founded by ex-Rocket Lab engineers, indicating a strong foundation in complex engineering and a startup mentality.

Team Structure:

• The Product and Engineering base is in Christchurch.

• Global team presence spanning Europe and Australasia.

• Close-knit collaboration between Product, Engineering, Design, and Customer teams.

Methodology:

• Utilizes cutting-edge technology to solve challenging problems.

• Emphasis on a "high trust, low process and no bureaucracy" environment.

• Values "first principles thinking," "acting like owners," and delivering results with "clarity and speed."

• Focus on designing scalable digital infrastructure solutions.

• Iterative development and a bias towards action are key.

Company Website: https://www.partly.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture is described as lean, agile, and focused on impact, typical of venture-backed startups founded by experienced engineers. The emphasis on "first principles" and "low bureaucracy" suggests an environment where initiative and problem-solving are highly valued, which is a strong draw for senior operations and design professionals. The industry focus on a massive, yet underserved, market like auto parts provides context for the scale of the challenge and opportunity.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This is a Senior Product Designer role, signifying an individual contributor position with significant autonomy and responsibility. It's a role for experienced designers who can lead complex projects, influence product strategy, and mentor others, rather than manage a team directly.

Reporting Structure: The Senior Product Designer will likely report into a Head of Design, Design Lead, or potentially a VP of Product, depending on the current organizational structure. They will work very closely with Product Managers and Engineering Leads for specific product areas.

Operations Impact: The role is critical in shaping the user experience and functionality of Partly's global platform. The Senior Product Designer's work will directly impact user adoption, operational efficiency for businesses using the platform, customer satisfaction, and ultimately, the company's ability to achieve its mission of connecting the world's parts and driving sustainability. Their contributions are integral to the success of the product and the business.

Growth Opportunities:

• Deepening Strategic Impact: Opportunity to influence product strategy for large, complex product domains and shape the future direction of the platform.

• Leadership in Design Craft: Opportunity to set high standards for design quality, contribute to and evolve design systems, and mentor junior designers, fostering design talent within the company.

• Broader Domain Expertise: Gain deep experience in the complex and substantial automotive and replacement parts industry, a significant market opportunity.

• Career Progression: Potential to move into Lead or Principal Designer roles, or explore adjacent areas like Product Management or UX Research leadership as the company scales.

• Continuous Learning: Exposure to innovative technologies, experienced founders, and a culture that encourages learning from industry leaders.

📝 Enhancement Note: The growth opportunities emphasize both deepening design expertise and broadening strategic influence. For a senior role, the ability to mentor and shape design culture is a key aspect of growth, alongside the potential for career advancement into leadership or specialized individual contributor paths. The impact on a $1.9 trillion industry is a significant growth driver.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Partly operates with a hybrid model, emphasizing an office-first approach in cities with critical mass (like Christchurch) to foster collaboration and relationship-building. The offices are designed to be inviting and conducive to productive work.

Office Location(s):

• Christchurch CBD, Canterbury, New Zealand.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The office setup and hybrid model encourage in-person collaboration, team building, and knowledge sharing.

• High-Quality Workspace: Offices are equipped with standing desks, healthy snacks, quality coffee, and drinks, creating a comfortable and stimulating work environment.

• Deep Work Support: "Focus Days" are implemented to protect uninterrupted deep work time, balancing collaborative needs with individual concentration.

• Onboarding & Travel: For those not based in Christchurch, the company offers 2-week onboarding trips to HQ and 1-week quarterly trips for "Season Openers," covering travel and accommodation, to ensure global team cohesion.

Work Schedule: Flexible working hours are a core benefit, allowing employees to work when they are most effective. The hybrid model typically involves 2 days per week in the office.

📝 Enhancement Note: The work environment blends the flexibility of remote work with the benefits of an office-centric culture for collaboration and team cohesion. The intentional design of offices and the travel stipends for cross-location collaboration indicate a company that values in-person interaction for strategic alignment and team building, while still offering significant flexibility.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: Review of application, portfolio, and resume to assess qualifications, experience, and alignment with the role's requirements.

• Portfolio Deep Dive: A dedicated session with a design lead or senior designer to walk through selected case studies, discussing your process, decision-making, and impact. Be prepared to articulate your rationale and trade-offs.

• Cross-Functional Interviews: Interviews with Product Managers and Engineering Leads to assess collaboration skills, ability to influence, and understanding of technical constraints and business objectives.

• Hiring Manager/Team Lead Interview: A broader discussion about your experience, design philosophy, cultural fit, and leadership potential within the design team.

• Final Stage / Offer: Typically involves a discussion with senior leadership and the extension of an offer.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Show, Don't Just Tell: Go beyond static images. Use interactive prototypes or well-structured presentations to convey the user experience and interaction flow.

• Focus on Impact: For each case study, clearly define the problem, your specific contribution, the design process, and most importantly, the measurable outcomes and impact achieved. Quantify results wherever possible.

• Articulate Your "Why": Be ready to explain the reasoning behind your design decisions, the trade-offs you made, and how you arrived at your solutions. Demonstrate first principles thinking.

• Highlight Collaboration: Showcase how you partnered with PMs, engineers, and other stakeholders. Provide examples of how you influenced decisions and managed feedback.

• Tailor to the Role: Emphasize projects that demonstrate experience with complex systems, B2B environments, or data-rich products, if applicable.

Challenge Preparation:

• Design Exercise: You may be given a small design challenge or asked to critique an existing product. Focus on demonstrating your approach to problem-solving, user empathy, and iterative design.

• Strategic Thinking: Be prepared to discuss your approach to defining product strategy, identifying user needs, and prioritizing design initiatives.

• Communication Practice: Practice articulating your thoughts clearly and concisely, both verbally and visually, as you will need to present your work and ideas effectively.

📝 Enhancement Note: The application process emphasizes a strong portfolio review and cross-functional collaboration assessment, common for senior design roles. Candidates should prepare to demonstrate not just design skills but also strategic thinking, business acumen, and the ability to influence. The emphasis on "impact" and "outcomes" is key for senior roles in fast-paced environments.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping Software: Proficiency in industry-standard tools such as Figma (highly likely given its prevalence), Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, or similar for creating high-fidelity designs, wireframes, and interactive prototypes.

• Collaboration & Communication: Tools like Slack, Zoom, and potentially Notion or Miro for team communication, remote collaboration, workshop facilitation, and documentation.

Analytics & Reporting:

CRM & Automation:

• Familiarity with CRM systems (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot) is helpful for understanding customer data and sales/marketing workflows, though not a core requirement for this design role.

📝 Enhancement Note: The role heavily relies on standard product design software. While specific tool requirements aren't detailed, proficiency in modern design and prototyping tools like Figma is almost a given for this level of role. An awareness of analytics tools reinforces the "data-informed design" aspect mentioned in the role description.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• First Principles Thinking: Encouraging a deep dive into fundamental truths and reasoning from the ground up to solve problems.

• Ownership & Accountability: Fostering a culture where individuals take full responsibility for their work and its outcomes, acting like owners.

• Clarity & Speed: Valuing clear communication and efficient execution to deliver results quickly.

• High Trust, Low Process: Building an environment where exceptional people are trusted, and bureaucratic processes are minimized to avoid slowing down progress.

• Excellence & High Standards: A commitment to pushing for the highest quality in design, engineering, and overall product development.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Partnership: Deep collaboration with Product Management and Engineering is fundamental to the workflow, ensuring alignment and shared ownership of product goals.

• Open Communication: Encouraging direct and honest communication, with a willingness to challenge ideas constructively.

• Mentorship & Learning: A culture of shared learning, where senior members mentor peers and junior designers, and everyone is encouraged to learn from industry leaders.

• Data-Informed Decision Making: Decisions are grounded in user research, data analysis, and customer insights, promoting a rational and objective approach.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's explicitly stated values of "first principles," "ownership," "clarity & speed," and "high trust, low process" are central to understanding the desired candidate profile. These values suggest an environment that rewards initiative, autonomy, and a results-oriented mindset, which is highly relevant for senior operations and design professionals seeking impactful roles.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Designing for Complexity: Tackling the inherent complexity of a global replacement parts platform, which involves intricate data, diverse user needs, and potentially legacy systems or data structures.

• Balancing Speed and Quality: Operating in a fast-paced startup environment requires rapid iteration and delivery while maintaining exceptionally high standards of design quality and user experience.

• Influencing Strategy in Ambiguity: Navigating a rapidly evolving product landscape and influencing strategic direction with incomplete information, requiring strong judgment and communication.

• Global Scalability: Designing solutions that are effective and scalable across different regions, languages, and market nuances.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Strategic Design Leadership: Opportunity to grow expertise in product strategy, influencing roadmaps, and leading design for significant product areas.

• Mentorship & Team Development: Develop leadership skills by mentoring other designers and contributing to the evolution of the company's design culture and practices.

• Industry Domain Expertise: Gain deep knowledge of the massive automotive and replacement parts industry, understanding its unique challenges and opportunities.

• Exposure to Top Talent: Learn from experienced founders (ex-Rocket Lab), investors (Notion, Figma co-founders), and a growing team of high-caliber professionals.

• Continuous Skill Enhancement: Access to learning resources, industry events, and a culture that encourages staying at the forefront of design trends and technologies.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges presented are typical for senior roles in ambitious startups. They offer significant growth potential for designers who are resilient, strategic, and eager to learn. The emphasis on "complexity" and "ambiguity" aligns with the need for strong analytical and problem-solving skills, often sought in operations roles as well.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• Problem Framing: "Describe a time you had to define a complex problem space for a new product feature or area. How did you approach discovery, and what was your process for framing the problem?" (Focus on your methodology for understanding user needs and business goals.)

• Strategic Trade-offs: "Imagine you have two compelling design directions for a critical feature. How would you decide which one to pursue, considering factors like user impact, development effort, and long-term scalability?" (Showcase your product judgment and ability to reason from first principles.)

• Influencing Stakeholders: "Tell me about a situation where you had to influence product or engineering to adopt a design approach they were initially hesitant about. How did you build consensus and communicate your rationale?" (Highlight your collaboration and communication skills.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• Values Alignment: "How do your personal work values align with Partly's values of 'first principles,' 'ownership,' and 'clarity & speed'?" (Be ready to provide specific examples from your past experiences.)

• Ambiguity & Speed: "How do you approach working in an ambiguous environment where requirements may change rapidly? How do you balance speed with maintaining high design quality?" (Demonstrate your comfort with startup dynamics.)

• Design Impact: "How do you measure the success of your design work, and how have you demonstrated the business impact of your contributions in previous roles?" (Focus on quantifiable results and ROI.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Narrative Arc: Structure your portfolio walkthrough as a compelling story for each case study, clearly outlining the problem, your role, the process, key decisions, and the ultimate impact.

• Focus on "Why": Be prepared to extensively explain the rationale behind every significant design decision, demonstrating your strategic thinking and user-centric approach.

• Visual Clarity & Interaction: Use high-fidelity mockups and interactive prototypes where possible to convey the user experience effectively. Ensure your presentation is visually clean and professional.

• Quantify Impact: For each project, clearly present the metrics and outcomes achieved. If exact metrics are unavailable, discuss the intended impact and how it would be measured.

• Conciseness: Be mindful of time; focus on the most critical aspects of each project and be ready to dive deeper into specific areas if asked.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should focus on demonstrating strategic thinking, strong product judgment, and the ability to drive measurable impact. Candidates should be ready to articulate their process, justify their decisions, and showcase how they embody the company's core values. The emphasis on "first principles" and "ownership" is crucial for this role.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Ashby.

• Portfolio Customization: Curate your portfolio to highlight 2-3 of your strongest end-to-end case studies that best demonstrate your experience with complex product areas, strategic thinking, and measurable impact. Tailor your presentation to emphasize problem framing and outcomes.

• Resume Optimization: Ensure your resume clearly articulates your experience level (5-10 years), highlights achievements relevant to complex software design, and includes keywords related to product design, UX, collaboration, and strategic influence.

• Interview Preparation: Practice articulating your design process, rationale, and the impact of your work. Prepare specific examples for behavioral questions related to collaboration, ambiguity, and ownership. Rehearse your portfolio presentation to be clear, concise, and impactful.

• Company Research: Thoroughly research Partly's mission, product, industry, and company values. Understand their approach to technology and their vision for the replacement parts market to better align your responses with their culture and objectives.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and industry-standard assumptions. All details, particularly regarding salary estimates and specific interview processes, should be verified directly with the hiring organization.