Head of Research and Design

Tanqeeb; Abu Dhabi; Hybrid; AED 350,000 - 700,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Global onboarding program

Work from anywhere (up to 8 weeks/year

Hybrid working model

Collaborate with global leaders

Job summary

Sana Commerce is seeking a Head of Research and Design to lead the research and design team toward an AI-native agentic commerce experience. You will own the end-to-end product and guide design systems, research, and collaboration with PMs and engineers.

You’ll shape the research agenda, set high fidelity design standards, and drive the craft bar while partnering with global leaders on strategic initiatives. Hybrid work is available.

Qualifications

• Proven experience building AI-powered or agentic products with demonstrable prototypes or examples.
• Strong portfolio of commercially shipped products used by real customers.
• Proven experience leading both product design and user research; hands-on in research and design.
• Track record of using user and market research to shape product direction; translate insights into vision.
• Experience leading and developing designers and researchers; collaborate with PM and tech teams.
• Experience in e-commerce is strongly preferred, particularly B2B/B2C contexts.

Responsibilities

• Lead the research and design team toward a clear AI-native product vision.
• Own end-to-end experience; ensure cohesive journeys and trusted performance.
• Define agentic experience design with transparent controls and fallbacks.
• Develop a machine-readable AI design system for consistent output.
• Set the research agenda and align with industry trends and privacy considerations.
• Maintain craft quality with high fidelity designs and scalable methods.

Skills

AI-powered products

Shipped products

Design leadership

AI fluency

Team leadership

E-commerce experience

Job description

Job description

At Sana Commerce, we’re committed to creating an inclusive environment because we know our diverse workforce is one of our greatest strengths.

Applications without demonstrable evidence of a product or prototype you built will not be reviewed.

Sana Commerce is building the future of B2B commerce for the agentic era, where buyers, sellers and agents interact and transact across every channel.

B2B commerce is going agentic. We are looking for a Head of Research and Design who already sees where this is heading, and who wants to take a team and a product there.

You lead this from the front. You own the point of view on how commerce products get built and experienced in an agentic world, you sharpen it through your own research, and you bring the frameworks, standards and ways of working the team needs before anyone thinks to ask for them. You lead the research and design team towards that vision. You set the direction, you stay in the work, and the team builds it with you.

What you’ll get:

• The opportunity to make an impact at a fast-growing SaaS scale-up;
• A globaland customized onboarding program (9,1/10 rated by previous hires);
• Working closely with global leaders on strategic initiatives;
• Up to 8weeks "work from anywhere" per year;
• A hybrid working model - 3 days from the office, 2 days from home;

Job Description

What you’ll be owning:

• The team and the direction.Lead the research and design team towards a clear picture of what we are building: an AI-native product and an agentic commerce experience that buyers and sellers will actually use. You set the bar by doing the work alongside them.
• The end-to-end experience.Designers here own the whole journey, not individual screens or isolated moments. You own how it holds together, where it earns trust, and how it performs, while the moments inside it are increasingly generated.
• Agentic experience design.How agents behave, when they surface, and how transparency, control and fallback get designed in. Buyers and sellers will increasingly transact through conversational and headless interactions, with no screen in between.
• An AI-native design system.A machine-readable, token-driven system that AI tooling consumes to generate consistent, high-fidelity design. Built to be picked up automatically, not maintained by hand.
• The research agenda.Where the industry is heading on agentic commerce and the future of B2B commerce, how buyer and seller behavior is shifting, and what trust and privacy have to look like when an agent transacts on someone's behalf. The team is already working on these questions. You own where they go next.
• The craft bar.A high standard for fidelity and quality, and the methods that let a small team hold it at speed.

Qualifications

What you’ll bring:

• Proven experience building AI-powered or agentic products, with demonstrable examples of products, prototypes or agents you personally helped research, design or build
• A strong portfolio of commercially shipped products used by real customers, demonstrating your personal contribution and measurable user or business impact.
• Proven experience leading both product design and user research, owning the end-to-end product experience while remaining hands-on in research, prototyping and design.
• A track record of using user, market and industry research to shape product direction, translating insights into a clear product and experience vision.
• Practical AI fluency across the research and design process, including design systems built for AI generation: tokens, structure, and systems that scale without manual upkeep.
• Experience leading and developing designers and researchers, setting direction and standards while working closely with Product Management and other product and technology disciplines.
• Experience in e-commerce is strongly preferred, whether B2B or B2C. Experience with B2B commerce and complex buyer and seller journeys is particularly relevant.

Additional Information

Our values

At Sana Commerce, our values guide everything we do:

• Champions of Our League– We balance quick wins with long-term success.
• Supercharge Our Customers– We help our customers succeed by continuously improving their digital commerce experience.
• Determined to Grow– We embrace challenges and keep raising the bar.
• Bold Together– We achieve more by supporting one another.