Title:  Product Designer

Location: 

Waterloo, ON, N2V 1C6

About Descartes: 

Descartes Unites the People and Technology that Move the World

The need for efficient, secure, and agile supply chains and logistics operations has become ever more critical and complex. By combining innovative technology, powerful trade intelligence and the reach of our network, Descartes helps get goods, information, transportation assets, and people where they’re needed, when they’re needed. 


We’re one of the most broadly deployed logistics and supply chain technology companies in the world. More than 26,000 customers around the globe use our cloud-based solutions to transform the way they move inventory and information to enhance productivity, better serve customers, thrive competitively, keep pace with evolving regulations, and respond to rapidly changing market conditions.
Descartes is publicly traded (Nasdaq:DSGX, TSX:DSG) with headquarters in Waterloo, Ontario, Canada, and offices and partners around the world. With record financial performance for more than 16 years, we lead the industry in innovation investment. Every day, logistics service providers, manufacturers, retailers, distributors, and other logistics-intensive businesses of all sizes rely on our scale, stability, and comprehensive solution footprint to move what’s most important to them. Learn more at www.descartes.com.


We’re growing fast and invite you to join our amazing team. 

 

We are looking for an empathetic, data-informed Product Designer to join one of our empowered, cross-functional product teams. In our product operating model, designers are not order-takers; they are strategic partners responsible for ensuring our solutions deliver an exceptional user experience and differentiated value. You will be embedded within a durable team alongside a Product Manager and Engineers, working autonomously to discover, design, and iterate on solutions that deliver measurable user and business outcomes.  

  

Key Responsibilities  

Solution Design & Process Mapping  

  • Drive end-to-end designs for solutions to ensure maximum productivity and value for customers.  
  • Lead User Discovery & Research: Conduct continuous user research, including interviews, surveys, and usability testing, to deeply understand user needs, pain points, and behaviors.  
  • Develop discovery playbooks to enable developers to accelerate their discovery and validate critical outcomes and value. 
  • Define Problems & Opportunities: Work with your product triad (PM and Tech Lead) to define problem spaces and synthesize research findings into actionable opportunities that influence the product direction and roadmap.  
  • Design End-to-End Experiences: Oversee the entire design process, from initial concept and wireframing to high-fidelity visual design, interaction design, and prototyping.  
  • Prototype & Validate: Create interactive prototypes to test assumptions and ideas frequently with real users, gathering feedback to inform iterative improvements before a full build.  
  • Drive Cross-functional Collaboration: Serve as the translator between user needs, business goals, and technical feasibility, fostering seamless collaboration with engineering, data, and marketing teams.  
  • Champion Usability & Accessibility: Act as the primary advocate for the user experience, ensuring all products are intuitive, accessible (following WCAG guidelines), and deliver a high-quality customer experience.  
  • Utilize Data & Metrics: Use both qualitative feedback and quantitative data (analytics, KPIs) to inform design decisions, measure impact, and ensure the product aligns with overall business objectives.  
  • Contribute to Design Systems: Develop and maintain a consistent design system and documentation to ensure scalability and consistency across the product suite.   

Compliance & Optimization  

  • Regulatory Alignment: Ensure all proposed designs adhere to government agency regulations.  
  • Continuous Improvement:   
  • Analyze post-implementation data to identify opportunities for further automation and improvement.  
  • Design, Collect, and analyze data on user feedback, system effectiveness, and other relevant metrics associated with customer experience (CX).  

  

Qualifications  

Required Domain Experience (The "Must-Haves")  

  • 3-5 years experience in Product Designer or similar role 

 

Entry-Level Design Skills (The "Willing-to-Learn")  

  • Analytical Mindset: Ability to identify how the various Global Trade and Supply Chain solutions work together for the best user experience 
  • Natural intellectual curiosity: Desire to drive to the why behind a customer’s ask. Demonstrated examples of learning & growth in new areas. 
  • Technical Aptitude: Interest in supply chain software architecture, EDI standards, APIs, and system logic.  
  • Communication: Strong ability to explain complex compliance regulations to non-technical stakeholders or clients.  
  • Prototyping Tools: Desire to utilize AI and AI assisted design and prototyping tools such as Figma Make.  

  

Preferred Qualifications  

  • Experience with specific Global Trade platforms (e.g., SAP GTS, Oracle GTM, Descartes).  
  • Basic familiarity with process mapping software 
  • Experience with Customer Insights programs (e.g. Pendo) 

 

Salary Range: $90,000 to $100,000 CAD. Compensation information provided is a good faith estimate for this position only. Factors that may be used to determine your actual salary may include your specific skills as well as the years of experience you have. Similar positions located in different geographic regions will not necessarily receive the same compensation.

 

 

 

 

Join Us

As we scale, we’re looking for new doers, collaborators and innovators to join Descartes in uniting the people and technology that move the world as the Global Leader in Logistics and Supply Chain Technology. We’re entrepreneurial, hardworking, geeky-in-a-good way problem solvers. Guided by our values, we nurture a TEAM focused culture that invests in people and creates opportunities for advancement across a broad spectrum of career paths. We prioritize work-life balance and foster an environment with the space to take ownership, to be heard, and to carve a path for your individual accomplishments to help drive our success. At Descartes, everyone has a voice and the best idea wins, regardless of who makes it. We offer competitive compensation, great benefits, remote and flexible work hours, and the opportunity to join a company on an awesome mission with a great existing team and trajectory.


Descartes also has a deep sense of environmental responsibility. Learn more about how we helped our customers save over 552,000 metric tons of CO2 in 2020 by reducing fuel and paper consumption: https://www.descartes.com/who-we-are/social-responsibility-sustainability/environmental-impact.  Join a team that’s committed to working with customers to conserve resources and enhance sustainability.

If you feel you have 70% of the qualifications we are looking for, and Descartes sounds like the team and the mission you want to be part of, apply now. We can't promise it will be a fit, but we do promise to consider your experience.

We conduct a mix of in-person and virtual interviews. Virtual interviews are held via Microsoft Teams and are recorded and transcribed. We may utilize AI tools to support our hiring team in notetaking, summarization, and internal training. AI tools are not used in our recruitment process for decision-making purposes. Recordings, transcripts, and notes are used for recruitment, including improvement of our process, and record-keeping purposes. Should you have any questions or concerns about our process, please connect with our hiring team in advance of scheduled interviews. 

We are an Equal Employment employer. We do not discriminate in hiring on the basis of sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religious creed, national origin, physical or mental disability, protected status, or any other characteristic protected by federal, provincial, or local law. For more information about our commitment to equal employment opportunity, please review our Code of Business Conduct and Ethics at Descartes.com. Descartes is committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to job applicants with disabilities. Applicants in North America with a disability who require a reasonable accommodation for any part of the application or hiring process can email us at hrna@descartes.com. Provide your name and contact information along with the accommodation needed to assist you with the application process. Your request will be responded to as soon as possible. Reasonable accommodations will be determined on a case-by-case basis.

 


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