Head of Product Design

ABOUT HALTER

At Halter, we’re on a mission to enable farmers and graziers to run the most productive and sustainable operations. Our customers are using Halter to break free from the time-intensive constraints of conventional practices. Imagine watching 500 cattle stand up and walk calmly towards their next break? No quad bikes, no dogs, no fences. Just a group of cattle walking at their own pace. People say it looks like magic. Our customers are revolutionizing grazing with Halter. It's changing lives and transforming an industry. People join Halter to do meaningful work. By joining us you’ll be solving challenging problems within a talented team and a culture built for high performance. Our team out-think, out-work and out-care. We’re committed to delivering real change in the world - this isn’t easy, and in truth, we love that it’s hard.

We’re backed to deliver on a mission that matters by Tier 1 investors including Founders Fund https://foundersfund.com, Bessemer Venture Partners https://www.bvp.com/, BOND, https://www.bondcap.com/ DCVC https://www.dcvc.com/, Blackbird https://www.blackbird.vc/, Promus Ventures https://www.promusventures.com/, Rocket Lab’s Peter Beck and Icehouse ventures https://www.icehouseventures.co.nz/?utm_term=icehouse%20ventures&utm_campaign=Brand+Keywords&utm_source=adwords&utm_medium=ppc&hsa_acc=4064636360&hsa_cam=16902737884&hsa_grp=134004309485&hsa_ad=592971340272&hsa_src=g&hsa_tgt=kwd-1082530126230&hsa_kw=icehouse%20ventures&hsa_mt=b&hsa_net=adwords&hsa_ver=3&gclid=Cj0KCQjw2v-gBhC1ARIsAOQdKY0J0DepRVFDmjQlAkJPbZuQnLSA5UVzUzOXYiPxkjX-SeVa513_BhkaAr-MEALw_wcB.

To find out more, visit our LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/halter-limited & Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lifeathalter/.

DESIGN THE OPERATING SYSTEM FOR THE WORLD'S FARMERS

For hundreds of years, moving livestock meant physical fences, quad bikes, and hours of hard labour. Halter aims to replace all of that with a collar and a phone. Farmers open an app, draw a boundary, and their herd moves calmly, on their own, to exactly where they're supposed to be. Behind that simplicity sits real-time GPS, satellite connectivity, and animal behaviour monitoring running across thousands of farms, every hour of every day.

To a farmer, it genuinely feels like magic. To anyone who's spent time understanding the industry, it's a fundamental shift in how farming works. And thousands of farmers across New Zealand and the US rely on it every single day to run their operations.

We're looking for a Head of Product Design to define and own the future of that experience. Not a design manager who reviews work in Figma. A leader who sets the vision, raises the craft bar, partners at the executive level, and still sweats the details — because at Halter, the details are the difference between a farmer trusting the product completely, or not.

WHAT MAKES HALTER'S DESIGN CHALLENGE UNIQUE

Halter is real-world design in the deepest sense. Our product is a digital twin of land and animals, guiding livestock, modelling farms, monitoring behaviour in real time, 365 days a year. It's used outdoors, often by farmers who may be highly data-fluent, or for whom this is the first time technology has played a real role in their business.

Designing across that range is genuinely hard and genuinely rare. Our farmers are operating in the field, often in bad weather, making real decisions about their animals. When the experience is clear, they trust it. When it isn't, they don't have time to figure it out. Getting it right takes real craft, real empathy, and real time spent with customers.

There's no template for most of what we do. We tackle greenfield design challenges constantly and we love that. Our willingness to push into new territory is what keeps us ahead. We move fast, test in the field, and learn from seeing real things used by real farmers in real conditions. Nothing replicates that.

You'll need gumboots.

What you'll own

Design vision and strategy. You'll define where Halter's product experience is going and why - setting the principles, craft & quality and long-term direction that guide everything we build. You'll be the person in the room making sure design ambition doesn't get traded away.

Craft and quality. You set the bar. You'll be close enough to the work to know when something is genuinely excellent and when it isn't and you'll have the conviction to push for the former, consistently.

Team leadership. You'll lead, grow, and develop a team of world-class product designers. You'll hire exceptional people, create the conditions for them to do their best work, and build a design culture Halter is proud of.

Design systems. You'll own the system that scales quality across the product ensuring coherence, velocity, and consistency as we grow into new markets and expand our product surface area.

Cross-functional partnership. You'll operate as a true peer to product and engineering leadership shaping what we build, not just how it looks. The best outcomes at Halter come from design being in the room at the start, not handed a brief at the end.

Customer proximity. You'll be out with farmers regularly. You'll see the product in use. You'll gather insights standing in someone's paddock, not just in a research readout. That closeness to the customer is one of Halter's great advantages and you'll champion it.

Who you are

You've led product design at a high-growth tech company and have a track record of building teams and experiences that are genuinely, measurably excellent.

You operate at the intersection of strategy, leadership, and craft. You're not choosing between being a thoughtful design leader and someone who can assess the quality of a pixel-level decision - you do both.

You've designed for complexity. You know what it takes to make a powerful product feel simple for a broad range of users. You've navigated the tension between functional depth and intuitive clarity, and you know how to win it.

You're a strong communicator and influencer. You can articulate design decisions in terms that matter to a CEO, an engineer, and a farmer. You bring people with you.

You're restless about quality. You don't let good enough stay good enough. You raise the bar over time, and you build teams and systems that raise it alongside you.

You're up for something different. The best design leaders who join Halter are energised by work that hasn't been done before, by building in a domain where there's no playbook, and by problems that sit at the intersection of technology and the physical world.

WHAT SETS US APART FROM MOST SAAS COMPANIES

• Halter is real world in every sense. The product becomes a digital twin of land and animals. It guides animals, models land, monitors behaviours - all in real time.  It is used by customers in the field - rain, snow or shine. 

• Our customers might be data-hungry and AI-fluent, or this might be the first time they have used technology, especially a mobile app, in their business. The way in which we craft our experiences to cater to this spectrum of users is make or break. 

• We literally get our hands dirty, working closely with our customers - you will talk to customers constantly, you will get feedback (good and bad), and you will definitely need gumboots - it is hard to beat gathering insights, while standing almost literally in the shoes of our farmers. 

• We have a track record of taking risks and blazing new trails (which isn’t going to change). Much of what we do has no template or example to follow. Greenfield technical and design challenges are frequent, and our willingness to tackle them keeps us a step ahead of our competition.

• We have incredible engineers, who bring things to life with velocity and quality. As quick as we can bring a design concept to life, we can give ourselves the ability to test it, in the field. Calls and prototypes are useful, but our most important learnings come from seeing the real thing in action - nothing can replicate that.

OUR BENEFITS

• State-of-the-art, dog-friendly office that’s been thoughtfully designed right in the heart of Auckland city.

• Healthy body, healthy mind. We’re partnered with Southern Cross Health Insurance to support your well-being.

• We offer 6 months of fully paid parental leave for primary caregivers, 4 weeks of fully paid secondary caregiver leave and many other parental benefits that support you and your family.

• Our personal growth is important. Halter offers an annual $1000 self-development budget to be used for anything that fuels personal growth.

• Our time to recharge is valued, we’re offered wellness leave and unlimited paid annual leave.

• We offer an inclusive and attractive remuneration package made up of salary, benefits and an employee stock ownership plan.

• Delicious snacks and drinks are available for your daily flow.

OUR OFFICE FIRST APPROACH

There’s a reason you visit your friends in person, live with your family and don’t do dinners over Zoom. Humans are wired for connection. We believe a world-class, in-person office culture is the best way for high-performing teams.

Being office first is a core pillar of our culture. We believe in-person connections are key to driving your own growth, learning, impact, and building genuine long-lasting relationships. Strong relationships make it easier to disagree, give feedback, and do meaningful and aligned work. We don’t like having heaps of rules or policies, but this means having strong, trusted relationships is critical.

We’re office first, not office only. This means working from the office everyday is our default setting, but we flex when we need to. We have a high-trust culture, so everyone is trusted to do what’s best for Halter.

Our office vibe is something special, it’s hard to describe until you’re here, but people at Halter who have come from fully remote or hybrid companies say they could never go back - the high energy and spectacular people they are now surrounded by everyday makes work so enjoyable. Your growth, your learning and your impact is truly unlimited here, and a big part of that comes from being together solving problems, innovating, building context, and constantly learning from each other.

JOIN OUR TEAM

Halter is committed to promoting a diverse and inclusive workplace — a place where we can each be ourselves and do the best work of our lives. Research shows that while men apply to jobs when they meet an average of 60% of the requirements, women and under-represented groups of candidates tend to only apply when they meet every requirement. If you think you have what it takes but don’t necessarily tick every requirement on this job description, please still get in touch and apply to Halter. We’d love to chat to see if you’ll be an epic fit!

If this opportunity sounds like you, please apply below by sending through your cover letter explaining why you’re excited about this role and working at Halter, along with your CV, and we’ll be in touch!

Please also feel free to check out the careers page https://www.halterhq.com/careers for more information on working at Halter and don't forget to follow us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/halter-limited & Instagram https://www.instagram.com/lifeathalter/.

WHY OUR TEAM LOVES WORKING AT HALTER:

• Work that genuinely matters. Every now and again a company comes along that transforms an entire industry and leaves the world in a better place. Our team gets to be part of something truly meaningful, helping farmers improve their livelihoods, spend more time with their families, and build more sustainable operations.

• Spectacular people solving hard problems. Our culture is designed for talented people to do work that changes lives. The team is filled with diverse, kind, and driven people who push each other to do their best work. You'll be thrown into the deep end, tackling complex challenges and building something tangible that solves real problems.

• You'll grow here. Autonomy, mastery, and learning define how we work. You'll have the freedom to work on interesting problems, master new skills, and continuously develop yourself, both through your role and our $1,000 personal growth fund.

• This isn't easy, and we love that it's hard. Working at Halter will be the most rewarding and the most challenging work of your life. We move fast, take bold bets, and work hard to reshape an entire industry. As one team member put it: "Joining Halter is a bit like strapping yourself to a rocket ship, but it's an epic journey to be a part of!"