Senior Product Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Product Designer

Company: Partly

Location: Auckland, New Zealand & Christchurch, New Zealand

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: Product Design / UX/UI

Date Posted: 2026-04-13

Experience Level: Senior (6+ years)

Remote Status: Office-First with Flexibility (Hybrid)

🚀 Role Summary

• Drive the end-to-end user experience for critical, complex product areas within Partly's global parts platform, focusing on B2B users in the automotive aftermarket.

• Translate deep understanding of intricate technical domains (e.g., vehicle fitment, parts cataloguing) into intuitive, human-centered design solutions that enhance user efficiency and reduce friction.

• Collaborate closely with Product Managers and Engineering Leads to define and execute product strategy, ensuring design vision pushes product outcomes.

• Contribute to a high-performing design team by actively participating in critiques, sharing expertise, and advancing the company's design system and shared patterns.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is specifically focused on complex B2B product design within a niche but massive industry (automotive parts). The emphasis is on deep problem-solving and user advocacy within technical constraints, rather than consumer-facing aesthetics or marketing. The "office-first" approach with flexibility indicates a hybrid model where in-office collaboration is prioritized, but personal schedule management is encouraged.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Own the user experience for a designated complex product area, such as parts cataloguing (managing 500,000+ SKUs), search and discovery with safety implications, or buyer workflows within a B2B marketplace.

• Develop a strong point of view on user experience requirements, challenging and collaborating with Product Managers and Engineering Leads to achieve optimal product strategy and user outcomes.

• Produce high-fidelity prototypes and production-ready designs, meticulously considering edge cases, various states, and the realities of complex data and user workflows.

• Make informed, hard trade-offs between design speed, quality, and technical feasibility, leveraging an understanding of the codebase and data model.

• Actively contribute to and evolve the company's design system and shared patterns to ensure consistency, scalability, and efficiency across product areas.

• Provide direct, specific, and constructive feedback in design critiques to elevate the work of peers, PMs, and engineers.

• Deeply understand user needs and professional workflows through direct customer insight, research, observation, and conversation.

• Advocate for user outcomes and experience quality, ensuring that the design decisions made are grounded in user needs and business objectives.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a significant degree of autonomy and ownership. The candidate is expected to not just execute designs but to deeply understand the problem space, challenge assumptions, and influence product direction. The emphasis on "shipping fast" and "perfect is the enemy of good" suggests an agile development environment where iterative design is key.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: Not explicitly stated, but a strong portfolio and demonstrable experience are paramount.

Experience: Typically 6+ years of senior product design experience, with a proven track record of owning and shipping complex software products for 12+ months.

Required Skills:

• Senior product design experience, typically 6+ years designing complex software products.

• A strong portfolio showcasing excellent design fundamentals, polished UI craft, and clear product thinking.

• Deep fluency in interaction design, UX design, and prototyping to explore, test, and communicate complex ideas effectively.

• Genuine curiosity and demonstrated ability to seek out customer insight through research, observation, and direct conversation.

• Strong systems thinking capabilities, with the ability to design scalable solutions that extend beyond individual features.

• Clear and persuasive communication skills (written, verbal, visual) to articulate design rationale and influence immediate partners.

• Proficiency with modern design and prototyping tools, with Figma explicitly mentioned.

Preferred Skills:

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

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

• Experience contributing to or actively evolving design systems.

• Experience in marketplace, catalogue management, e-commerce, or supply chain domains.

• Experience with SaaS platforms, enterprise software, or developer tools.

• Experience working in high-growth startup environments.

📝 Enhancement Note: The distinction between required and preferred skills clearly indicates the core competencies the company is seeking. The emphasis on B2B, data-dense, and workflow-heavy products aligns with the company's mission and the complexity of its domain. AI-assisted design is a forward-looking skill that the company is open to exploring.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• A compelling portfolio demonstrating ownership of complex product areas, with a focus on user experience definition and execution over 12+ months.

• Clear evidence of strong design fundamentals, polished UI craft, and articulate product thinking.

• Case studies that showcase deep user understanding, problem-solving approaches in complex domains, and measurable results.

• Examples of systems thinking, demonstrating the ability to design solutions that scale and integrate effectively within a larger product ecosystem.

Process Documentation:

• Case studies should detail the process of identifying user struggles and how the design approach was redefined to address them.

• Showcase the ability to make hard trade-offs between speed, quality, and technical feasibility, explaining the rationale behind these decisions.

• Illustrate how design decisions were influenced by customer insight, research, observation, and direct conversation.

• Examples of contributions to design systems or shared patterns, highlighting how these improve consistency and efficiency.

• Demonstrate the ability to produce high-fidelity prototypes and designs that account for edge cases, various states, and the realities of production data.

📝 Enhancement Note: The portfolio is critical for this role. It needs to go beyond visual aesthetics and demonstrate a deep understanding of complex B2B user problems, strategic thinking, and the ability to drive measurable outcomes through design. The emphasis on "owning the user experience" means portfolios should highlight personal contributions and impact, not just team efforts.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range: While not explicitly stated, based on the Senior Product Designer title, 6+ years of experience, and location in New Zealand (Auckland/Christchurch), a competitive salary range is expected. For a Senior Product Designer in New Zealand, typical ranges can fall between NZD $120,000 - $180,000 per annum, depending on specific experience, portfolio strength, and negotiation.

Benefits:

• Healthy, Catered Lunches: Provided daily in the Auckland and Christchurch offices, along with snacks and drinks.

• Annual Wellness Allowance: NZD $1,500 (or local equivalent) for gym memberships, physio, massage, GP visits, etc.

• Family Comes First: 3 months of fully paid parental leave for primary caregivers, with flexible return-to-work options.

• Commute Support: Choice of paid 24/7 car park or commute allowance for office travel.

• Inspiring Workspaces: Architecturally designed offices in Auckland and Christchurch, featuring collaborative spaces and amenities.

• Office-First with Flexibility: Default to working in the office in cities with a physical presence, but with a high-trust environment allowing schedule flexibility.

• Team Celebrations: Regular social events including weekly happy hours, monthly lunches, quarterly events, and an annual global offsite.

• Relocation Allowance: Offered for individuals relocating to Christchurch, either within NZ or from abroad.

Working Hours: While not explicitly defined as "9-to-5," the role is full-time. The "Office-First with Flexibility" benefit suggests that while office presence is encouraged, there is a high degree of trust and autonomy in managing personal schedules to achieve work objectives. Standard full-time hours in New Zealand are typically around 40 hours per week.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary estimate is based on general market data for senior design roles in New Zealand. The benefits package is quite comprehensive, emphasizing employee well-being, work-life balance (despite the office-first approach), and team connection. The hybrid nature is framed as "office-first," indicating a preference for in-person collaboration.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Technology - specifically, building a global platform for replacement parts, with an initial focus on the automotive aftermarket. This is a complex B2B SaaS environment.

Company Size: The description suggests a fast-growing startup ("scaling fast," "team is small and expectations are high"). While not explicitly stated, this implies a company size likely in the range of 50-200 employees, but rapidly expanding.

Founded: Founded by ex-Rocket Lab engineers, backed by prominent investors. This background suggests a culture of high technical achievement, innovation, and a results-driven approach.

Team Structure:

• The design team is described as small, with high expectations, implying a flat hierarchy and significant individual responsibility.

• Designers work closely with Product Managers (who own strategy and outcomes) and Engineering Leads, forming tight, cross-functional pods.

Methodology:

• Data-driven & User-Centric: The role requires seeking customer insight through research, observation, and direct conversation, and using evidence to support design decisions.

• Agile & Iterative: The company values shipping fast, with the understanding that most decisions are reversible. This implies an iterative design and development process.

• First Principles Thinking: Designers are expected to reason from first principles, challenge assumptions, and advocate for the best user experience based on core needs and business objectives.

• Design Systems & Scalability: A focus on building and maintaining design systems indicates a commitment to scalable, consistent, and efficient design practices.

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

📝 Enhancement Note: Partly operates in a technically challenging B2B space with a strong engineering-led founding team. The culture likely emphasizes speed, ownership, and a high bar for quality, typical of well-funded, fast-growing startups originating from strong technical backgrounds. The "office-first" policy in specific locations suggests a deliberate choice to foster in-person collaboration.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This is a Senior Product Designer role, indicating a mid-to-late career stage. The responsibilities and expectations align with an individual contributor who is expected to lead design efforts for significant product areas, mentor others, and contribute to strategic discussions.

Reporting Structure: While not explicitly stated, a Senior Product Designer typically reports to a Design Lead, Head of Design, or potentially a Director of Product. They will work daily with their assigned Product Manager and Engineering team.

Operations Impact: The role's impact is directly tied to making complex B2B software usable and efficient for professional users. Success means enabling parts sellers, cataloguers, and marketplace operators to manage millions of SKUs, complex data, and high-stakes workflows more effectively. This translates to increased user adoption, productivity, and satisfaction, ultimately driving business value for Partly's customers and revenue for the company.

Growth Opportunities:

• Leadership in Design: Opportunity to become a Design Lead or Principal Designer, guiding larger product areas or influencing design strategy across the company.

• Specialization: Deepen expertise in specific complex B2B domains like supply chain, marketplaces, or data-intensive platforms.

• Mentorship: Guide and mentor junior designers as the team grows.

• Cross-functional Influence: Expand influence beyond design into product strategy and business decision-making.

• Contribution to Design Systems: Become a key contributor or owner of the company's design system, impacting product consistency and development velocity.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers significant ownership and the chance to make a tangible impact on a complex B2B product. Growth opportunities are geared towards senior individual contributor paths or leadership roles within a growing design function, rather than necessarily moving into management roles.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Partly maintains modern, architecturally designed offices in its key locations (Auckland, Christchurch, London, San Francisco). These are described as built for collaboration and creativity, with amenities like great coffee and social spaces.

Office Location(s):

• Auckland, New Zealand

• Christchurch, New Zealand

• London, UK

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The "office-first" approach strongly emphasizes in-person collaboration, team connection, and spontaneous problem-solving.

• Tools and Technology: Proficiency with modern design tools like Figma is required. The environment likely supports a range of design and collaboration software.

• Team Interaction: Frequent interaction with Product Managers, Engineers, and fellow Designers is expected, fostering a dynamic and communicative work atmosphere.

Work Schedule: The role is full-time. While the "office-first" model is the default in physical office locations, the "high trust environment" and "flex your schedule to get your best work done" benefit suggest that employees have autonomy in managing their daily hours, provided they meet their responsibilities and collaborate effectively with their teams.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company prioritizes in-person collaboration in its office locations, suggesting a preference for spontaneous interaction and team cohesion. However, this is balanced with a high-trust model that allows for schedule flexibility, indicating a modern approach to work-life integration within an office-centric framework.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: Likely a review of your application, resume, and portfolio by a recruiter or design lead.

• Portfolio Review & Discussion: A dedicated session to walk through your portfolio, focusing on case studies of complex B2B products, your role, design process, trade-offs made, and outcomes achieved. Expect deep dives into your thinking.

• Design Challenge/Exercise: Potentially a take-home assignment or a live design exercise focused on a specific problem relevant to Partly's domain. This will assess your design fundamentals, problem-solving skills, and ability to articulate your rationale.

• Cross-Functional Interviews: Meetings with Product Managers and Engineering Leads to assess your collaboration style, technical understanding, business judgment, and ability to integrate into a cross-functional pod.

• Culture/Values Interview: A discussion to gauge your fit with Partly's values, such as speed, ownership, first principles thinking, and collaboration.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Focus on Impact: Showcase projects where you owned the user experience for a significant product area (12+ months). Quantify outcomes where possible (e.g., improved efficiency, reduced errors, increased adoption).

• Tell a Story: Structure your case studies with a clear narrative: problem, your approach, challenges, decisions, trade-offs, and results.

• Show Your Thinking: Don't just present polished final screens. Include wireframes, user flows, prototypes, and explanations of your design rationale and how you arrived at your solutions.

• Highlight B2B Complexity: Emphasize your ability to design for complex data, workflows, and professional users with high expectations.

• Demonstrate Collaboration: Illustrate how you partnered with PMs and engineers, and how you influenced product strategy.

• Be Ready for Deep Dives: Prepare to answer detailed questions about your specific contributions, design decisions, and what you would do differently.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Domain: Research the automotive parts industry, catalogue management, fitment data, and B2B marketplace dynamics.

• Embrace Constraints: Be prepared to work with limited information or specific constraints, mirroring real-world scenarios.

• Articulate Trade-offs: Clearly explain the choices you made and why, especially regarding speed, quality, and technical feasibility.

• Focus on Process: Demonstrate a systematic approach to problem-solving, user research, and design execution.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process is designed to rigorously assess not just design skills but also strategic thinking, problem-solving ability in complex domains, and collaborative aptitude. The portfolio review is a critical juncture, requiring candidates to demonstrate deep ownership and impact.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Figma: Explicitly mentioned as a required proficiency for design and prototyping.

• Prototyping Tools: While Figma is primary, familiarity with other prototyping workflows that facilitate exploration and communication of ideas is valued.

• Design Systems Tools: Experience contributing to or utilizing design systems implies tools and processes for managing components, styles, and guidelines.

Analytics & Reporting:

CRM & Automation:

• Not directly relevant to the core responsibilities of a Senior Product Designer, but understanding the B2B context of SaaS platforms and customer workflows might involve some awareness of how design impacts CRM or automation processes for sales and customer success teams.

📝 Enhancement Note: The primary tool requirement is Figma. The company values designers who can leverage modern design practices, including AI-assisted design, and who can understand and contribute to design systems. Awareness of how design impacts broader business metrics is also implied.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Speed & Iteration: "Shipping fast matters, perfect is the enemy of good." This value prioritizes rapid iteration and learning over prolonged perfection.

• Ownership: "You will have enormous ownership and very little cover." This highlights a culture where individuals are entrusted with significant responsibility and are expected to drive their work forward autonomously.

• First Principles Thinking: Reasoning from foundational truths to solve problems, rather than relying on existing conventions or assumptions.

• High Bar for Quality: Despite the emphasis on speed, there's a clear expectation of "exceptionally high" standards for what "good" means in terms of user experience and craft.

• Direct Feedback: "Giving direct, specific feedback in critique that makes other designers, PM’s, and engineers work better." This fosters a culture of continuous improvement.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-functional Pods: Designers work in tight-knit teams with PMs and engineers, fostering deep collaboration and shared problem-solving.

• Pushing Each Other: The relationship between design, PM, and engineering is one of mutual challenge and improvement, where different perspectives push each other towards better outcomes.

• Trust-Based Environment: "We also operate with a very high trust environment." This suggests autonomy and respect among team members.

• Office-First for Connection: While flexible, the office environment is intended to facilitate strong relationships and efficient collaboration.

📝 Enhancement Note: Partly's culture is a blend of high-growth startup energy (speed, ownership) and a rigorous, engineering-led approach (first principles, high quality). Collaboration is deeply integrated into cross-functional teams, with a strong emphasis on direct communication and mutual improvement.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Domain Complexity: The core domain of vehicle fitment, parts taxonomy, and catalogue management is inherently complex and not intuitive, requiring significant learning.

• Professional User Expectations: Designing for professionals means meeting high expectations for efficiency, accuracy, and reliability, with low tolerance for friction.

• Global Scalability: Solutions must accommodate diverse markets, languages, and international parts standards.

• Balancing Speed and Quality: The constant tension between shipping rapidly and maintaining an exceptionally high standard of quality.

• High Autonomy, High Expectations: Working in a small team with enormous ownership means significant responsibility and limited oversight.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deep Domain Expertise: Opportunity to become a subject matter expert in the complex B2B space of parts logistics and marketplaces.

• Advanced B2B Design Skills: Hone skills in designing for data-dense, workflow-heavy, and technically challenging software.

• Influence and Strategy: Gain experience influencing product strategy and business decisions through design leadership.

• Design System Development: Contribute to the growth and evolution of a company-wide design system.

• Mentorship: Opportunities to mentor junior designers as the team expands.

• Startup Growth Experience: Gain invaluable experience in a fast-growing, venture-backed startup environment.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are significant and directly tied to the nature of the business and the startup environment. Overcoming these challenges presents substantial opportunities for professional growth and skill development in specialized B2B product design.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "How would you approach designing a system for managing 500,000+ SKUs, considering the complexities of vehicle fitment and multi-market standards?" (Focus on process, data modeling, user segmentation, and scalability.)

• "Describe a time you had to make hard trade-offs between design speed, quality, and technical feasibility. How did you decide, and what was the outcome?" (Assess judgment, collaboration, and understanding of constraints.)

• "How do you ensure a design is not just visually appealing but truly usable and efficient for professional users with specific workflows?" (Focus on user research, iterative testing, and understanding of B2B needs.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "Based on your understanding of Partly, how would you contribute to a culture that values speed, ownership, and a high bar for quality?" (Connect your experience and values to theirs.)

• "Describe your experience working in a high-trust, autonomous environment. How do you manage your time and ensure effective collaboration?" (Assess self-management and team orientation.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Focus on Ownership: Clearly articulate your specific role and contributions in each case study. Use "I" statements for your direct actions.

• Show the "Why": Explain the rationale behind your design decisions, the user problems you were solving, and the business objectives you were aiming for.

• Highlight Trade-offs: Be prepared to discuss difficult decisions you made regarding scope, features, or technical constraints, and the reasoning behind them.

• Quantify Impact: Whenever possible, present metrics or evidence of the positive outcomes your designs achieved (e.g., improved conversion, reduced support tickets, increased user efficiency).

• Demonstrate B2B Nuance: Emphasize your understanding of complex data, professional workflows, and the unique challenges of B2B product design.

• Prepare for Technicality: Be ready to discuss technical feasibility and how your designs integrated with existing systems or data models.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should heavily lean into demonstrating strategic thinking, deep user empathy for professional B2B contexts, and the ability to navigate complex technical challenges with speed and ownership. Your portfolio is your primary tool to showcase these capabilities.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior Product Designer position:

• Submit your application through the provided link on Ashby.

• Portfolio Customization: Tailor your portfolio to highlight 2-3 key projects that best demonstrate your experience with complex B2B software, workflow design, and delivering measurable outcomes. Prioritize case studies where you owned significant product areas for at least 12 months.

• Resume Optimization: Ensure your resume clearly articulates your 6+ years of senior product design experience, focusing on achievements relevant to complex software, B2B products, and cross-functional collaboration. Use keywords from the job description.

• Interview Preparation: Practice walking through your portfolio case studies, focusing on explaining your design process, decision-making, trade-offs, and impact. Prepare specific examples for strategy, collaboration, and culture-fit questions.

• Company Research: Thoroughly research Partly, its mission, its industry (automotive parts B2B), its investors, and its stated values. Understand the challenges and opportunities presented in the job description.

⚠️ 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.