Manager, Product Design

About the role

The Manager, Product Design for NCAA / March Madness Live will lead a team of Product Designers in shaping and executing digital products and features for NCAA Digital. This role requires a deep understanding of sports, particularly college sports, and the NCAA landscape.

Responsibilities

• Help shape the design vision and strategy for NCAA / March Madness Live
• Foster a high-performance team culture grounded in creativity, accountability, collaboration, and excellence in craft
• Lead with a deep understanding of sports fans, particularly college sports fans, including their behaviors, emotional drivers, loyalty patterns, and expectations across live, social, and on-demand experiences
• Bring a strong understanding of the NCAA audience and March Madness fan journey, and advocate for fan-centered product decisions that serve the speed, emotion, and intensity of the tournament experience
• Present and advocate for product design ideas and solutions to senior leadership with clarity, confidence, and strong rationale
• Use customer insights, analytics, experimentation, and competitive understanding to inform product direction and design decisions
• Drive high-quality product design work across the full lifecycle, from concept through launch and iteration
• Help ensure the team consistently delivers differentiated, fan-first experiences that reflect the urgency, excitement, and cultural relevance of live college sports
• Build strong partnerships and collaborate closely with internal stakeholders across Product, Engineering, Research, Editorial, Content, Marketing, Brand, and key business stakeholders
• Work closely with business stakeholders to understand goals, priorities, constraints, and success metrics, and translate that understanding into clear, effective product design decisions
• Navigate cross-functional and business dynamics thoughtfully to build alignment, establish trust, and move work forward effectively
• Balance user needs, technical feasibility, brand expression, and business priorities to deliver cohesive, high-impact experiences
• Communicate clearly, incorporate diverse perspectives, and align stakeholders around product direction and design rationale

Qualifications & Experience

• 7+ years of experience in product design, UX, or digital design, including experience in team leadership or people management
• Strong experience designing consumer-facing digital products, ideally in sports, media, streaming, or other real-time content environments
• Deep knowledge of sports audiences, including fan behavior, content consumption habits, live-event engagement, and platform expectations
• Familiarity with the NCAA landscape, including college athletics, school and conference loyalty, seasonal rhythms, tournament structures, and the distinct behaviors of college sports fans
• Familiarity with the March Madness Tournament experience, including bracket culture, live game-following behavior, upset-driven momentum, multi-game viewing patterns, and the need for real-time updates, scores, highlights, and seamless navigation during peak moments
• Familiarity with digital sports products and the broader sports media landscape
• An exceptional portfolio of shipped digital work demonstrating strong product thinking, high-quality execution, and the ability to create compelling fan experiences
• Strong ability to work within and evolve an existing brand universe
• Experience with design and prototyping tools, especially Figma and Adobe Creative Suite
• Experience creating products across a range of digital platforms including web, mobile, connected TV, and emerging platforms
• Experience working in agile, cross-functional teams
• Experience managing design resources, prioritization, and team workflows
• Experience working with design systems, including scalable component-based design practices across teams and platforms

Preferred

• Experience designing for live sports, brackets, scores, highlights, second-screen, stats, tournament coverage, or socially driven fan experiences
• Experience with motion, prototyping, or storytelling tools that help bring concepts to life
• Strong understanding of personalization, notifications, content discovery, or fan engagement patterns
• Experience designing for tentpole live events with high traffic, high urgency, and fast-changing content needs
• Passion for sports and strong instincts for what resonates with distinct fan bases and communities, especially college sports audiences