UX Manager

Wenco (a Hitachi Construction Machinery subsidiary)•Richmond, BC

2d•CA$120,000 - CA$150,000•Hybrid

About The Position

Wenco International Mining Systems, a subsidiary of Hitachi Construction Machinery, is seeking a UX Manager to own the UX function. This role involves setting direction, establishing a design system, defining the collaboration between design, product, and engineering, and building the UX practice for the company's next phase. The work is primarily greenfield, focusing on building new applications and a major new platform project. This is a player-coach role, requiring approximately half the time on hands-on design and design system work, and the other half on leading the team, shaping the practice, and collaborating with product and engineering leadership. The UX Manager will work directly with the CTO, product leadership, and senior engineering. The role presents a unique opportunity to improve the user experience of complex, high-stakes mining software used by dispatchers, heavy equipment operators, and supervisors, with a significant impact on safety and production.

Requirements

10+ years of professional UX/product design experience, with a strong portfolio demonstrating both craft-level visual and interaction design and systems thinking, especially in B2B applications and software product markets
Proven experience developing designs for desktop, tablet, and mobile applications
Demonstrated experience building a design system and component library from scratch or leading a significant evolution of one
Experience leading a design team, including hiring, mentoring, and developing designers
Experience as the senior-most designer in an organisation or product area — setting direction without a more senior designer above you
Hands-on experience with AI-enabled product UX, AI-assisted design tooling, or both
Strength across the full UX spectrum: research, information architecture, interaction design, visual design, and prototyping
Strong communication skills; comfortable presenting design rationale to product, engineering, and senior R&D leadership
Working knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and inclusive design principles
Comfort with ambiguity and the ability to establish structure where none exists
Applicants must have the right to work in Canada. Wenco is not currently offering visa sponsorship for this role.

Nice To Haves

Experience in enterprise, industrial, or other complex-domain software is advantageous but not required — intellectual curiosity about the domain matters more than prior exposure.

Responsibilities

Own UX across Wenco's product portfolio, working as an embedded designer on new application development, including the new platform project
Lead, build, and maintain Wenco's design system and component library as a core deliverable — architecture, governance, contribution process, and documentation
Define and document Wenco's UX standards and ways of working with agile product teams
Shape Wenco's approach to AI in the product and in the design process — both designing AI-powered experiences for end users (operator copilots, anomaly detection, intelligent dispatch assistance) and bringing AI tooling into the design and research workflow
Conduct and synthesise user research to inform product decisions and validate design direction
Collaborate closely with product managers, engineers, and senior stakeholders to align UX with product strategy
Produce high-quality visual and interaction design across the portfolio
Lead, mentor, and grow a small design team; provide guidance, feedback, and career development
Champion accessibility, usability, and design quality across the organisation