Director of User Experience / Head of User Experience (m/f/n)

This role is responsible for defining and driving the UX vision, strategy, operating model, and maturity across ESET products, platforms, and services. The successful candidate will lead and develop a team of experienced UX professionals and act as a senior partner to Product Management, Engineering, Architecture, Marketing, Sales, Support, and executive stakeholders.

The role combines strategic leadership with operational excellence and focuses on ensuring that user needs, business goals, product strategy, and technical constraints are translated into exceptional product experiences.

Job Description

• In this role, you will lead the User Experience function across a complex global R&D organization delivering cybersecurity solutions in endpoint protection, EDR, XDR, security operations, consumer, business, and related areas.
• You will be responsible for setting the strategic direction for UX at ESET, strengthening UX leadership and capabilities, and ensuring that UX is embedded as a core discipline throughout the product development lifecycle.
• As Director of User Experience, you will lead a team of interaction designers, researchers, UX leads, product designers, and design system specialists. You will be expected to develop people, build senior UX capabilities, improve ways of working, and ensure that UX contributes effectively at company, portfolio, segment, solution, and product level.
• A key part of the role will be to mature how UX operates across ESET—including UX vision and strategy, design operations, user research, usability validation, information architecture, design systems, user journeys, stakeholder alignment, and cooperation with product and delivery organizations. Internal UX responsibilities include areas such as UX team vision and strategy, hiring, UX maturity, tools and procurement, budget management, design thinking methodologies, education, coaching, consulting, stakeholder alignment, and support of organizational transformation initiatives.
• We are looking for a senior leader with strong UX credibility, proven people-management experience, strategic judgment, and the ability to influence across a complex organization. This is a role for someone who can combine vision with execution—setting direction, making prioritization decisions, developing leaders, building trust with senior stakeholders, and ensuring that UX becomes a stronger strategic advantage for ESET.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and continuously evolve the UX vision, strategy, and operating model across ESET's product organization.
• Lead the User Experience function as a strategic capability, not only as a delivery or design service.
• Manage, develop, and mentor UX leaders, interaction designers, researchers, product designers, and design system specialists.
• Strengthen UX maturity across the organization, including methodologies, governance, roles, responsibilities, and stakeholder engagement.
• Ensure that UX initiatives are aligned with product strategy, business priorities, technology direction, and user needs.
• Drive UX contribution at company, portfolio, segment, program, and product level.
• Oversee key UX disciplines, including product discovery, user research, usability validation, interaction design, product design, information architecture, user journeys, onboarding, accessibility, and design systems.
• Establish clear prioritization and decision-making mechanisms for UX activities across multiple products, segments, and initiatives.
• Partner closely with Product Management, Engineering, Architecture, Marketing, Sales, Support, and senior leadership.
• Represent the user perspective in strategic product and business discussions.
• Build scalable ways of working between UX and delivery teams, including collaboration models, UX ambassadors, design system adoption, and UX participation in discovery and planning.
• Support strategic initiatives such as product simplification, solution consolidation, information architecture improvements, design system evolution, and product experience transformation.
• Build and maintain a high-performing UX organization with clear roles, responsibilities, career growth paths, and leadership succession.
• Ensure that UX insights, research findings, and experience recommendations are communicated effectively to senior stakeholders and executive audiences.
• Define and monitor UX success metrics and ensure continuous improvement of user outcomes.

What We Expect from You

• Proven experience in senior UX leadership roles such as Director of User Experience, Head of UX, Design Director, UX Director, Senior UX Manager, Head of Product Design, or similar.
• Strong hands-on background in User Experience, Product Design, Interaction Design, UX Research, Service Design, or related disciplines.
• Experience leading larger UX, product design, research, or design operations teams in a complex software product organization.
• Ability to define UX strategy, operating model, governance framework, maturity roadmap, and organizational priorities.
• Strong understanding of modern UX practices, including product discovery, continuous discovery, user research, usability testing, user journeys, information architecture, onboarding, accessibility, design systems, and design operations.
• Experience working with complex software products, ideally in enterprise, B2B, SaaS, cybersecurity, IT operations, security operations, or similarly technical domains.
• Ability to connect user needs, business goals, product strategy, and technical constraints into a clear and actionable UX direction.
• Proven ability to influence senior stakeholders and drive alignment across Product Management, Engineering, Architecture, Marketing, Sales, Support, and executive leadership.
• Strong people leadership skills, including the ability to develop senior talent, coach managers, resolve conflicts, and build a motivated and high-performing team.
• Natural authority, sound judgment, and the ability to make difficult prioritization and organizational decisions.
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills, including the ability to explain UX topics clearly to technical, business, and executive audiences.
• Ability to operate effectively in a complex, global, matrix organization and influence without relying solely on formal authority.
• Strategic thinking combined with a pragmatic execution mindset.
• Advanced level of English, both written and spoken.

Nice to Have

• Experience building or transforming UX maturity in a larger product or technology organization.
• Experience leading design systems and improving product consistency across multiple product lines or platforms.
• Experience with information architecture, product simplification, platform consolidation, or large-scale product experience transformation.
• Experience with cybersecurity, IT operations, enterprise administration tools, security operations, developer tools, or other complex technical domains.
• Experience with SAFe, Agile product development, portfolio-level planning, or continuous discovery.
• Experience with service design and designing end-to-end user journeys across complex products and platforms.
• Experience working in a global or distributed product organization.
• Experience presenting UX strategy, research insights, design direction, or experience recommendations to executive leadership.
• Experience with UX operations, design governance, research operations, tooling, procurement, budget planning, or vendor management

Basic wage component (brutto): Bratislava: from 6000 EUR/m, Krakow: from 26000PLN (Salary will be determined based on the candidate's experience and qualifications).
Performance bonus 2 times per year up to 20% of the basic salary paid for the evaluation period, usually 6 months.