Wenco International Mining Systems (www.wencomine.com), a subsidiary of Hitachi Construction Machinery (HCM), provides industry leading, innovative technologies to customers in the mining and material movement sectors, enabling sustainable and safe operations.
About the Role
You will own the UX function: set direction, establish the design system, define how design works with product and engineering, and build the practice for the next phase of the company. The work is almost entirely greenfield - we are building new applications on a clean canvas, including a major new platform project starting this year, rather than retrofitting legacy products.
The role is explicitly a player-coach. In practice, that means roughly half your time on hands-on design and design-system work, and roughly half on leading the team, shaping the practice, and working with product and engineering leadership. You will not be a manager who stopped designing, and you will not be a senior IC with management bolted on as an afterthought. Both sides of the role are real.
You will work directly with the CTO, product leadership, and senior engineering. The designers you inherit are capable and motivated; they need a leader who can raise the ceiling on the craft and build the system around them.
Why this role is unusual: Mining software is complex, high-stakes, and historically underserved by good design. You will be designing for dispatchers running 24/7 control rooms, heavy equipment operators on remote sites, and supervisors making decisions with real safety and production consequences. The problems are genuinely hard - real-time data, safety-critical workflows, harsh operating environments, multi-user coordination across sites - and the opportunity to improve the lived experience of the people using this software is significant. Good design here has operational consequences.
What the First Year Looks Like
Months 1–3: Get deep on the domain. Spend time with dispatchers, operators, and engineers. Audit the current state of design across products. Form a point of view on the design system architecture and the biggest UX risks in the platform project.
Months 3–6: Ship the first version of the design system and component library. Establish the UX standards and working model with product and engineering teams. Hire your next designer.
Months 6–12: Lead design on the new platform project through its first major release. Mature the design system through real product use. Grow the team. Make the case for further UX investment with evidence from shipped work.
Key Responsibilities
- Own UX across Wenco's product portfolio, working as an embedded designer on new application development, including the new platform project
- Lead, build, and maintain Wenco's design system and component library as a core deliverable - architecture, governance, contribution process, and documentation
- Define and document Wenco's UX standards and ways of working with agile product teams
- Shape Wenco's approach to AI in the product and in the design process - both designing AI-powered experiences for end users (operator copilots, anomaly detection, intelligent dispatch assistance) and bringing AI tooling into the design and research workflow
- Conduct and synthesise user research to inform product decisions and validate design direction
- Collaborate closely with product managers, engineers, and senior stakeholders to align UX with product strategy
- Produce high-quality visual and interaction design across the portfolio
- Lead, mentor, and grow a small design team; provide guidance, feedback, and career development
- Champion accessibility, usability, and design quality across the organisation
Skills and Experience
- 10+ years of professional UX/product design experience, with a strong portfolio demonstrating both craft-level visual and interaction design and systems thinking, especially in B2B applications and software product markets
- Proven experience developing designs for desktop, tablet, and mobile applications
- Demonstrated experience building a design system and component library from scratch or leading a significant evolution of one
- Experience leading a design team, including hiring, mentoring, and developing designers
- Experience as the senior-most designer in an organisation or product area - setting direction without a more senior designer above you
- Hands-on experience with AI-enabled product UX, AI-assisted design tooling, or both
- Strength across the full UX spectrum: research, information architecture, interaction design, visual design, and prototyping
- Strong communication skills; comfortable presenting design rationale to product, engineering, and senior R&D leadership
- Working knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and inclusive design principles
- Comfort with ambiguity and the ability to establish structure where none exists
- Experience in enterprise, industrial, or other complex-domain software is advantageous but not required - intellectual curiosity about the domain matters more than prior exposure
No specific design tools are prescribed. The existing team works in Figma; bring your own workflow on top of that.
Education and Eligibility
- A degree in UX Design, Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field is preferred. Equivalent professional experience and a strong portfolio will be weighted equally.
- Applicants must have the right to work in Canada. Wenco is not currently offering visa sponsorship for this role.
- Richmond-based hybrid role, 2 days per week in office.
Base salary of $120,000 - $150,000, commensurate with experience and qualifications.
Wenco advances the efficiency and safety of the world’s surface mining equipment through our fleet management systems. We are committed to providing a stable yet exciting work place environment for individual employees to build and grow their career with the Company.
Wenco is an Equal Opportunity Employer.
Disclaimer
The information in this description has been designed to indicate the general nature and level of work performed by employees. It is not designed to contain or be interpreted as a comprehensive inventory of all duties, responsibilities, and qualifications required of employees assigned to this job. It is not intended as an employment contract. Job descriptions are subject to change, which may not necessarily affect compensation.
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As our team experiences high volumes of applications, only shortlisted candidates will be contacted. To be considered, please ensure a resume is attached.
