Hello there! My name is Matty Schreck, and I’m the Head of Design here at Wisetech Global.
Hiring Designers to build a great Product Design team in Sydney is not easy. Neither is finding the right role with the right employer. So instead of boring you with yet another generic job description for a Senior UX Designer that looks just like any other out there, I want to talk you through what we’re doing, and what types of people we’d like to join us. And if by the end you think “I want to be part of this, and I have something to offer that will be useful”, then get in touch with us! And if you’re not quite sure, but you’re genuinely curious to learn more, get in touch with us, too.
About the company
WiseTech Global is on a mission to change the world by creating breakthrough products that empower those who own, enable, and operate the world's supply chains. We’re the world’s biggest global logistics software company, with headquarters in Alexandria, Sydney. We’ve been listed on the ASX since, and have over 3, employees worldwide, with offices in 50+ countries.
We are a globally distributed Design team of over 30 Product Designers, but the core of the team (more than 20 Designers) is in Sydney’s Inner West. We look after our flagship product CargoWise. The domain of global logistics is very broad and very deep, and CargoWise covers many, many aspects of it. We’re shipping many hundreds of improvements to the product every year.
Our open roles: Embedded Senior UX Designers
We’ve grown from 5 to over 30 Product Designers in the space of less than two years, and now we’re looking for an additional Senior UX Designer to take on an embedded position in one of our product domains. Let me explain how this role works:
We have implemented a hub-and-spoke structure to serve our main product, CargoWise:
1. The HUB is formed by the Design System team, and led by a Principal Designer who reports directly to me. We’ve already built out a world-class Design System that will greatly support every Designer in my team, and it gets better with every release.
2. The SPOKES in this model are made up of embedded Designers who are placed into business units for longer periods of time. These are usually Designers with a focus on UX and user research. Over time, they learn the subject matter of the business units from the subject matter experts they’re working with. Each Designer is part of a Design Squad (between 3-5 Designers), led by a Lead or Principal Designer within a larger domain.
3. Hub and spokes work together to resolve difficult interaction problems. This is a win-win: embedded UX Designers have access to specialised UI Designers, while the Design System team learns of real-world challenges their system needs to tackle. This teaming up really works, and provides fantastic learning opportunities for both sides.
Let me list a few more characteristics of the type of Senior UX Designer we’re looking for:
4. You’re able to tackle a vast spectrum of challenges of moderate to high complexity. While we try to match Designers and their strengths and interests to the appropriate types of challenges, we expect that you can carry a project through the entire double diamond of design thinking. You’ve built up a toolset of reliable methods and techniques to achieve the best outcomes for your projects.
5. You can integrate yourself into existing workflows of your team. You happily educate your cross-functional peers on the value of modern Product Design, and gain their trust through great collaboration skills and the high quality of the work outcomes you provide. You need to be a Design pioneer who loves changing hearts and minds.
6. You need to be able to pursue outcomes pragmatically, rather than sticking to processes too rigidly. You have to be able to make decisions even if there’s a high level of uncertainty.
7. You will need to embrace the domain you’re embedded in. Logistics in all its facets is deeply complex (but also extremely interesting), and your value as a Designer grows as you learn more about the specific challenges of your area.It will also be important to know that we work in a hybrid fashion - we meet, in person, every Tuesday at our Head Office in Alexandria, Sydney, allowing for stronger collaboration across our team. Therefore, this role is strictly Sydney only.
We’re a tight team who lift each other up
A week as a Designer on our team usually starts with a Design Showcase session. Our various Design Squads showcase the progress they’ve made, and flag anything that might be interesting for others in the Design team.
Later in the week, we have our Design Critique session. Designers present the solutions they’ve been working on, and receive constructive feedback from all other Designers.With this combination of rituals, all Designers have full access to the whole Design group on a regular basis, regardless of where they’re embedded. This helps with projects, but also provides learning opportunities from others in the team.
Additionally, every Designer has a weekly 1:1 with their manager to get continuous constructive feedback, talk about the challenges they tackle, receive coaching, etc.We round out our week with our Week-end Wind-Down, which is strictly social and has been known to include silly drawing games and quizzes like “Whose fridge is this anyway?”.
Get in touch
We hope that all of this has made you curious! As the Head of Design, I’m always happy to grab a virtual coffee and hop on a MS Teams call to tell you about this great opportunity we have for you. These chats are strictly-no-strings-attached, I’m always just glad to meet new people and can’t wait to meet you. Hopefully speak to you soon!