Head Of User Experience, Openblue

Johnson Controls; England; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Johnson Controls is seeking a senior UX leader to shape the OpenBlue software portfolio. You will lead the user experience and design team, combining hands-on design with strategic oversight to deliver delightful, scalable experiences across the portfolio.

You will collaborate with Product Management, AI and Engineering, drive UX vision, establish design systems, and embed research and accessibility standards to improve adoption and business outcomes.

Qualifications

• Minimum 10 years in UX or product design with a strong portfolio.
• Hands-on design craft: turn ambiguous problems into intuitive journeys.
• Team leadership: 3+ years leading UX/design professionals.
• Customer-led collaboration across Engineering, Product, AI and CxO.
• Business fluency: UX drives revenue and retention; defend investments with metrics.
• Experience with browser-based, mobile SaaS apps and data-rich products.
• Hands-on AI tools to generate designs and experiences.
• Familiarity with WCAG and accessibility standards.
• Comfortable working with global teams across multiple time zones.

Responsibilities

• Define the UX vision and roadmap across the portfolio, aligning customer needs with product priorities.
• Lead, coach and develop a UX/UI team with clear priorities and high standards.
• Hands-on role shaping concepts from exploration to detailed design.
• Create user flows, wireframes, journey maps and prototypes to explore options.
• Partner with Product, AI and Engineering to test assumptions and refine solutions.
• Build and evolve shared design patterns and a scalable design system.
• Embed research, customer feedback and usability testing to measure impact.

Skills

UX leadership

Team leadership

Hands-on design

Customer collaboration

SaaS experience

AI tools

Design systems

Accessibility (WCAG)

Global collaboration

Tools

Figma AI

Prototyping

Design systems

Job description

Shape the experience across an entire digital portfolio

Lead the user experience and design team shaping the next generation of OpenBlue software. This role combines leadership across the full portfolio with hands-on design, bringing customers, Product Management, AI and Engineering together to turn complex building challenges into clear, connected experiences. You will help shape new products and improve existing ones, influencing not just how they look, but how they work for the people using them. We care about one thing above all: experiences that delight users, stick, and drive business growth.

Explore to discover the portfolio and the customer challenges you could help solve.

What you will do

• Define the UX vision and roadmap across the portfolio, connecting customer needs with product and business priorities.
• Lead, coach and develop a UX/UI team, setting clear priorities and high design standards.
• Take an active, hands-on role in shaping concepts alongside the team, from early exploration through detailed interaction and interface design.
• Bring ideas to life through user flows, wireframes, journey maps and prototypes, helping teams explore alternatives and make informed decisions.
• Partner with customers, Product Management, AI and Engineering to test assumptions and refine solutions.
• Build and evolve shared design patterns and a scalable design system for a consistent portfolio experience.
• Embed research, customer feedback and usability testing into development, measuring impact through usability, adoption and customer outcomes.

How you will do it

• Design alongside the team, turning complex requirements into clear user journeys, interfaces and prototypes.
• Interact with customers on a usual basis to ensure products respond to their needs.
• Use the latest AI tools to build UIs and workflows quickly (e.g., Claude, Figma AI, etc.).
• Explore and test ideas quickly, using customer feedback and product usage data to refine designs.
• Bring Product, Engineering, AI and global stakeholders together around a shared UX direction, balancing user needs, technical constraints and business priorities.
• Connect new and existing products through shared design patterns, improving accessibility, usability and consistency across the portfolio.
• Work closely and iteratively with Engineering to understand technical constraints and feasibility.

What we look for

Required

• Min 10 years in UX or product design, with a portfolio showing your contribution to complex software products and the outcomes achieved.
• Hands-on design craft: demonstrated ability to turn ambiguous problems into intuitive journeys and compelling interfaces, exploring alternatives quickly and explaining your decisions.
• Team leadership: min 3 years of experience leading a team of user experience and design professionals.
• Customer-led collaboration: Proven experience working directly with customers when building new user experiences, incl. the ability to communicate at all levels across all functions: from Engineering to Product, AI, CxO.
• Business fluence: clear understanding of how UX ties into revenue and retention and ability to defend design investments with metrics.
• SaaS products: Background in browser-based and mobile SaaS products and data-rich applications. Can be B2B or B2C or B2B2C.
• AI: Proven hands-on experience working with AI tools to generate designs and user experiences.
• Standards and regulations: Thorough familiarity with current technical standards, e.g., WCAG, etc., AI-generated UIs and content, accessibility conformance reporting, inclusive design, etc.
• Global team: Comfortable interacting and collaborating with teams around the globe, across multiple timezones (Asia-Europe-Americas).

Preferred

• Familiarity with global product environments, smart buildings, energy management or workplace experience.

Smart building experience is not essential. We welcome transferable capabilities from other digital environments.

How you will demonstrate your capabilities

During the interview process, you will demonstrate your hands-on design capabilities through relevant work. Show us how you explored ideas, contributed within a team and used customer feedback and stakeholder input to develop the resulting experience.

We want to understand both your design craft and how you help a team deliver, beyond project coordination or stakeholder influence alone.

Why join us?

Inspire the team. Push the craft. Shape the next generation of digital experiences. Help define new cloud-native products and a connected experience across OpenBlue. Bring ideas to life with customers, designers and engineers, with access to tools and a clear purpose: making complex building operations simpler.

Combine the reach of Johnson Controls with the creative challenge of product transformation. Lead the team, stay close to design and help customers operate buildings more efficiently and sustainably.

Bring your vision and your strongest work. Apply to help shape OpenBlue’s future.

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