Head of Product Design at Halter

Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand -

Full Time

Start Date

Immediate

Expiry Date

31 May, 26

Salary

0.0

Posted On

02 Mar, 26

Experience

10 year(s) or above

Remote Job

Yes

Telecommute

Yes

Sponsor Visa

Skills

Product Design Vision, Design Strategy, Design Systems, User Experience, Mobile First Design, Team Leadership, Product Roadmaps, UX Research, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Accessibility, AI Tooling, Data-Rich Products, Hardware-Enabled Software

Industry

Description

About Halter At Halter, we’re on a mission to enable farmers and graziers to run the most productive and sustainable operations. Our customers are using Halter to break free from the time-intensive constraints of conventional practices. Imagine watching 500 cattle stand up and walk calmly towards their next break? No quad bikes, no dogs, no fences. Just a group of cattle walking at their own pace. People say it looks like magic. Our customers are revolutionizing grazing with Halter. It's changing lives and transforming an industry. People join Halter to do meaningful work. By joining us you’ll be solving challenging problems within a talented team and a culture built for high performance. Our team out-think, out-work and out-care. We’re committed to delivering real change in the world - this isn’t easy, and in truth, we love that it’s hard. We’re backed to deliver on a mission that matters by Tier 1 investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, BOND, DCVC, Blackbird, Promus Ventures, Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck and Icehouse ventures. To find out more, visit our LinkedIn & Instagram. Halter is looking for a Head of Product Design to define and craft the future of our product experience. You will own everything from the design vision, strategy, and systems, to the finer details of the user experience, across our mobile and web applications. You will lead and continue to grow and shape our team of product designers, partnering closely with product and engineering leaders, to solve complex problems for our customers who rely on Halter every minute of the day as their farm operating system.This is not a hands-off design manager. We’re looking for a leader who operates at the intersection of strategy, leadership, craft, and execution - someone who leads from the front, sets direction, and sets the quality bar, so that Halter’s product experience continues to distance itself as globally best-in-class. What you'll do Define and evolve Halter’s product design vision, strategy, principles, and standards. Establish and scale a design system that enables speed, consistency, and quality across mobile and web (but mobile-first) Translate complex, real-world, data and jobs into clear, intuitive digital experiences. Own design quality as a competitive advantage and set a bar other companies aspire to. Work as a close partner to Product, Engineering, and Go-to-market leadership to shape product strategy, roadmaps, and outcomes. Influence what we build and how we build it, not just how it looks. Advocate for users while balancing business needs and technical constraints. Lead, manage, mentor, and grow a team of product designers across multiple product areas. Build a high-performance design culture grounded in craft, ownership, velocity and continuous improvement. Lift the performance ceiling of your team by leaning into and leveraging evolutions in technology, especially AI and automation. Set clear expectations and development paths for designers. Elevate design quality and clarity, raising the standard of excellence across every touchpoint. Stay close to the work - guiding key flows, reviewing designs, and unblocking teams. Drive strong design critique, experimentation, and data-informed decision making. Establish best practices across UX research, interaction design, visual design, and accessibility. Who you are An experienced product designer with deep craft and strong product instincts. Experienced building and shaping design teams, ideally in a Head of Design role. Comfortable operating across levels, from vision and strategy down to execution and delivery. Experienced designing and scaling complex, data-rich products (e.g. real-time, geo-spatial, or systems-heavy domains). A bonus if you have experience in hardware-enabled software products. Experienced and highly effective working with Product and Engineering as peers, and cross-functionally with Go-to-market leaders. A champion of intelligence and automation, comfortable shaping a design function to benefit from AI tooling. Low ego. Opinionated and fearless, but pragmatic and precise. You are comfortable making hard trade-offs in fast-moving environments, with what’s best for Halter and our customers in mind. Genuinely motivated by real-world impact, and building something that will continue to revolutionise one of the world’s most important industries. What sets us apart from most SaaS companies Halter is real world in every sense. The product becomes a digital twin of land and animals. It guides animals, models land, monitors behaviours - all in real time. It is used by customers in the field - rain, snow or shine. Our customers might be data-hungry and AI-fluent, or this might be the first time they have used technology, especially a mobile app, in their business. The way in which we craft our experiences to cater to this spectrum of users is make or break. We literally get our hands dirty, working closely with our customers - you will talk to customers constantly, you will get feedback (good and bad), and you will definitely need gumboots - it is hard to beat gathering insights, while standing almost literally in the shoes of our farmers. We have a track record of taking risks and blazing new trails (which isn’t going to change). Much of what we do has no template or example to follow. Greenfield technical and design challenges are frequent, and our willingness to tackle them keeps us a step ahead of our competition. We have incredible engineers, who bring things to life with velocity and quality. As quick as we can bring a design concept to life, we can give ourselves the ability to test it, in the field. Calls and prototypes are useful, but our most important learnings come from seeing the real thing in action - nothing can replicate that. Our Benefits State-of-the-art, dog-friendly office that’s been thoughtfully designed right in the heart of Auckland city. Healthy body, healthy mind. We’re partnered with Southern Cross Health Insurance to support your well-being. We offer 6 months of fully paid parental leave for primary caregivers, 4 weeks of fully paid secondary caregiver leave and many other parental benefits that support you and your family. Our personal growth is important. Halter offers an annual $1000 self-development budget to be used for anything that fuels personal growth. Our time to recharge is valued, we’re offered wellness leave and unlimited paid annual leave. We offer an inclusive and attractive remuneration package made up of salary, benefits and an employee stock ownership plan. Delicious snacks and drinks are available for your daily flow. Our Office First Approach There’s a reason you visit your friends in person, live with your family and don’t do dinners over Zoom. Humans are wired for connection. We believe a world-class, in-person office culture is the best way for high-performing teams. Being office first is a core pillar of our culture. We believe in-person connections are key to driving your own growth, learning, impact, and building genuine long-lasting relationships. Strong relationships make it easier to disagree, give feedback, and do meaningful and aligned work. We don’t like having heaps of rules or policies, but this means having strong, trusted relationships is critical. We’re office first, not office only. This means working from the office everyday is our default setting, but we flex when we need to. We have a high-trust culture, so everyone is trusted to do what’s best for Halter. Our office vibe is something special, it’s hard to describe until you’re here, but people at Halter who have come from fully remote or hybrid companies say they could never go back - the high energy and spectacular people they are now surrounded by everyday makes work so enjoyable. Your growth, your learning and your impact is truly unlimited here, and a big part of that comes from being together solving problems, innovating, building context, and constantly learning from each other. Join our team Halter is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace — a place where we can each be ourselves and do the best work of our lives. Research shows that while men apply to jobs when they meet an average of 60% of the requirements, women and under-represented groups of candidates tend to only apply when they meet every requirement. If you think you have what it takes but don’t necessarily tick every requirement on this job description, please still get in touch and apply to Halter. We’d love to chat to see if you’ll be an epic fit! If this opportunity sounds like you, please apply below by sending through your cover letter explaining why you’re excited about this role and working at Halter, along with your CV, and we’ll be in touch! Please also feel free to check out the careers page for more information on working at Halter and don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn & Instagram. Why our team loves working at Halter: Work that genuinely matters. Every now and again a company comes along that transforms an entire industry and leaves the world in a better place. Our team gets to be part of something truly meaningful, helping farmers improve their livelihoods, spend more time with their families, and build more sustainable operations. Spectacular people solving hard problems. Our culture is designed for talented people to do work that changes lives. The team is filled with diverse, kind, and driven people who push each other to do their best work. You'll be thrown into the deep end, tackling complex challenges and building something tangible that solves real problems. You'll grow here. Autonomy, mastery, and learning define how we work. You'll have the freedom to work on interesting problems, master new skills, and continuously develop yourself, both through your role and our $1,000 personal growth fund. This isn't easy, and we love that it's hard. Working at Halter will be the most rewarding and the most challenging work of your life. We move fast, take bold bets, and work hard to reshape an entire industry. As one team member put it: "Joining Halter is a bit like strapping yourself to a rocket ship, but it's an epic journey to be a part of!"

Responsibilities

The Head of Product Design will define and evolve the product design vision, strategy, principles, and standards, while leading and growing the design team to solve complex problems for customers relying on Halter as their farm operating system. This role requires leading from the front to set the quality bar, owning design quality as a competitive advantage, and partnering with Product and Engineering leadership to influence product strategy and roadmaps.