Product Design Team Leader

Company Overview

Metrea delivers effects-as-a-service to national security partners across five domains and more than a dozen mission areas. These include airborne ISR, electronic warfare, secure communications, aerial refueling, special air missions, aerial firefighting, and advanced simulation. We own the whole stack: designing, building, and operating turnkey capabilities that give our partners decisive, asymmetric advantage against rapidly evolving threats.

Metrea delivers effects-as-a-service to national security partners across five domains and more than a dozen mission areas. These include airborne ISR, electronic warfare, secure communications, aerial refueling, special air missions, aerial firefighting, and advanced simulation. We own the whole stack: designing, building, and operating turnkey capabilities that give our partners decisive, asymmetric advantage against rapidly evolving threats.

Our operating model is built around three interlocking pillars. The Support Groups provide a global shared-service – spanning people, finance, platform, operations, legal, and engagement. This frees up our Core Groups, who develop and own mission capabilities end-to-end, to focus entirely on delivery. The Market Groups apply a regional lens, ensuring that our agile and adaptable capabilities remain aligned to the wicked problems that matter most to our partners across the Americas, EMEA, and Asia-Pacific.

At the heart of our model is a simple but powerful idea: be a true partner with skin in the game. Our partners need effects, not just equipment. By owning the full stack – from the lab to the field – we are able to drive a continuous cycle of innovation that keeps our partners ahead.

It's a fast-moving, intellectually demanding environment where talented people are given real responsibility, work on problems that matter, and contribute to an enterprise that is growing quickly and deliberately.

Headquartered in Washington, DC, with facilities across the United States, the United Kingdom, as well as Continental Europe and Asia-Pacific.

The Digital and Synthetic Group (D&S) is committed to providing mission-driven information solutions that seamlessly bridge the digital and physical realms. Leveraging cutting-edge technologies and advanced platforms, we empower operational readiness and elevate situational awareness across diverse domains—including air, maritime, and space.

As our Product Design Lead you will lead a team of Product Designers who are responsible for the UI and UX elements of our software products. You will ensure that the Product Design capability has the right people, tools, and frameworks to deliver functionally excellent and aesthetically beautiful software.

• Provide people leadership to a team of 5 Product Designers (clarifying job roles, hiring, developing skills, performance management, and resource planning)
• Lead regular Product Design meetings including teambuilding and development workshops
• Work closely with other capabilities (Product Management, Creative Design) to develop a design system that can be used across multiple products present and future
• Advocate for the team and the value of Product Design across Product, Engineering and the wider organisation

• Enthusiasm for cross-functional collaboration, relationship-building, and shared purpose; your calendar is likely to be 50% meetings
• At least two years of formal line-management experience within Product Design, UX or Experience Design.
• A passion for nature, art, or the humanities alongside your technical…