Senior UX Research & Design Lead

Description Purpose The Senior UX Research & Product Designer reports to the Director, IT Product Management. Armstrong Collective is a world-class luxury travel experience delivering once-in-a-lifetime journeys through the most spectacular landscapes in North America. As we pursue our 2030 growth strategy, we are modernizing our digital commerce platform and adopting a product-led operating model to improve guest experience, commercial performance, and operational scalability. A central part of this transformation is redesigning how guests discover, configure, and purchase complex travel journeys — including multi-day itineraries, packages, partners, inventory availability, and dynamic pricing. We are looking for a senior UX Research & Product Designer to own and elevate the end-to-end digital guest experience across discovery, planning, booking, and transaction. Key Areas of Accountability End-to-End Experience Design • Lead UX strategy and hands-on design from discovery through checkout and confirmation • Design booking flows including itinerary configuration, seat selection, pricing presentation, and payments • Simplify multi-component travel products (rail, hotels, and add-ons) into intuitive interaction models Research & Continuous Discovery • Establish and run a structured UX research practice • Conduct usability testing, journey validation, and post-purchase research • Translate research and behavioral data into prioritized product opportunities • Partner with Product Managers to test hypotheses and inform decisions Conversion & Transaction Optimization • Improve booking conversion and reduce abandonment • Design pricing and availability experiences that build transparency and trust • Reduce friction in high-value checkout and payment flows Cross-Functional Product Collaboration • Work embedded within agile product teams • Partner with Engineering on interactions tied to real system states (availability, inventory, payment) • Collaborate with Revenue Management and Marketing on pricing and pre-booking experience Design Patterns & Systems • Define scalable UX patterns for travel commerce • Contribute to the design system and ensure accessibility across devices UX Center of Excellence • Accountable for creating UX Center of Excellence for Armstrong Collective which would guide all future UX practices. • Responsible for coaching and uplevelling on UX specialists. Required Skills & Experience Experience • 8+ years UX research and product design experience • Direct experience with travel, airline, rail, cruise, or hospitality booking platforms • Proven improvement of ecommerce conversion and transactional flows • Experience working within product-led or agile organizations • Strong usability testing and journey mapping skills • Experience designing complex, multi-step transactional workflows • Ability to simplify high-consideration purchasing decisions • Data-informed design using analytics and experimentation • Comfortable designing within systems involving inventory, pricing logic, and payments • Experience partnering closely with engineering teams and APIs • Familiarity with real-time or near-real-time interaction constraints Tools • Advanced Figma (or equivalent) proficiency • Usability testing platforms • Analytics and A/B testing tools (e.g., GA, Amplitude) Work Environment • Corporate Office – Vancouver based; hybrid role with a minimum 3 days / week in the office Compensation The base salary offered for this role is $125,000 to $140,000 per annum and can vary based on job-related expertise, qualifications, experience and internal equity. Eligible for Armstrong Collective’s discretionary bonus program Eligible Benefits Armstrong Collective supports our team members’ health and wellness by providing a comprehensive medical plan with 100% employer paid premiums, some of which includes: Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance Short term disability, long term disability benefits Travel emergency assistance Vacation time and sick time Up to 5% RRSP and/or TSFA match Two complimentary annual train tickets after first year of employment Armstrong Collective, Rocky Mountaineer and Canyon Spirit are an equal opportunity employer, driven by our values of creating meaningful moments, being one team, and achieving extraordinary outcomes. Our strong company culture supports our vision of a diverse, open, safe, and respectful workplace. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all team members. If you require any accommodation during the application process or throughout your employment, please let us know. We will work with you to ensure your needs are met and to create a supportive environment. Please ensure to opt-in for text messages when you apply in order to receive interview updates. #LI-RS1 #ArmstrongCollective