Senior Manager, Product Design & User Experience Research (UXR)

ServiceTrade•Durham, NC

4d•Remote

About The Position

ServiceTrade is seeking a Senior Manager of Product Design & User Experience Research (UXR) to lead and scale our end-to-end product design and research capabilities. This leader will be accountable for design strategy, UX research excellence, and the delivery of intuitive, high-impact experiences across our platform serving commercial service contractors and their customers. In addition, this role will help spearhead the evolution of design in an AI-powered product organization—championing invisible design , exceptional attention to user experience, and rapid AI-driven prototyping. This leader will shape how ServiceTrade designs products in a world where intelligence is embedded, workflows are adaptive, and value is delivered through clarity, trust, and ease rather than surface-level features. The Senior Manager will partner closely with Product Management, Engineering, Customer Success, and Marketing to translate customer needs and business strategy into elegant, usable, and differentiated product experiences. This role combines hands-on leadership with organizational design, coaching, and operational rigor to ensure design and research are embedded throughout the product development lifecycle—including fast-paced experimentation and AI-enabled discovery.

Requirements

6+ years of experience in product design, UX, or user research
Experience designing AI
Inquisitive, entrepreneurial and adaptive
Proven experience leading product design and/or UXR teams in a B2B SaaS environment.
Strong portfolio demonstrating customer-centered problem solving, system-level thinking, and business impact.
Deep understanding of modern product development practices (discovery, agile, dual-track).
Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to influence executives and cross-functional partners.

Nice To Haves

Experience scaling design and research practices in a growth-stage SaaS company.
Familiarity with complex, workflow-driven products (e.g., field service, construction tech, ERP, or operations platforms).
Experience designing or prototyping AI-powered or data-driven product experiences.
Experience building and maintaining design systems at scale.
Working knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and inclusive design principles.

Responsibilities

Design & Research Leadership Define and own the vision, principles, and standards for Product Design and UXR across ServiceTrade, including principles for AI-native and invisible design .
Lead a team of product designers and UX researchers, setting clear expectations, goals, and development plans.
Ensure consistent, high-quality interaction design, visual design, information architecture, and usability across the product portfolio.
Champion customer-centered design practices, ensuring research insights meaningfully inform product strategy and roadmap decisions—especially as AI-driven capabilities are introduced and scaled.
Establish how design contributes to trust, explainability, and confidence in AI-powered workflows.
User Experience Research (UXR) Establish and scale a rigorous UXR practice, including qualitative and quantitative research methodologies.
Partner with Product and Data teams to define research priorities aligned to business outcomes and AI-driven use cases.
Oversee user discovery, usability testing, journey mapping, and concept validation across the product lifecycle, including rapid validation of AI concepts and prototypes .
Translate research findings into clear, actionable insights that guide both traditional product decisions and AI-assisted experiences.
Product Partnership & Execution Serve as a strategic partner to Product Management and Engineering to drive discovery, prioritization, and delivery.
Embed design and research into agile product teams, ensuring early and continuous customer feedback.
Lead fast, iterative prototyping —including low- and high-fidelity prototypes—to explore AI-enabled workflows and test assumptions quickly.
Balance user needs, technical constraints, and business objectives to deliver impactful solutions where intelligence feels natural, supportive, and unobtrusive.
Provide executive-ready narratives and artifacts (journey maps, prototypes, research readouts) to support decision-making in an increasingly AI-driven roadmap.
Design Systems & Operations Own and evolve the ServiceTrade design system, ensuring scalability, accessibility, and brand consistency across both traditional and AI-powered experiences.
Define processes, tooling, and metrics to improve design efficiency, quality, and impact in a rapid experimentation environment.
Establish best practices for accessibility, inclusive design, and usability standards—particularly as automation and AI are introduced into core workflows.
Partner with Product Operations (if applicable) to improve intake, prioritization, and capacity planning for design and research work.
People Development & Culture Recruit, onboard, and retain top-tier design and research talent with strengths in systems thinking, experimentation, and AI-adjacent design.
Foster a culture of collaboration, experimentation, and continuous improvement.
Coach managers and senior ICs to grow their leadership, craft excellence, and business acumen in a modern AI product organization.
Advocate for design and research as strategic capabilities—and as critical drivers of clarity, trust, and usability in AI-powered products.

Benefits

Medical with Blue Cross Blue Shield NC (2 options)
Dental and Vision with Unum
Company-paid Life insurance, STD and LTD
Voluntary benefits including Supplemental Life Insurance, HSA, FSA and Dependant Care, Critical Illness, Accident and Pet Insurance
401(k) with up to 3% employer match and NO vesting period
Flexible PTO policy
10 company holidays
Parental Leave
Community Impact Program (Volunteer)
Tech and Wellness Stipend