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Salary: GBP 158,000 - 197,000 / annual
Algolia is the retrieval intelligence layer powering over 1.7 trillion queries annually for 18,000+ customers. The company is seeking a VP of Product Design to lead the organization owning Algolia's Application Layer—the product surfaces where developers, merchandisers, and business teams build, configure, and optimize search and AI experiences—and Satellite, the design component library that powers consistency and velocity across all Algolia products.
This role sits at the center of two foundational strategic bets: becoming the retrieval and intelligence layer for agentic AI while deepening the hybrid AI search moat. The VP will address three core design challenges: (1) Automation with Control—designing interfaces where business users set goals and constraints that guide AI behavior with transparency and explainability; (2) Simplicity as a Moat—ensuring abstractions improve faster than complexity as platform capability grows; (3) Time-to-First-Intelligence—owning the product-led experience enabling builders to go from signup to a working intelligent experience in minutes.
Key responsibilities include: owning product design vision and strategy for the entire application experience from developer onboarding through enterprise-grade agent orchestration, tied to measurable outcomes (adoption, performance, production impact); establishing AI design standards for the company including interaction patterns for agentic UX, trust, transparency, human-in-the-loop controls, and explainability of relevance and ranking; managing Satellite Design System as a product with roadmap, governance, contribution model, adoption metrics, and accessibility; building and developing a technical product design organization including product designers, design engineers, UX researchers, and content designers; maintaining quality standards ensuring nothing reaches market without meeting or exceeding usability and performance standards of core search; and partnering with Product, Engineering, and GTM leadership at the executive table.
The ideal candidate brings 15+ years in product design with 6+ years leading design organizations (managers of managers) at B2B SaaS or developer-platform companies. Demonstrated AI-native design leadership is essential—shipped AI/ML-powered experiences (conversational, agentic, or generative) with articulated points of view on AI design patterns. Technical depth is required: comfort with front-end fundamentals (React, component architecture, design tokens), APIs, and how LLM-based systems behave (latency, hallucination, non-determinism). Proven ownership of complex technical application experiences serving both developer and business audiences; hands-on experience building or scaling design systems with real cross-org adoption as a product with customers, roadmap, and governance; daily use of AI tools in personal workflow with demonstrated ability to modernize how teams work; executive presence translating design impact into business terms with C-level peers; and a record of growing teams and developing design leaders.
Nice-to-have qualifications include experience in search, discovery, e-commerce, or data-intensive platforms; background as a design engineer, UX engineer, or former developer; and published thinking on AI design patterns or design systems.
Algolia operates a flexible workplace model emphasizing impact and contribution over physical location. The company has offices in Paris, NYC, London, Sydney, and Bucharest, with many team members working remotely or hybrid-remote. This position is based in London and available with hybrid-remote or in-office schedule.
REQUIREMENTS:
- 15+ years in product design
- 6+ years leading design organizations (managers of managers) at B2B SaaS or developer-platform companies
- Demonstrated AI-native design leadership with shipped AI/ML-powered product experiences (conversational, agentic, or generative)
- Technical depth: front-end fundamentals (React, component architecture, design tokens), APIs, LLM-based system behavior (latency, hallucination, non-determinism)
- Proven ownership of complex technical application experiences serving developer and business audiences
- Hands-on experience building or scaling design systems with real cross-org adoption as a product
- Daily use of AI tools in personal workflow with ability to modernize team workflows
- Executive presence and ability to translate design impact into business terms
- Record of growing teams and developing design leaders
