Sr. Manager, Design Program Management, Devices and Services Design Team

Key job responsibilities

• Define and own the design program manager function, strategy, operating model, and standards across portfolios — ensuring consistency, scalability, and alignment with organizational standards and goals
• Build, develop, and lead a team of Design Program Managers embedded across multiple design teams, fostering a culture of operational excellence, collaboration, and continuous improvement
• Partner with Design leaders and senior leadership to align design program priorities with business objectives, product roadmaps, and resource capacity
• Establish and scale mechanisms for program planning, prioritization, resource management, status communication, and escalation management across the portfolio
• Drive cross-organizational alignment on design delivery — working across Product, Engineering, and Design leadership to ensure design is integrated into product development lifecycles
• Create visibility into portfolio health, team capacity, and program risk for DxD leadership — proactively surfacing insights and recommendations that inform strategic decisions
• Own escalation management for design program issues that span teams or require leadership engagement, establishing clear frameworks and driving resolution
• Identify and lead high-impact, cross-cutting initiatives that improve how design teams operate — from process improvements to new mechanisms that raise the bar on delivery quality
• Champion design program management as a discipline — developing talent, sharing best practices, and raising the standard for what great design operations looks like

Basic Qualifications

• 10+ years of design program management or design operations experience, with at least 5 years in a people management role leading program managers or similar functions
• Experience building, scaling, and managing teams within complex, matrixed organizations
• Experience defining and operationalizing program strategy across multiple teams or business units, including setting standards, mechanisms, and operating models
• Experience owning end-to-end program delivery at scale, including defining program requirements and using data and metrics to determine improvements
• Experience working with, presenting to, and influencing senior executives up to VP level
• Experience working cross-functionally with design, product, and engineering teams in a software product development environment

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep fluency in design practice and software product development lifecycles — understanding how design work is scoped, iterated, and integrated into product delivery
• Demonstrated ability to build scalable operational frameworks and mechanisms that create leverage across an organization rather than solving one-off problems
• Track record of developing and mentoring program management talent, raising the bar for the function
• Skilled in navigating complex trade-offs to prioritize resources, organizational health, and scalable solutions across competing stakeholder needs
• Exceptional ability to communicate complex strategies and program health to diverse audiences — from individual contributors to VP-level leadership — ensuring clarity and alignment
• Experience driving organizational change and gaining buy-in across cross-functional leadership in ambiguous environments
• Proven ability to facilitate cooperation across diverse design disciplines and organizational boundaries, building trust and credibility through consistent delivery and transparency
• Strong systems thinking — ability to diagnose operational challenges, identify root causes, and design solutions that scale
• Experience with design operations disciplines including resource management, capacity planning, workflow optimization, and design quality programs