Design Director Experience – Shaving & Grooming

Today, Philips Grooming & Beauty is shifting from selling standalone devices to architecting holistic, data-driven, and sustainable personal care ecosystems. In this role, you will shape the signature experience for one of Philips’ most iconic global portfolios.

Based in Shenzhen, with an additional location in Amsterdam, you will lead a high-performing, cross-competence design studio team. You will bridge premium Western design with the world’s most advanced manufacturing and digital ecosystem, transforming how millions of people around the globe define their authentic selves.

Strategic Vision, Holistic Execution

This is a high-visibility executive role requiring a "T-shaped" design leader. You will not just manage a team; you will act as a strategic partner to the business, champion the voice of the consumer, and challenge the status quo to drive meaningful innovation.

Vision & Strategy

• Translate Vision to Business value: Synthesize deep consumer, market, and cultural insights into a cohesive design strategy for the Shaving category. Partner directly with business leaders to turn commercial goals into award-winning creative solutions.
• Orchestrate Ecosystems: Move beyond the physical object. You will orchestrate end-to-end user journeys that seamlessly integrate physical hardware, digital UX/UI (IoT/Connected Health), premium packaging, and in-store/digital communication.

Creative Leadership & Delivery

• Elevate the Craft: Oversee the creative output of a multidisciplinary team. Champion the Philips Design Language System while pushing the boundaries of CMF (Color, Material, Finish), ergonomics, and sustainability.
• Concept to Reality: Drive operational excellence. Lead your team through advanced development, platform creation, and technical realization, ensuring premium design quality is maintained through to engineering and final implementation.

People & Stakeholder Management

• Unify distributed teams: Lead, coach, and cultivate a diverse design team that spans locations and time zones. You excel at building a shared studio culture, maintaining high alignment, and fostering psychological safety across hybrid and remote environments.
• Influence the matrix: Act as a powerful advocate for design. Communicate complex design decisions with narrative flair, aligning and inspiring internal executive stakeholders, international cross-functional peers, and external partners alike.

Who You Are

You are an ambitious, collaborative design executive who thrives at the intersection of physical hardware, digital interaction, and lifestyle trends. You possess a unique blend of analytical depth and creative intuition.

• The Track Record: 10+ years of progressive experience in industrial design, interaction design, or product-service design, with a proven history of launching complex, high-volume consumer electronic devices, ideally small or stand-alone electronic personal care or wellness products.
• The "T-Shaped" Edge: Deep expertise in your core design discipline, coupled with the broad capability to orchestrate full end-to-end experiences across Product, UX, UI, communication, and Service Design.
• Manufacturing & Agile Savvy: Comprehensive knowledge of taking a product from sketch all the way through tool validation and manufacturing. Experience leading design within Lean/Agile development frameworks is highly valued.
• Cultural & Trend Agility: A sharp eye for global trends in fashion, art, technology, and lifestyle. You understand how visual languages impact diverse markets and cultures.
• Credentials: A Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Product Design, Industrial Design, Interaction Design, or a related field.
• Language: Professional fluency in English is mandatory. Fluency in Mandarin is a distinct advantage given the Shenzhen location, but not a barrier for the right global leader.

How we work together

We believe that we are better together than apart. For our office-based teams, this means working in-person at least 3 days per week.

About Philips

Philips is a health technology company built around the belief that every human matters, and we won't stop until everybody everywhere has access to the quality healthcare that we all deserve.