Head, Product & Experience Design Lab

Department: Digital Banking / Technology Location: Lagos, Nigeria Experience Required: [10+ years across product and design disciplines, including 4+ years in a leadership role spanning product and design] About the Role The Head, Product & Experience Design Lab is responsible for ensuring Polaris Bank's digital products are human-centered, intuitive, and differentiated in the market. This is a leadership role that sets product and design vision and builds and directs specialist teams across four disciplines — Product Management, UX Research, UI/UX Design, and CX Design — rather than personally executing hands-on work in all four. Key Responsibilities Product Vision & Leadership Define the product vision, strategy, and roadmap for digital banking products in partnership with business stakeholders Oversee prioritization frameworks and ensure roadmaps reflect both customer needs and business objectives Manage stakeholder expectations across business, technology, and executive leadership UX Research Oversight Ensure customer research, journey mapping, and usability testing are embedded in the product development lifecycle Champion evidence-based design decisions; ensure research findings directly inform product and design direction UI/UX Design Oversight Set and enforce design system and visual consistency standards across all digital products Oversee the design team's output to ensure interfaces are consistent, intuitive, and on-brand CX Design Oversight Oversee end-to-end customer journey design across all touchpoints (digital and physical, where relevant) Ensure service design work identifies and closes gaps in the customer experience Core Competencies Product strategy and roadmapping Design leadership — able to critique and direct research, UI/UX, and CX design work credibly, even without being the hands-on practitioner in each Stakeholder management and cross-functional influence Customer empathy translated into commercial product decisions Familiarity With Tools (used by the function's teams, not a personal daily requirement) JIRA, Confluence, Productboard, Aha!, Miro; UserTesting, Dovetail, Hotjar, SurveyMonkey; Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Zeplin; Smaply / customer journey mapping platforms Requirements Qualifications Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (Design, Business, Human-Computer Interaction, or related); relevant certifications an advantage Demonstrated track record leading product and/or design functions, ideally in banking, fintech, or a comparable digital-first environment