Head of Product Design

Job Description

• Title: Head of Product Design
• Department: Product Management
• Location: Espoo, Finland
• Reports to: VP, Product Management
• Working type: Hybrid (2 days remote / week)
• Employment is subject to applicable security screening (incl. SUPO, where required)

The Mission of the Head of Product Design

We are seeking a Head of Product Design to build and lead a high-impact product design organization at a critical scaling inflection point for ICEYE’s Missions business. This role owns UX quality across products, builds a scalable design capability (talent, standards, and systems), and ensures coherent end-to-end customer journeys—shaping how mission-critical products feel, function, and scale globally to improve customer adoption and trust. Designers remain embedded within product domains, while you provide hands-on craft leadership and organizational direction through a matrix model, initially contributing directly to adoption-critical workflows as you build the long-term structure, standards, and team.

Who are we?

ICEYE delivers space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities to governments and allied nations. This includes sovereign and turnkey ISR missions leveraging ICEYE’s world-leading synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite technology, as well as access to data from the world’s largest SAR satellite constellation. These capabilities enable partners to detect and respond to critical changes anywhere on Earth with unprecedented speed and accuracy – day or night and in any weather, supported by ultra high-resolution imagery and high-frequency revisits.

As a trusted partner for defense, intelligence, security, and maritime domain awareness, ICEYE’s near real-time data creates a tactical advantage for mission-critical operations. ICEYE operates internationally with offices in Finland, Poland, Spain, Japan, the UAE, Greece, Germany, and the US. The company has more than 900 employees, inspired by the shared vision of improving life on Earth by becoming the global source of truth in Earth Observation

Day to day responsibilities:

• Raise the UX Quality Bar: Set and uphold usability / interaction standards; lead adoption-critical workflow design; add lightweight usability checkpoints; drive measurable gains in efficiency, clarity, and time-to-value.
• Build Cross-Product Coherence: Own and scale the design system; drive consistency across products/surfaces; reduce fragmentation as customers move from service usage to sovereign mission environments.
• Establish a Scalable Design Organization: Define the hiring bar, levels, and career paths; hire and onboard; run critique/craft calibration; coach systems thinking + interaction design; align performance management to UX quality and business impact.
• Lead Within a Matrix Operating Model: Ensure high craft quality across embedded designers; focus effort on highest-leverage work; balance delivery speed with long-term coherence; maintain quality discipline without bureaucratic gating.
• Influence Product Strategy: Partner with Product/Engineering to shape end-to-end journeys; position UX as a mission-critical competitive advantage; translate company goals into actionable design standards and mechanisms

What Success Looks Like (6-12 months):

• Adoption-critical workflows reach a clearly defined “gold standard” usability benchmark.
• A documented, actively used design system adopted across new development.
• Improved customer adoption and reduced training/support friction.
• A strong internal design culture with consistent critique, clear leveling, and high hiring quality.
• Clear and logical customer journeys across service and sovereign mission contexts.

Experience

• 8–12+ years in product design, including leading and scaling design teams and functions in product-led organizations.
• Experience building or evolving a design function in a product-led organization.
• Track record delivering high-quality UX for complex, workflow-heavy products (enterprise/B2B/technical/mission-critical preferred).
• Experience owning and operationalizing design systems, and working effectively in matrix/cross-functional environments.

Skills & competencies

• Systems thinker (optimizing workflows, not just screens) with exceptional interaction/usability judgment.
• Influential leader who drives quality without process overhead; strong coach and talent developer.
• Strategic mindset combined with pragmatic execution; comfortable in technically complex environments.

How We Work (Our Values)

Make the impossible possible: We set ambitious goals and stay calm under pressure. We bring grit, optimism, and ownership when things get hard, and we keep moving until we find a way.

• Be curious: Go deep, ask questions, listen carefully, and think critically. Understand the “why” behind decisions.
• See the big picture: Stay close to what’s happening across the company so you can make better decisions. Consider how your work affects others.
• Drive effective teamwork: Create psychological safety, invite different perspectives, and build inclusive teams. There are no bad questions.
• Act as one team: We win together. We match tasks to the right owner and stay agile as priorities shift.
• Have fun:  What we do matters—and it should be enjoyable. Celebrate progress, take pride in results, and share the wins.

Benefits:

Our benefits are designed to support your health and wellbeing—at work and beyond. We keep improving them based on employee feedback, and offerings vary by location. Talent Acquisition will confirm what applies for this role and location during the process.

Our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We want ICEYE to be a place where people can be themselves and do great work. Different backgrounds and perspectives make us stronger, which is why we work to create an environment where people feel included, respected, and able to speak up. Whatever your background, we want you to bring your authentic self to the table.

We’re committed to fair, inclusive hiring and equal opportunity. Everyone is welcome to apply. If you need any adjustments or support during the recruitment process, tell us—we’ll do our best to help.

Apply now to start your ICEYE journey, and help us continue to make the impossible possible together. Read more about ICEYE and working with us at iceye.com