Lead Product Designer, Growth (Upper Funnel)

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Lead Product Designer, Growth (Upper Funnel)

Company: Jobgether (Partner Company)

Location: Canada

Job Type: Full-time

Category: Product Design, Growth Operations

Date Posted: 2026-08-13

Experience Level: 10+ Years

Remote Status: Fully Remote

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the design and delivery of user-centered growth experiences across the entire user journey, from initial discovery and acquisition through activation, engagement, and expansion.

• Drive product innovation by leveraging behavioral data, funnel metrics, and experiment results to identify opportunities and inform design decisions for upper-funnel optimization.

• Own and execute hands-on design work from concept to production, including UX, visual design, interaction design, and rapid prototyping, with a focus on scalable patterns and user trust.

• Provide leadership and mentorship to a small team of designers, fostering growth design practices and elevating the overall quality of design output within the organization.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is a hybrid of hands-on design leadership and people management, requiring a candidate who can balance individual contribution with team development and strategic direction within a growth-focused product environment. The emphasis on "upper funnel" growth indicates a primary focus on user acquisition, activation, and initial engagement stages.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Define and deliver user-centered experiences for critical growth journeys including acquisition, onboarding, pricing, upgrade flows, and lifecycle touchpoints, ensuring the creation of scalable patterns across the product.

• Own the end-to-end design process for growth initiatives, from early concept ideation through to production-ready assets, incorporating UX, visual design, interaction design, and rapid AI-assisted experimentation.

• Utilize behavioral data, funnel metrics, experiment results, and user signals to identify key opportunities for improvement and to rigorously inform design decisions.

• Develop and lead experiments across acquisition, activation, and expansion funnels, working collaboratively with Product Management and Data Science from hypothesis generation through to measurement and read-out.

• Establish and champion reusable growth patterns within the design system, ensuring a balance between conversion goals, clarity, usability, and long-term user trust.

• Partner closely with Engineering teams to ensure accurate implementation of designs and to uphold a high standard of quality in the final product.

• Reframe complex growth challenges at both the journey and funnel levels, enabling teams to clearly understand where users gain or lose value.

• Lead workshops and collaborative sessions focused on optimizing onboarding, pricing, packaging, upgrade experiences, and other strategic growth opportunities.

• Collaborate with Research, Product Management, and Data Science to define success metrics, develop experiment hypotheses, and interpret experimental outcomes.

• Directly manage and coach approximately one to three designers, including setting goals, conducting regular 1:1s, providing feedback, offering performance support, and guiding career development.

• Balance hands-on design execution with people leadership, remaining deeply involved in product design rather than transitioning to a purely managerial capacity.

• Mentor designers working on growth-related product surfaces, actively working to raise the team's capabilities in areas such as hierarchy, motivation, friction reduction, funnel thinking, and building user trust.

• Contribute actively to design critiques, cross-functional collaboration initiatives, and the ongoing development of growth design practices and organizational standards.

• Champion the critical connection between growth quality and overall product quality, advocating for sustainable user experiences over short-term conversion tactics.

• Explore and leverage AI-assisted tools and rapid prototyping techniques to accelerate ideation, simulate user journeys, test concepts, and stress-test growth experiences.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a strategic approach to growth design, emphasizing data-driven decision-making, cross-functional collaboration, and the development of scalable design systems. The leadership aspect is clearly defined as a blend of individual contribution and team mentorship, with a focus on nurturing talent and establishing best practices.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience in design, product, interaction design, or a related discipline is beneficial.

Experience: 8+ years of product design experience, ideally within SaaS, productivity, collaboration, self-serve, or product-led growth environments. Demonstrated ownership of growth, monetization, activation, or conversion-focused design initiatives is crucial.

Required Skills:

• Exceptional product design craft, with a strong command of visual hierarchy, interaction design, spacing, motion, clarity, and usability.

• Proven ability to design within established systems while understanding how decisions affect multiple surfaces, journeys, and user relationships.

• Strong data instincts, including the ability to interpret behavioral data, funnel metrics, experiment results, and other quantitative signals.

• Experience working closely with Product Management, Engineering, Research, and Data Science teams in fast-moving, experiment-driven environments.

• Experience mentoring, coaching, or informally leading other designers, with the ability to raise the quality of work around you.

• Strong communication and facilitation skills, with the ability to explain design decisions and guide cross-functional stakeholders toward user-centered outcomes.

• Curiosity and proactive problem-solving skills, including the ability to identify edge cases, anticipate constraints, and move forward when requirements are ambiguous.

• Empathy for first-time users and a strong understanding of trust, motivation, cognitive load, and the factors influencing user commitment.

• Experience working in environments where design patterns and growth playbooks are still being established. Preferred Skills:

• Familiarity with AI-assisted design tools, rapid prototyping, and AI-enabled workflows.

• Experience with pricing architecture, packaging, monetization models, organic acquisition, experimentation frameworks, causal inference, or 0-to-1 growth systems.

• Strong understanding of acquisition, activation, retention, and expansion as interconnected parts of a broader user journey.

• Experience designing onboarding, sign-up, discovery, activation, upgrade, pricing, or other upper-funnel product experiences.

📝 Enhancement Note: The experience requirements emphasize direct ownership and leadership in growth-related design initiatives, rather than just contribution. The preferred skills point towards a forward-thinking candidate comfortable with emerging technologies like AI in design and strategic growth levers like pricing and monetization.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Showcase end-to-end ownership of growth-focused design projects, clearly demonstrating your role and impact from problem identification to solution delivery and iteration.

• Include case studies that highlight your ability to leverage data (funnel metrics, A/B test results, behavioral data) to inform design decisions and measure success.

• Present examples of how you’ve designed scalable patterns or contributed to design systems, particularly those supporting growth initiatives.

• Demonstrate experience in designing for key upper-funnel stages such as acquisition, onboarding, activation, and conversion, with a focus on user trust and clarity. Process Documentation:

• Detail your process for identifying growth opportunities through data analysis and user research.

• Illustrate your workflow for developing and executing design experiments, including hypothesis generation, prototyping, and outcome analysis.

• Show how you collaborate with Product Management, Engineering, and Data Science throughout the design and experimentation lifecycle.

• Document your approach to mentoring designers and establishing design best practices within a team or organization.

📝 Enhancement Note: A portfolio for this role should explicitly demonstrate a deep understanding of growth loops, conversion optimization, and data-informed design. Case studies should clearly articulate the problem, the data used, the design solution, the experimental approach, and the measurable impact on key growth metrics.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: CA$158,728 – CA$198,410 annually.

Benefits:

• Fully remote position available to candidates based in Canada.

• Opportunity to influence growth experiences used by millions of people worldwide, contributing to global impact.

• Hands-on leadership role combining individual design contribution, strategic ownership, and people management.

• Close collaboration with Product, Engineering, Research, and Data Science teams, fostering a dynamic and cross-functional environment.

• Opportunity to shape emerging growth design practices and establish scalable systems and patterns within the organization.

• Exposure to AI-assisted design, prototyping, experimentation, and product development workflows, promoting continuous learning.

• Inclusive environment with reasonable accommodations available throughout the hiring and employment process.

• Opportunity to contribute to a product-centered culture focused on collaboration, evidence, design excellence, and meaningful user outcomes.

Working Hours: While not explicitly stated, a full-time role typically implies a 40-hour work week. The remote nature may offer some flexibility, but collaboration with global teams would necessitate availability during core working hours.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range provided is an estimate based on the information available and industry benchmarks for a Lead Product Designer role with significant growth focus and leadership responsibilities in Canada. Actual compensation will depend on specific factors including location within Canada, candidate experience, and skill set.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology, Software (likely SaaS or Product-Led Growth, given the role's focus). The company operates through Jobgether, which uses AI for matching candidates to partner companies. The partner company is looking for a designer to influence experiences for millions of users.

Company Size: Not explicitly stated for the partner company, but Jobgether's AI matching process suggests it's a company that actively hires and values efficient candidate evaluation. The role involves managing 1-3 designers, indicating a medium-sized design team or a growing one.

Founded: Not specified for the partner company. The "Founded" date is not applicable here as Jobgether is a platform, not the hiring entity for this role.

Team Structure:

• The Lead Product Designer will be part of a design team, likely overseeing a small group (1-3 designers).

• Close collaboration is expected with Product Management, Engineering, Research, and Data Science teams, indicating a cross-functional, matrixed structure common in tech companies.

• The role involves establishing design practices, suggesting a team that is either growing or looking to mature its design operations and strategy. Methodology:

• Data-driven experimentation is a core methodology, with a strong emphasis on using behavioral data, funnel metrics, and A/B test results to inform design decisions.

• Systems thinking is crucial for developing scalable patterns and understanding the impact of design choices across multiple product surfaces and user journeys.

• Collaborative working sessions and design critiques are integral to the process, fostering shared understanding and continuous improvement.

• AI-assisted tools and rapid prototyping are encouraged to accelerate ideation and testing, reflecting a forward-thinking approach to design execution.

Company Website: https://jobgether.com/ (Note: This is the platform for application; the partner company's website is not directly provided but can be inferred from the role's context.)

📝 Enhancement Note: The culture likely emphasizes innovation, data-informed decision-making, and cross-functional collaboration. The focus on growth and experimentation suggests an agile environment where iterative design and continuous improvement are valued. The role's emphasis on building new practices indicates a company that is open to evolving its design operations.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: Lead Product Designer, Growth (Upper Funnel). This is a senior individual contributor role with direct people management responsibilities for a small team. It sits at the intersection of product design, growth strategy, and team leadership.

Reporting Structure: The Lead Product Designer will likely report to a Head of Design, Director of Product Design, or a senior leader within the Product organization. They will directly manage 1-3 designers.

Operations Impact: This role has a significant impact on the company's growth trajectory by optimizing the user journey from initial awareness through to activation and early engagement. Success directly translates to user acquisition, conversion rates, and early revenue generation.

Growth Opportunities:

• Skill Advancement: Deepen expertise in growth design methodologies, experimentation frameworks, AI-assisted design tools, and user psychology for conversion optimization.

• Leadership Development: Grow people management skills through direct coaching, performance support, and career development guidance for direct reports. Opportunity to influence broader design team practices and strategy.

• Strategic Influence: Gain experience in shaping product strategy at a critical growth stage, influencing roadmap decisions and contributing to the company's overall business objectives. Potential to move into more senior leadership roles within design or product.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers a clear path for growth for experienced product designers looking to move into leadership and specialize in growth design. The blend of individual contribution and management provides a well-rounded development experience.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Fully remote, available to candidates based in Canada. This indicates a distributed workforce.

Office Location(s): Canada. Specific city or province is not specified, allowing for flexibility within the country.

Workspace Context:

• A remote-first environment, requiring strong self-discipline, communication, and collaboration skills using digital tools.

• Access to modern collaboration and design tools is implied, necessary for effective remote work and design execution.

• Opportunities for interaction with design, product, engineering, and data science teams will primarily be virtual, fostering a highly connected digital workspace.

Work Schedule: A full-time schedule is expected, likely around 40 hours per week. While remote work offers flexibility, collaboration with teams across different time zones may require some adaptability in working hours.

📝 Enhancement Note: The remote nature of this role necessitates a candidate who is comfortable and productive working independently, with excellent asynchronous communication skills. The company's use of Jobgether suggests a modern, tech-enabled approach to hiring and operations.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: Likely conducted by Jobgether's AI and/or a recruiter to assess basic qualifications and fit.

• Hiring Manager Interview: Discussion focused on growth design experience, leadership potential, and understanding of the role's accountabilities.

• Design Portfolio Review: A deep dive into your portfolio, focusing on growth-related case studies, your design process, data utilization, and leadership approach. Be prepared to discuss your process, rationale, and impact.

• Cross-Functional Interviews: Meetings with Product Management, Engineering, and Data Science leads to assess collaboration style, strategic thinking, and ability to work effectively in a cross-functional team.

• Team/Culture Fit Interview: Discussion with other designers or team members to evaluate cultural alignment, mentorship approach, and ability to contribute to team practices.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Growth Focus: Curate 2-3 strong case studies that specifically highlight your experience in driving growth (acquisition, activation, conversion, monetization).

• Data Integration: Clearly articulate how you used data (quantitative and qualitative) to inform your design decisions and measure the impact of your solutions. Quantify results whenever possible (e.g., % increase in conversion, reduction in churn).

• Process & Rationale: Be prepared to walk through your design process for each case study, explaining your thinking, trade-offs considered, and why you made specific design choices.

• Leadership & Mentorship: Include examples or discussions of how you've mentored junior designers, contributed to team best practices, or led design initiatives.

• Systems Thinking: Showcase how your designs integrate with existing design systems or how you've contributed to building scalable patterns.

Challenge Preparation:

• Growth Problem-Solving: Be ready to discuss how you would approach a hypothetical growth challenge (e.g., improving onboarding completion, increasing trial-to-paid conversion). Focus on your process, not just the solution.

• Experimentation Design: Prepare to discuss your experience with A/B testing and experiment design, including how you formulate hypotheses and measure success.

• Stakeholder Communication: Practice articulating complex design decisions and their impact to non-design stakeholders, emphasizing business value and user outcomes.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process emphasizes a strong understanding of growth metrics and data-driven design, alongside leadership capabilities. A well-structured portfolio that showcases quantifiable results and a clear, repeatable design process for growth challenges will be critical.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator), InVision, Principle, Axure RP. Proficiency in AI-assisted design tools is highly valued.

• Design Systems: Experience working with and contributing to design systems (e.g., using Storybook, Zeroheight, or similar documentation platforms).

• Collaboration: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides).

Analytics & Reporting:

• Web Analytics: Google Analytics, Adobe Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude.

• Experimentation Platforms: Optimizely, VWO, Adobe Target, or in-house A/B testing frameworks.

• Data Visualization: Tableau, Power BI, Looker (or similar business intelligence tools) for understanding data trends and experiment results.

CRM & Automation: While not a direct requirement for a designer, understanding the CRM (e.g., Salesforce, HubSpot) and marketing automation platforms used by the company can provide valuable context for user journeys and data flow.

📝 Enhancement Note: Proficiency in modern design tools is expected, with a strong emphasis on those that facilitate rapid prototyping and experimentation. Familiarity with analytics and experimentation platforms is crucial for a growth-focused role, as it directly informs design decisions and measures impact.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Data-Driven: Decisions are informed by quantitative data, funnel metrics, and experiment results, ensuring a focus on measurable impact.

• User-Centric: A deep empathy for first-time users and a commitment to building trust and providing clear, usable experiences.

• Collaborative: Strong partnerships across Product, Engineering, Research, and Data Science to achieve shared goals.

• Experimental: A willingness to test hypotheses, iterate quickly, and learn from both successes and failures.

• Scalable Systems: Focus on creating reusable patterns and design systems that support long-term growth and product consistency.

• Sustainable Growth: Prioritizing long-term user value and trust over short-term conversion tactics.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-functional Integration: Active participation in cross-functional teams, contributing design expertise to product strategy and execution.

• Open Communication: Encouraging open dialogue, constructive feedback through design critiques, and transparent sharing of insights and learnings.

• Proactive Problem-Solving: A team culture that tackles ambiguous challenges head-on, anticipating constraints and working collaboratively to find solutions.

• Mentorship & Knowledge Sharing: A commitment to developing team members, sharing best practices, and fostering a learning environment.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture appears to be aligned with modern tech industry best practices, emphasizing a blend of analytical rigor, user advocacy, and collaborative execution. The emphasis on sustainable growth suggests a mature approach to product development.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Balancing Leadership and Individual Contribution: Effectively managing time and energy to provide both hands-on design leadership and people management.

• Navigating Ambiguity: Working in an environment where growth playbooks and design systems are still being established requires comfort with uncertainty and proactive problem-solving.

• Driving Sustainable Growth: Championing long-term user value and trust against potential short-term conversion pressures.

• Cross-Functional Alignment: Ensuring consistent understanding and buy-in on growth strategies and design decisions across diverse teams (Product, Engineering, Data Science).

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Specialized Growth Design Training: Opportunities to deepen expertise in areas like conversion rate optimization (CRO), behavioral economics, experimentation frameworks, and user psychology.

• Leadership Development Programs: Access to resources or mentorship focused on people management, coaching, and strategic team leadership.

• Industry Conferences & Workshops: Potential to attend relevant design, growth, or product management events to stay abreast of industry trends and network.

• Exposure to AI in Design: Hands-on experience with emerging AI tools and workflows, positioning the candidate at the forefront of design innovation.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges presented are typical for a lead role in a growth-focused, evolving tech environment. The learning opportunities are directly tied to the specialized nature of growth design and leadership.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "How would you approach designing an onboarding flow for a new SaaS product with the goal of increasing activation rates by 15% within the first quarter?" (Focus on your process, data inputs, key touchpoints, and experimentation ideas.)

• "Describe a time you had to balance short-term conversion goals with long-term user trust. What was the outcome, and what did you learn?" (Highlight your understanding of sustainable growth and ethical design.)

• "How do you use data to identify growth opportunities and validate design decisions? Can you share an example of a specific metric you tracked and how it influenced your design?" (Emphasize your analytical skills and data-driven approach.) Company & Culture Questions:

• "What excites you about designing for growth, and how do you see this role contributing to our company's mission?" (Research Jobgether's mission and infer the partner company's goals.)

• "Describe your ideal collaboration style with Product Managers, Engineers, and Data Scientists. How do you ensure alignment and effective teamwork?" (Showcase your cross-functional collaboration skills.)

• "How do you approach mentoring and developing junior designers? What is your philosophy on building design team capabilities?" (Demonstrate your leadership and people management approach.) Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Tell a Story: For each case study, weave a narrative that clearly outlines the problem, your role, the process, the solution, and the impact.

• Quantify Everything: Use data and metrics to demonstrate the success of your designs. If exact numbers aren't available, use estimations and clearly state your assumptions.

• Show, Don't Just Tell: Use visuals (mockups, prototypes, data charts) to support your explanations and make your case studies engaging.

• Be Prepared for Deep Dives: Anticipate detailed questions about your design rationale, trade-offs, and how you handled challenges.

• Connect to the Role: Explicitly link your past experiences and portfolio examples to the requirements and responsibilities of this Lead Product Designer, Growth role.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should focus on demonstrating a strong understanding of growth mechanics, data analysis, cross-functional collaboration, and leadership. A compelling portfolio that showcases quantifiable results and a clear design process is paramount.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this operations position:

• Submit your application through the provided Jobgether link.

• Curate Your Portfolio: Select 2-3 of your strongest growth-focused design projects that demonstrate end-to-end ownership, data utilization, and measurable impact. Ensure these highlight your experience with acquisition, activation, or conversion funnels.

• Tailor Your Resume: Highlight your 8+ years of relevant experience, specifically mentioning SaaS, product-led growth, and any leadership or mentorship roles. Incorporate keywords from the job description, such as "growth design," "experimentation," "user journeys," and "design systems."

• Prepare Your Narrative: Practice articulating your design process, your data-driven approach, and your leadership philosophy. Be ready to discuss specific examples of how you've influenced growth metrics and mentored other designers.

• Research the Company Context: While the partner company isn't named, research Jobgether's mission and how their AI matching process works. Infer the characteristics of a company that would hire through such a platform for a growth-focused design role.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.