Principal Product Designer

EML Payments is a global leader in the fintech space. Our mission is to create awesome, instant, and secure payment solutions that connect our customers to their customers, anytime, anywhere, wherever money is in motion. Our Purpose is to inspire transformative digital change for our customers and communities.

As Principal Product Designer, you are EML's most senior design practitioner - a recognised expert whose influence shapes the design direction of the entire product portfolio. You will tackle EML's most complex, cross-cutting design challenges, define the vision for the design system and experience architecture, and serve as a trusted advisor to product and engineering leadership. This role combines deep individual craft with design leadership. You will line manage a direct report, but the primary scope of your influence is through the quality of your work, your ability to set standards, and your impact on how design operates as a strategic discipline at EML. You lead through expertise and example, not through hierarchy.

What you'll do:

• Define and own the experience vision across EML's product portfolio, ensuring coherence and quality across multiple product areas, platforms, and markets.
• Drive the strategic integration of design into product and business decision-making - ensuring design has a seat at the table when roadmaps and investment priorities are shaped.
• Develop deep domain expertise in payments UX - understanding how scheme rules, regulatory requirements, and platform architecture constrain and enable experience design - and use that knowledge to push the boundaries of what's possible.
• Lead design on EML's most complex, cross-cutting initiatives - those spanning multiple product areas or markets - ensuring a coherent, high-quality experience across touchpoints.
• Define and own the vision for EML's design system, experience architecture, and interaction patterns, ensuring they scale and remain consistent as the portfolio grows.
• Lead complex user research programmes that inform product strategy, working with cross-functional teams to translate insights into design direction with real business impact.
• Partner with product and commercial leadership to ensure design quality is maintained through to launch, and that shipped experiences drive the adoption and commercial outcomes they were designed for.
• Establish design quality benchmarks and measurement practices that connect design decisions to user and business outcomes.
• Represent the design perspective in executive discussions, scheme consultations, and enterprise client engagements where senior design expertise adds value.
• Line manage and develop your direct report, providing coaching, feedback, and career development support.
• Raise the bar on design craft across the entire team - establishing standards, running critiques, and modelling what exceptional design practice looks like at EML.
• Establish and evolve design methodologies, documentation standards, and quality benchmarks for the design function.
• Contribute to EML's external design reputation through thought leadership, community engagement, or industry participation.

Qualifications:

• 8+ years of product design experience, with significant depth in complex B2B or B2B2C products, ideally within fintech, payments, or financial services.
• Exceptional design portfolio demonstrating mastery of end-to-end design process, design systems thinking, and strategic design leadership.
• Expert-level Figma skills with deep experience building and scaling design systems.
• Demonstrated ability to influence at the executive level and drive design-informed decisions without relying on positional authority.
• Strong user research skills with the ability to design and lead research programmes that shape product strategy.
• A track record of mentoring and elevating other designers, with experience (or readiness for) direct line management.
• Deep understanding of designing for regulated, compliance-heavy environments - payments, banking, or adjacent domains.
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to articulate design vision to diverse audiences from engineers to executives.

What we offer you:

• A salary commensurate with your skills, experience and market benchmarks.
• Participation in the company bonus scheme.
• Eligible health care and pension.
• A flexible hybrid working culture where you’re empowered to work in a way that suits your lifestyle.
• Additional leave including our Take 5 extra annual leave program, birthday leave and two days of volunteer leave per year.
• Parental support including up to 12 weeks of fully paid parental leave.
• Growth and development opportunities including access to funding for professional memberships, certifications, conferences and more.
• A culture that values collaboration, learning and continuous improvement.
• A global business landscape that connects you with colleagues working throughout Australia, UK, North America and Europe.