Publicis Groupe Canada is the Canadian subsidiary of Publicis Groupe, the second largest communications group in the world and a global leader concentrated within four main activities: Communication, Media, Data and Technology. Publicis Groupe Canada represents the vision of a set of collaborative and integrated agencies that offer expertise and insightful services to many of the biggest brands in North America.
Publicis Groupe Canada is committed to its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion mandate which focuses on four pillars: Education, Talent Management, Outreach and Giving Back. Since the mandate's launch in 2020, they have made strong and continued growth in all their pillars including top-tier mental health benefits, regular education sessions for employees, six business resources groups for employees of various backgrounds and their allies and developing training and scholarships programs with POV and the Miami Ad School Canada. The Groupe also launched This Is The Job, an initiative designed to work with Canada's largest school boards to change the complexion of the marketing industry and inspire racialized teens and young adults to consider a career in the industry.
Canadian brands include: Publicis Canada (Publicis Canada, Hawkeye, Razorfish, Publicis Health, ThePubProductions, Nurun, Publicis Sports & Entertainment), Publicis Media (Starcom, Spark Foundry, Zenith), Leo Burnett (Leo Burnett Canada, Ove Brand Design, Leo Burnett Design), Saatchi & Saatchi (Saatchi & Saatchi Canada, Synergize, TPM),MSL Canada/North Strategic (North Strategic, MSL Canada, Notch Canada) and Publicis Sapient.
Overview
As an Product Design Lead, you will lead and mentor a high-performing team of designers dedicated to creating human-led AI products and delivering innovative, responsible, and intuitive digital experiences. You will champion user-centered design principles, usability standards, and inclusive practices across all product development cycles, ensuring every experience is outcome-driven, accessible, and delightful.
Your role is to balance creative excellence with practical execution—translating complex business goals and user needs into compelling design visions and actionable roadmaps. You’ll facilitate strong cross-functional partnerships with software development, product management, and user research teams, and drive user research initiatives to ensure a deep understanding of user needs and validation of design solutions. You’ll foster a culture of continuous innovation, inclusion, and bold experimentation, while upholding rigorous design quality standards in a dynamic, fast-paced environment.
Additionally, you will work closely with client partners to ensure design initiatives align with client business objectives. By nurturing client relationships and promoting design transparency, you will help deliver tangible value, drive business growth, and reinforce Nurun’s reputation as a trusted partner.
Focus Areas:
- Lead Design Direction: Elevate client experiences and showcase Nurun’s design innovation and creative capabilities.
- Integrate Research & Trends: Inform solutions that benefit clients and fuel Nurun’s design R&D and future assets.
- Facilitate Teamwork: Align design, tech, and product functions for scalable impact across clients and Nurun’s offerings.
- Prototype & Validate: Rapidly test concepts to drive client transformation and create reusable Nurun design assets.
- Iterate with Data: Apply design performance metrics to deliver outcomes and grow Nurun’s reputation for excellence.
Responsibilities
Responsibilities:
- Lead: Guide and inspire Product Designers to deliver exceptional, human-led AI and digital experiences.
- Champion UCD: Advocate for user-centered design principles, usability standards, and inclusive design throughout all product development cycles.
- Foster Culture: Promote continuous innovation, growth, and inclusion, and encourage experimentation and bold ideas within the design team.
- Uphold Quality: Establish and uphold rigorous design quality standards, ensuring all solutions are intuitive, accessible, and delightful.
- Translate Goals: Convert complex business goals and user needs into compelling design visions and actionable roadmaps for your team.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate extensively with engineering, product management, and research partners to deliver impactful, high-quality solutions that align with business objectives.
- Drive Research: Lead user research initiatives and leverage data insights to inform and validate design decisions, ensuring a deep understanding of user needs.
- Manage Design Systems: Create and maintain a scalable design system, and establish an efficient DesignOps to support product delivery across design and development teams.
Qualifications
Key Qualifications:
- Experience: Demonstrated experience (10+ years) in leading design teams and managing complex design projects, with a proven track record of delivering successful user experiences.
- Design Leadership: Proven ability to lead, inspire, and manage a team of designers, fostering a high-performance culture.
- UCD Expertise: Extensive experience in user-centered design methodologies, with deep knowledge of UX principles, interaction design, and visual design.
- AI Experience: Experience with frontier technologies such as AI, agents, and SaaS workflow platforms with a solid understanding of their unique design challenges.
- Strategic Vision: Ability to define and articulate a compelling design vision that aligns with business goals and market opportunities, translating objectives into tangible design outcomes and roadmaps.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Exceptional ability to partner effectively with software development, product management, research, and marketing teams.
- Usability & Accessibility: Commitment to the highest standards of usability, accessibility, and inclusive design.
Preferred Qualifications:
- Leadership Experience: 3+ years in a leadership role within UX/UI design, team management and development
- Agile: Experience working in agile, cross-functional teams.
- Tools: Familiarity with the latest design platforms and plugin ecosystem
Stakeholder Management: Strong skills in managing and aligning diverse stakeholder groups.
Additional information
Publicis Canada is committed to building a diverse workforce representative of our community. We encourage and are pleased to consider all qualified candidates, without regard to race, colour, citizenship, religion, sex, marital / family status, sexual orientation, gender identity, aboriginal status, age, disability or persons who may require an accommodation, to apply. If you require a specific accommodation please contact Human Resources at 416-925-7733 or by email at inquiries@publicisna.com
