Product Design Lead (m/f/d)

Your mission Your impact:As Product Design Lead at Tacto, you'll shape the future of procurement for over 90,000 industrial SMEs in Germany facing immense supply chain challenges. You'll lead the design of our Supplier Relationship Management (SRM) system - a central platform for all supplier processes and data. Your work will directly contribute to making procurement digital, efficient, and compliant, creating future-proof supply chains for the backbone of European industry.
In this role, you'll build and lead our design function (almost) from the ground up. You'll set the vision for design excellence, establish our design processes and culture, and be the driving force behind our user-centric approach. As we scale, you'll grow and mentor a team of talented designers, amplifying our capacity to deliver innovative solutions. Your leadership will be instrumental in positioning Tacto as the leading procurement operating system for the industrial Mittelstand in Europe.
Your tasks:

• Lead and mentor the UX design team: Guide a team of talented designers in delivering world-class B2B SaaS product design, fostering their growth and ensuring high-quality output
• Contribute hands-on to design execution: Remain actively involved in design work, especially in the early stages, setting the bar for design excellence and helping to scale the design function
• Drive customer-centric design: Develop a deep understanding of our customers, their pain points, and day-to-day tasks. Gather and translate user insights into compelling user stories, prototypes, and mockups
• Collaborate across functions: Work closely with product management, engineering, and other stakeholders to define clear design specifications and ensure seamless product development
• Establish scalable design processes: Set up and optimize design frameworks and workflows that enable efficient operation as the organization grows
• Align design with business goals: Ensure the product development process is aligned with strategic objectives and relevant KPIs, directly influencing the product roadmap
• Foster a design-driven culture: Champion the value of design thinking and user-centric approaches across the organization, elevating the role of design in our product strategy

Your profile

• You have a proven track record of 3+ years of product design experience, ideally in a fast-paced B2B SaaS environment
• You've worked in or closely observed a top-tier design organization and have a clear vision for building a high-performing design function
• You possess expert-level proficiency in design tools (e.g., Figma) and have a strong understanding of user research, prototyping, and UI/UX design principles
• You have excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to lead and mentor a design team effectively
• You demonstrate a strategic and analytical mindset, coupled with a deeply customer-centric approach to product design
• You're comfortable working in a fast-paced, high-growth environment and can adapt quickly to changing priorities
• You have a collaborative spirit and experience working closely with cross-functional teams, especially product management and engineering
• You're fluent in English; German language skills are a plus but not required
• You have a passion for design, actively engage with the design community, and stay up-to-date with the latest design trends and technologies

We know that perfect candidates do not exist and have no specific "minimum qualifications". We would like to know more about you and value your motivation and ability to shape the industrial future with us. Apply for this job About us What we doWe are Tacto, a Munich-based startup with a mission to create digital, efficient, and sustainable supply chains. The European economic backbone, 90 thousand mid-sized industrial companies known as the ‘Mittelstand’, faces significant threats from supply chain disruptions and bureaucracy. Tacto is the answer: A supply chain operating system designed for mid-sized industrial organizations. Our AI-based software streamlines all procurement workflows, effortlessly ensures compliant and sustainable supply chains, and enables efficient material sourcing with optimal conditions.Why it matters:

• Powering the industry that builds the world: We create a new wave of innovation by lifting Europe’s industrial backbone with tens of millions of workers to the digital era
• Enabling powerful business collaboration: We enable powerful collaboration among supplier networks as the basis for future economic growth
• Saving resources in supply chains: We optimize the 50-80% of costs and emissions of physical products originating from suppliers to enhance sustainable growth

Why you should consider joining:

1. Timing: Our product manages hundreds of millions of € of material to manufacture physical products from bread cutters to medical technology. The Industrial Mittelstand trusts us and we are ready to scale! Join us to shape the future of our organization & product!
2. Top investors believe in us: We are supported by first-class investors such as Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Cherry Ventures, Visionaries Club, UVC Partners as well as the founders of Personio, GetYourGuide, Helsing & Forto. Join us to show them they invested wisely!
3. Team: We are an interdisciplinary and international team that is highly motivated to succeed, but loves to laugh. Join us to grow personally as well as professionally, accelerated by our supportive culture that includes everyone.
4. Impact: We are reshaping industrial procurement, which is the biggest value driver of manufacturing companies - there is no physical product in the world without procurement involved. Join us to future-proof the most important economic sector in Germany with over 10 million employees.

Why us: Apart from the people, our culture, and mission, we offer you a workplace with above-average compensation and a high level of personal responsibility. It's important for us to create an environment in which you can grow professionally and personally.

• Your vacation: 28 paid vacation days per year + christmas & silvester.
• Your office: We embrace an office culture, and all our employees enjoy coming to our beautiful office at Königsplatz in Munich. However, you also have the flexibility to work remotely at times. Our guideline is 3-4 days in the office and 1-2 days working from home.
• Your setup: Choose your preferred equipment and work environment – whether it's Mac, Windows, or Linux. We want you to feel comfortable.
• Your team: We are growing and have fun together with team lunches, coffee dates, chess games, bouldering sessions, and more – everything is optional, no pressure.
• Your safe space: We believe that a diverse workplace where different voices are heard makes us stronger.
• Your health: We provide company health insurance (if you are new to the German work environment) and offer you a membership in the Urban Sports Club or Wellpass.