Senior UX Strategist

About PlayHQ

Founded in 2018, PlayHQ is revolutionising community sports by replacing decades-old legacy systems with modern digital experiences. From our Melbourne CBD headquarters, we're on a mission to unleash the life-changing power of community sport.

The Role

We're looking for a seasoned
product discovery and UX design specialist with AI expertise
to join a
brand new greenfields product squad
and drive our next phase of innovation and rapid expansion. You might be a UX designer with a solid product mindset, or a PM who's equally great on the UX front. Either way, you're obsessed with understanding users and passionate about leveraging AI to automate and enhance product experiences.

Your mission:
Discover and design intelligent experiences that make sports administration and participation easier, faster, safer, and more accessible for millions of users across our global ecosystem.

Working in a
hybrid environment
(1-2 days per week in our Melbourne CBD office), you'll spend your time deeply learning about sports administrators' workflows and collaborating with our engineering teams to create AI-powered products that reduce the work and increase the play.

What You'll Be Doing:

User Research & Discovery

• Conduct deep-dive research across our diverse user base over over 2M players, parents, coaches, officials, and 100K administrators.
• Navigate the complexity of multiple user types across different sports and countries, understanding their unique needs and workflows
• Run user interviews to understand complex sports workflows on a granular level
• Use data and insights to identify AI automation opportunities and build an evidence-backed roadmap
• Create and test AI prototypes with real sports communities

AI-Powered Experience Design

• Design intelligent automation features that help administrators manage operations more efficiently
• Create AI-driven solutions for complex challenges like automated fixture generation, grading, and scoring
• Enhance participant experiences using emerging technologies to keep players engaged between games
• Build trust in AI recommendations through transparent, explainable design patterns

Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Partner closely with full-stack engineering teams to bring AI features to life
• Work with data teams to identify patterns and opportunities for intelligent automation
• Collaborate with customer teams to validate solutions and gather real-world feedback
• Engage directly with sports organisations to understand their unique operational needs
• Manage internal stakeholder alignment while maintaining focus on user outcomes

What Success Looks Like to us:

• Time savings:
  Measurably reducing the administrative burden on volunteers and administrators through intelligent automation
• User adoption:
  Driving engagement with AI features that genuinely solve user problems
• Product impact:
  Contributing to our ambitious user growth goals and product expansion
• Community impact:
  Designing experiences that truly put community first and solve real problems for end users

What We're Looking For:

• 7+ years
  of UX design and/or product management experience with proven ability to ship products at scale
• Portfolio demonstrating AI product design
  experience and measurable success
• AI-native mindset
  – you actively use AI tools to augment your own workflows and can champion AI adoption across the business
• Advanced proficiency in modern design tools and prototyping
• Experience with
  B2B SaaS
  or building products with complex, multi-stakeholder workflows
• User research expertise
  – you know how to uncover insights that drive product decisions
• Multi-market experience
  – comfortable designing for diverse user needs across different regions and use cases

Highly Valued

• Experience with sports technology or community platforms
• Familiarity with grassroots sports culture and administration (bonus points if you've been part of a sporting club)
• Experience working in a scale-up or growth-stage company environment
• Background in designing chat interfaces, conversational UI, or recommendation systems

Why PlayHQ?

Impact:
Your designs will directly improve how millions of people participate in sport globally, supporting the volunteers who make community sports possible.

Growth:
Join us as we scale globally - we are in 3 countries and 7 sports today, but will double each of those

Technology:
Work with a modern tech stack and cutting-edge AI capabilities to solve real-world problems that matter to communities.

Culture:
Hybrid working (1-2 days in Melbourne CBD) giving you flexibility while maintaining team connection.

Mission:
Be part of unleashing the life-changing power of community sport, making it more accessible and enjoyable for people around the world.

Ready to Transform Sports Technology?

If you're excited about using AI and design to revolutionise how millions of people worldwide experience community sports, we want to hear from you. Join us in building the future of sports participation.

PlayHQ celebrates diversity and welcomes applications from all backgrounds. We're building technology for sports communities worldwide, and we believe our team should reflect that diversity.