Careers
Vice President, Product & Design
Description
About Us
Irwin is one of the fastest-growing FinTech companies in Canada. We are based in Toronto and are a leading provider of capital markets-focused financial technology with a mission to seamlessly connect the world's capital seekers and allocators to make them more productive, innovative, and successful. Our flagship product, Irwin, is a software platform used by investor relations and investment banking professionals all over the world.
Join Our Remote-First Team
Within Irwin's remote-first culture, this role uniquely offers a hybrid work arrangement. You can benefit from both remote and in-person collaboration at our Toronto office. Join our hybrid team and enjoy the best of both worlds.
Your Impact
As a member of our executive leadership team reporting directly to the CEO, the VP of Product & Design is responsible for the development and execution of all aspects of building and executing on Irwin’s roadmap for user research, user experience and product development.
Key Responsibilities
Organizational Leadership:
- Provide organizational leadership to the product and design teams, setting high standards for attention to detail, diligent market and customer research, and user-centric design and user experience.
- Oversee user research and collaborate with product managers to understand user needs, ensuring designs and project scoping meet and exceed expectations.
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams (including sales, marketing, CS) to ensure the proper use of their knowledge and market touch points to inform the product management and design decisions, while also effectively communicating with those teams as to the upcoming plans and roadmap decisions and timelines.
Strategic UX and Design Planning:
- Develop, communicate and execute a comprehensive UX and design strategy that aligns with the overall product and business strategy.
- Drive the evolution of the design language and principles to ensure a cohesive and distinctive brand identity that energizes the organization and our customers.
Team Development:
- Hire, mentor and develop a team of skilled product managers, designers and UX specialists
- Foster a culture of collaboration, continuous learning, professional growth and creative excellence.
- Drive innovation within the product and design team, exploring new approaches to elevate the visual and interactive aspects of our products.
User-Centric Design:
- Advocate for user-centered design principles throughout the product development process.
Product Roadmap & Design Process Optimization:
- Implement and refine the product roadmap and design processes to improve efficiency and quality.
- Work closely with cross-functional teams to integrate design into agile development cycles, ensuring a seamless and iterative design approach.
Stakeholder Collaboration:
- Present design vision concepts and strategies to executives and key stakeholders, incorporating feedback to drive design excellence.
- Be a champion for the design organization to the rest of the organization, driving thought leadership and influencing our creative brand vision at the company level.
Who You Are
- 10-15 years’ experience in product design leadership at a high-tech or SaaS software company with a strong portfolio showcasing successful product launches.
- Ability to think and operate at a “strategic level,” but equally drive execution on a “tactical level” with the willingness to roll-up sleeves and “get into the details”.
- Deep understanding of design principles, user experience, product management and industry trends.
- Familiarity with branding work, product marketing, value propositions, and messaging.
- History of building and coaching high-performing teams who are motivated to do better and think bigger as a result of your leadership.
- Data-driven mindset and highly analytical with the desire and ability to dig into metrics to derive insights through design dashboards.
- Ability to influence, partner, and communicate cross-functionally with product, engineering, and research business teams across a company to set and deliver on design vision.
- Strong awareness of technology trends and potential influence on the current and future business.
- Ability to balance creative thinking with pragmatic decision-making.
Nice to haves:
- Experience in finance or capital markets.
What We Offer
- Comprehensive benefits (health, vision, and dental).
- Generous vacation policy (4 weeks), including an extra week off during the year-end holiday period.
- Maternity and parental leave top-ups.
- Monthly internet expense coverage.
- Equity ownership in the company.
- The opportunity to be a part of and contribute to a grand and meaningful vision.
- An inclusive work environment that welcomes diverse applicants from all backgrounds, identities, beliefs, and statuses.
This role reports directly to the Co-Founder & CEO.
How We Hire
Hiring Process Overview:
Here's a brief breakdown of our recruitment process:
- Screening & Resume Review: Evaluate all resumes and responses.
- Initial Interview (20 min): Meet with our People Operations team to discuss your motivators and align on role specifics.
- Second Interview (30-45 min): Interview with our Co-Founder & CEO to assess your skills and fit.
- Final Presentation: Prepare and present to a panel to showcase your expertise and alignment with Irwin.
We understand that the hiring process can be stressful, but we try our best to make it as respectful and enjoyable as possible. We value every candidate's time and believe that getting to know each other is an important aspect of the recruitment process.
Our people are what make Irwin, Irwin! They're passionate, mission-driven, accountable, humble and ambitious.
We take an inclusive and equitable approach, offering the same interview experience to every candidate we meet with. Irwin is an equal opportunity employer, we celebrate everyone and their intersecting identities.
We are committed to providing reasonable accommodations and will work with you to meet your needs. If you are a person with a disability and require assistance during the application process, please don’t hesitate to reach out! We celebrate our inclusive work environment and welcome members of all backgrounds and perspectives to apply.
We thank all applicants for their interest; however, only those selected for an interview will be contacted. If contacted for an interview, please inform us should any accommodation be required.