Senior Manager, Product Design - Product Platform

About the role

This role involves leading and developing a team of product designers, including senior individual contributors. The Senior Manager will be responsible for defining the design strategy and ensuring high-quality interaction and visual design for the Product Platform, working closely with product and engineering teams. A key part of the role is to act as a player-coach, addressing challenging design problems directly while empowering team members to manage their own domains.

The position requires a strong focus on systems thinking, applying it to platform decisions to identify implications across different products and opportunities for shared design patterns. The manager will represent the design perspective in discussions about roadmaps, prioritization, and architecture, influencing decisions through collaboration rather than direct authority. Success in this role means consistently raising the bar for design quality and ensuring a cohesive user experience across the company's offerings.

A significant aspect of the work will be driving the evolution and adoption of Quotient, CaptivateIQ's shared design system. The role also emphasizes integrating AI-native product thinking and AI-assisted design practices within the team. The ideal candidate will use research, product data, and customer feedback to inform platform strategy and validate design choices, ensuring that design decisions are data-driven and user-centered.

The salary for this full-time remote position is between $120,000 and $180,000 USD.

Skills that matter here

• product design experience: This role requires over eight years of experience, specifically with complex, systems-level, platform, or infrastructure-adjacent products.
• managing product designers: Candidates need at least three years of experience managing product designers, including senior individual contributors, with a history of developing their careers.
• systems thinking: This is crucial for identifying cross-product implications and opportunities for shared patterns across the platform.
• design system: Experience building, evolving, or governing a design system is essential for driving the adoption and evolution of Quotient.
• cross-functional leadership: The role demands strong leadership to influence product and engineering decisions without direct authority.
• AI-native product thinking: This skill is important for championing and integrating AI-native product thinking and AI-assisted design practices within the team.

Who this role suits

• A leader who enjoys both hands-on design work and mentoring a team of designers.
• Someone who excels at simplifying complex technical concepts into clear user experiences.
• An individual who can influence decisions across different teams using persuasion and collaboration.
• A designer who thinks systematically about product architecture and its implications for user experience.

From the employer

What You'll Do:

• Lead, coach, and grow a team of product designers, including senior ICs.
• Set the design strategy and quality bar for Product Platform in partnership with Product and Engineering.
• Operate as a player-coach, personally shaping high-leverage or ambiguous problems while enabling your designers to own their domains.
• Establish and maintain a high bar for interaction and visual design across complex, systems-heavy product surfaces.
• Bring systems thinking to platform decisions, identifying cross-product implications and opportunities for shared patterns.
• Represent Design in roadmap, prioritization, and architectural conversations.
• Build alignment and drive decisions across teams through influence rather than direct authority.
• Use research, product data, and customer signals to inform platform strategy and validate decisions.
• Drive the adoption and evolution of Quotient as the shared design system across CaptivateIQ.
• Champion AI-native product thinking and AI-assisted design practices across the team.

What You'll Bring:

• 8+ years of product design experience, including experience with complex, systems-level, platform, or infrastructure-adjacent products.
• 3+ years managing product designers, including senior-level ICs, with a track record of growing designers into greater scope and responsibility.
• A portfolio demonstrating strong product craft, systems thinking, and the ability to simplify technically complex experiences.
• Strong visual and interaction design judgment, with experience setting a quality bar across a team.
• Experience setting design strategy across interconnected product areas.
• Experience building, evolving, or governing a design system.
• Strong cross-functional leadership and a track record of influencing Product and Engineering decisions.
• Technical fluency to engage meaningfully with Engineering on architecture, data models, and platform constraints, and translate those constraints into product decisions.
• Fluency in how AI is changing both product experiences and design practice.
• Experience designing complex B2B SaaS or enterprise products is a strong plus.

Benefits:

• Comprehensive Healthcare: 100% coverage for medical, dental, and vision for all FTEs, with roughly 75% coverage for dependents.
• Flexible Time Off: Flexible vacation days plus quarterly mental health days to ensure you have the space to recharge.
• Annual Stipends: Dedicated funds for your professional development and caretaking needs.
• Work Anniversary Bonuses: Annual bonuses to celebrate your milestones and contributions to the CaptivateIQ team that grow as your tenure does.
• Retirement Savings (US-Only): A 401(k) plan to help you invest in and secure your future.
• Premium Tools: The latest Apple hardware to empower you to do your best work.
• Inclusive Community: Active Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) that celebrate shared identities and support our DEI goals by fostering an environment where diverse talent thrives.