VP of User Experience

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About Ontra
Ontra is the leader in AI-powered solutions for the private markets. Powered by industry-leading AI, data from over 2 million contracts, and a global network of legal professionals, Ontra automates critical private market workflows across the fund lifecycle. Ontra’s solutions transform unstructured data trapped in static documents into actionable intelligence, enabling firms to accelerate contracts, streamline compliance, and automate entity management. Trusted by more than 1,000 global GPs, investment banks, law firms, and advisors – including nine of the top ten PEI-ranked firms worldwide – Ontra helps firms focus on what’s important.

Our Culture
Ontra is a remote-first company that values the power of connection. We find innovative ways to stay connected, both virtually and in person. By promoting ownership, inspiring creativity, and championing collaboration, Ontra enables you to shape your impact and growth. Our commitment to innovation extends beyond our technology; it’s embedded in our culture, and AI plays a crucial role in everything we do.

Our culture is one where belonging is the cornerstone of every interaction, rooted in acceptance and respect for all. Our commitment to inclusion begins at the application process, ensuring a fair and equitable hiring experience that values the unique contributions you bring from day one.

About the Role

Ontra is seeking a VP of User Experience reporting to our Senior Vice President, Product.

For this job, we are currently only hiring candidates based in the United States. For more information on where we employ, please see below.

We're looking for someone who leads with curiosity and empathy, builds and develops high-performing design teams, and brings the craft and strategic vision to deliver intuitive, valuable product experiences across all surfaces.

If you are a future-focused design leader who inspires teams through a human-centered lens, cultivates a strong design culture, and has the expertise to navigate AI-first and agentic product experiences. You enjoy designing systems where intelligent agents do the work and humans guide, supervise, and trust the outcomes. We'd love to get to know you!

What You'll Do

  • Team Leadership & Culture: Build, develop, and inspire a high-performing UX organization by setting a clear vision, nurturing design talent, and fostering a culture where great work and thoughtful critique thrive.

  • Design Thinking & Strategy: Champion human-centered design practices across the organization, partnering with Product and Engineering to frame problems clearly, validate assumptions early, and drive decisions rooted in user insight, including translating that thinking into compelling narratives for C-suite and non-technical stakeholders.

  • AI Empowerment: Introduce AI tools to elevate the UX team's capabilities, rethinking the design technology stack for better prototyping, research, testing, and collaboration.

  • Strategic Partnership: Collaborate with cross-functional leadership to steer product strategy, shape major initiatives, and lead UX vision exercises for each product area.

  • Research Integration: Embed discovery and research into the team's rhythm by completing JTBD studies, leveraging GTM persona research, and ensuring user insight drives product decisions.

  • Design Quality & Delivery: Uphold high standards of craft and consistency while maintaining a fast-paced validation and delivery process.

What You'll Bring

  • People Leadership: A track record of building, coaching, and retaining strong design teams of 10+, by creating psychological safety, developing senior talent, and driving a culture of accountability and growth.

  • Design Thinking Expertise: Deep fluency in human-centered design methodologies spanning problem framing, research synthesis, concept development, and iterative validation, with the ability to instill these practices org-wide.

  • Leadership Experience: 7+ years of design leadership experience, including 1+ year in a VP of UX or equivalent executive design leadership role.

  • Portfolio & Impact: A portfolio demonstrating end-to-end ownership of complex product design processes, including problem framing, research, interaction design, iteration, and measurable impact.

  • AI Adoption & Fluency: Proven ability to drive AI adoption within a design practice, with hands-on experience using AI design and prototyping tools to increase organizational effectiveness.

  • Designing for Complexity: Experience designing for data-intensive, workflow-heavy, or AI-powered enterprise products, with the ability to translate business KPIs into UX strategy and metrics.

Pay Transparency

Ontra takes individual candidate location, experience, and skills into consideration when determining compensation. The base pay range is listed below. Some positions may be eligible for additional compensation, such as commission, variable compensation, profits interest units, or other equity-based compensation, which are not included in the below base pay range.

If you are selected to participate in our interview process, your Talent Acquisition Partner will share more details about the total compensation package for the role.

Compensation

Base Pay Range: $260K – $390K • Offers Equity

Hiring Locations

We currently hire exclusively in the locations listed below. Select jobs may have more specific location requirements due to business needs.

United States

Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey, Nevada, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington

APAC

Hong Kong

EMEA

United Kingdom

Benefits Snapshot

  • Remote-first working policy, with office hubs in NYC, Santa Barbara, and London

  • Twice yearly team offsites for in-person collaboration

  • Paid flexible time off policy

  • Paid parental leave and benefits

  • Employer-supported retirement contributions, varying by country

  • Monthly phone and internet reimbursement

  • Company-sponsored learning and development resources, department budgets for professional development, and a robust onboarding program

  • Various options for medical, dental, and vision insurance

Travel

Occasional travel is required for Ontra employees, including typically at least twice per year to attend team and larger group off-sites for in-person collaboration. For some roles, additional travel may be required based on the requirements of the role and business need.

Inclusivity

Ontra is committed to the full inclusion of all qualified individuals. As part of this commitment, Ontra will ensure that persons with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodations. If reasonable accommodation is needed to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and/or to receive other benefits and privileges of employment, please contact [email protected].

Personnel Privacy Notice: View here.

Note on Employment Verification: All employees hired will be required to verify identity and eligibility to work in their particular location.

Note to External Agencies: We are not accepting any blind submissions or resumes/CVs from recruitment agencies. Any candidates sent to Ontra will NOT be accepted or considered as a submission without a signed agreement in place.