Knak is a mission-driven company
Why? Because our time is limited, our competition is fierce, and our margin for error is small. For us to have the greatest impact on the world, we need to be laser focused on our core mission, which is...
Empowering people to be creative.
That’s why Knak exists.
We are a world-class enterprise email and landing page creation platform with a focus on making successful and happy customers by providing them with an incredibly powerful, yet easy to use creation platform.
Our industry leading SaaS solution is built by Marketers, for Marketers. We know that it’s the small things that make the biggest impact and that emails and landing pages are where the rubber hits the road when it comes to Marketing Automation. We change the way Marketers work by making them more efficient, while improving conversion rate of their campaigns and helping them stay on brand.
Oh, and we have a bit of fun while doing it, too!
Knak is seeking a Senior Product Designer to elevate design quality and drive consistency across multiple product areas. This advanced-level role bridges strong individual contribution with team-level leadership — you'll guide fellow designers, establish team-wide practices, and partner with PM and Engineering leads to ensure great experiences ship at scale.
You'll review and raise the bar on design output, coach designers on craft and strategic thinking, anticipate cross-team dependencies, and help teams navigate complex problem spaces with structured approaches. This role is ideal for a seasoned designer ready to multiply their impact through others while continuing to deliver exceptional work.
We'd love to see your work! Please include a link to your portfolio with your application.
ResponsibilitiesProduct Thinking & Problem Solving- Facilitate multi-team opportunity mapping and problem definition to ensure alignment across product areas
- Identify gaps in problem framing across teams and resolve them through structured approaches
- Mentor designers on prioritization frameworks, tradeoff analysis, and data-driven iteration
- Align UX investments with roadmap strategy across teams, introducing new analytical tools and frameworks to elevate team reasoning
- Identify systemic root causes that span multiple product areas and coach teams through resolution
Design Quality & Craft
- Review team designs to maintain coherence, quality, and adherence to standards across product areas
- Identify design gaps and evolve patterns or principles to address them
- Ensure accessibility, responsiveness, and performance considerations are integrated into all design work
- Lead design QA processes to ensure smooth implementation and polish
Communication & Collaboration
- Coach designers on scoping and sprint planning best practices
- Anticipate cross-team dependencies and work proactively across squads, helping teams navigate shifting priorities without losing quality
- Partner with PM and Engineering leads to refine collaboration rituals
- Establish team-wide critique rituals that maintain quality standards
- Facilitate workshops for multi-team initiatives and strategic decisions while maintaining psychological safety in feedback spaces
- Establish guidelines for naming, navigation, terminology, and content consistency across the product
- Identify structural issues in content architecture across teams and lead efforts to resolve them
- Coach designers in crafting high-quality UX copy and structuring flows
- Partner with PMs, CS, and Marketing to ensure cohesive terminology across the product
UX Research
- Coach designers on unbiased research practices and methodology selection
- Ensure research artifacts are reusable, searchable, and well-organized across the team
- Guide teams in continuous discovery practices and anticipate broader research needs for roadmap and strategic planning
- Evaluate emerging AI research tools and integrate the most valuable into team practice
Innovation & AI Integration
- Create AI-enhanced design workflows that elevate team productivity and quality
- Develop reusable prompt libraries and AI templates for common design patterns
- Mentor designers on effective use of AI for visual, interaction, content design, and product thinking
- Balance AI efficiency with human judgment, pushing the boundaries of AI-assisted design while maintaining craft standards
Coaching & Team Development
- Coach designers on craft, communication, and strategic thinking, identifying skill gaps and providing tailored guidance to accelerate growth
- Enable designers to work autonomously by building their confidence and clarity
- Create collaborative environments where designers feel supported and psychologically safe
- Offer timely, actionable feedback tailored to the individual and situation
- Facilitate difficult conversations between team members thoughtfully, helping designers develop self-awareness and emotional regulation
- Build high-trust team environments through consistent modeling
Strategic Influence
- Guide multiple teams through complex prioritization and design decisions
- Influence senior PM and engineering leaders by articulating experience strategy
- Align multiple teams around shared experience principles and direction, connecting UX strategy to product leadership decisions
- Anticipate long-term experience risks and opportunities and mentor designers in strategic thinking and vision communication
- Influence roadmap decisions using UX-driven business cases, advising leadership on the business implications of experience quality
- 7+ years of product design experience with a track record of elevating design quality and establishing team-wide practices across multiple product areas
- Exceptional portfolio demonstrating your ability to deliver high-quality work while raising the bar on team output through reviews, coaching, and pattern development
- Proven experience guiding teams through complex problem spaces with structured approaches and prioritization frameworks
- Strong skills in interaction design, visual design, information architecture, and content design with experience evolving cross-product patterns
- Expertise in leading design and prototyping tools (Figma preferred)
- Advanced knowledge of accessibility standards with experience reviewing team designs for compliance and leading remediation efforts
- Solid background in user research methodologies with experience coaching others on methodology selection and unbiased research practices
- Technical fluency with experience standardizing handoff workflows, partnering with engineering leads, and improving design-engineering collaboration
- Demonstrated ability to coach and mentor designers on craft, communication, and strategic thinking
- Strong facilitation skills with experience leading multi-team workshops, critique sessions, and strategic alignment discussions
- Experience with AI-augmented design tools, including creating workflows, prompt libraries, and coaching others on effective use
- Strong business acumen with ability to influence roadmap decisions through UX-driven business cases
- Demonstrated emotional intelligence with experience facilitating difficult conversations and building high-trust team environments
- Prior experience in SaaS, email marketing, or AI-driven platforms strongly preferred
Nice to Have
- Experience mentoring designers through career development conversations and growth planning
- Background in evaluating and integrating emerging AI tools into team workflows
- Experience partnering with engineering to improve token and component architecture
- Advanced degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, or related field
- Experience in high-growth or enterprise product organizations with complex stakeholder landscapes
Join us at Knak and be part of a team that’s revolutionizing email marketing for enterprise customers. Your expertise will shape the future of our platform and ensure we deliver outstanding user experiences.
What We Offer
At Knak we have four foundational pillars. Culture, customers, product and growth. Culture is our number one pillar because we know that is at the core of building a strong company that can build amazing products and delight our customers. We do this with a laser focus on hiring the right people who are smart, positive and who want more than the typical nine-to-five offers.
We offer an extremely rewarding, second to none work environment as acknowledged by Ottawa’s Best Places to Work 2025! We show our investment in our people through our competitive salaries, equity in the company, great benefits, paid vacation, Life leave days (because life happens), team lunches and off-sites, and most importantly our commitment to YOUR career growth.
If this sounds like something you’re looking for, then we’d love to hear from you!
If you don’t see yourself fully reflected in every job requirement listed on the posting above, we still encourage you to reach out and apply. Research has shown that women and underrepresented groups often only apply when they feel 100% qualified. We strongly encourage applicants of all genders, ages, ethnicities, cultures, abilities, sexual orientations, and life experiences to apply. Knak believes in creating an inclusive, barrier-free working environment. If you require ANY accommodation to the interview process please contact [email protected].
At Knak, our recruitment process includes AI screening for keywords and minimum qualifications as well as video interviews which are transcribed with AI. Humans are still at the core of our decision making!
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