Lead UX Designer

Imagine working at the forefront of innovation in fluid-flow technology, with over 1,400 colleagues across the globe, and contributing to a legacy of excellence that spans eight manufacturing facilities on four continents. Armstrong Fluid Technology is more than just a leader in our industry; we are a community of the brightest and most creative minds, driven by a shared mission to engineer the future and safeguard our planet.

As part of our team, you'll be immersed in an environment that fosters growth, creativity, and collaboration. Here, you'll have the opportunity to push boundaries, tackle exciting challenges, and develop cutting-edge solutions that promote energy efficiency and reduce environmental impact. Every day offers the chance to make a meaningful contribution to a more sustainable future, driving innovations that help lower global carbon footprints. Together, we’re creating a legacy that goes beyond business - one that’s changing the world for the better.

The Lead UX Designer at Armstrong owns the customer experience of our next-generation product and solution selection tool, which lets sellers, partners, and customers select, configure, and quote Armstrong products, systems, and full-portfolio solutions. Reporting to the Global Lead, CPQ, PLM and BoM Management, you will set the UX vision and direction for the platform and lead the design team. Working with the product manager, enterprise architect, the platform vendor partner, and sales, customer service, and order-entry leaders across our regions, you will make sure the new tool is simple, fast, and trustworthy for every type of user, and that it becomes a competitive advantage for Armstrong.

This position is based at our SAA office in Toronto, Canada with possible travel to our global operations in the USA, UK, Continental Europe, India, and China.

In addition to annual initiatives, the key accountabilities of this position are:

• Set the UX vision, strategy, and standards for the next-generation product and solution selection tool, and own the end-to-end customer experience from sign-in through selection, configuration, and quotation to order submission.
• Lead and mentor the UX design team, review its work, and build a strong culture of user-centered design across the development team.
• Own the UX research program, define the personas and journey maps for sellers, partners, direct customers, and replacement buyers, and turn research into a prioritized design roadmap with the product manager.
• Set the experience principles for moving from individual products to complete systems and full-portfolio solutions, and for persona-based experiences in which information and workflow match the user's role.
• Establish and own the design system and content guidelines, including accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG 2.2 AA), aligned with Armstrong's brand and digital properties.
• Define the UX requirements and lead the usability assessment in the evaluation and selection of the platform vendor, and decide how far the chosen platform should be configured to meet the target experience.
• Set the direction for AI-assisted experiences, such as guided recommendations and automated validation, so they are transparent, explainable, and easy to override.
• Define usability and adoption criteria for the region-by-region rollout, and approve the experience as ready for go-live in each region.
• Own the experience measures, including task completion, time to quote, error and abandonment rates, and user satisfaction, and lead UX contributions to Net Promoter Score (NPS) and B2Q improvement targets.
• Represent UX to senior stakeholders and leadership, and build agreement between business, technology, and vendor partners on experience decisions.

Role Requirements

Education

• Bachelor's degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Interaction or Industrial Design, Cognitive Psychology, Computer Science, or a related field. A master's degree in Human-Computer Interaction or a related field is an asset.
• Relevant certifications (e.g., Nielsen Norman Group UX Certification or accessibility certification) are an asset.

Experience

• Minimum ten years of experience in UX or product design for complex web applications, including at least three years leading the experience of a product end to end and leading or mentoring designers.
• Proven experience designing B2B transactional tools such as configure-price-quote (CPQ), product configurators, e-commerce, or ERP/CRM front ends, preferably for engineered or highly configurable products.
• Experience leading the UX of a legacy platform replacement, including evaluating or configuring a vendor platform and moving users to it in phases.
• Experience designing for multiple user groups across regions and markets; experience in HVAC, building systems, or industrial equipment is an asset.

Skills

• Expert in user-centered design and design thinking, from research through interaction, information architecture, and visual design.
• Proven ability to build and run a UX research program and to turn findings into strategy and a design roadmap.
• Experience building and governing design systems, and advanced skills in design tools (e.g., Figma).
• Strong knowledge of accessibility and inclusive design, and enough understanding of front-end and API-driven architectures to work as a peer with architects and developers.
• Ability to use product analytics and user feedback (e.g., NPS, task metrics) to measure experience quality and guide investment.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and influencing skills, with the ability to present design rationale to executives, sales, engineers, and customers clearly and concisely.

Personality

• Customer-obsessed, with a clear vision of what a great experience looks like.
• A natural leader and coach who raises the quality of the team's work.
• Able to lead without direct authority and build consensus across functions.
• Ability to communicate in an open and authentic manner in all situations.

This posting reflects a new role. Armstrong does not use artificial intelligence tools to support candidate screening and assessment processes.