Product Design Manager

We are looking for a Director of Design to lead, grow, and elevate our design organization. This role is responsible for setting a clear design vision and strategy across our products while coaching and developing our team of designers and researchers. You will shape how design influences product direction by blending strategic direction with hands-on involvement in our most critical design initiatives to deliver intuitive and emotionally resonant experiences for readers, writers, and advertisers.
Design plays a critical role in how users experience our platform and how quickly they reach enjoyment and stay in flow. This role will shape not only what we build, but how we think about building it. You will help ensure that design is a driving force behind clarity, cohesion, and joy in our products.

What You'll Do: Lead and grow the design organization

• Lead, coach, and mentor a team of product designers and user researchers and provide active coaching, feedback, and skill development
• Foster a culture of strong design thinking, craft excellence, and accountability to outcomes
• Establish clear expectations for quality, clarity, and impact, while giving teams autonomy in how they get there

What You'll Do: Set the design vision and strategy
Define and evolve a clear design vision aligned to product strategy and user needs
Translate ambiguous problem spaces into clear experience direction teams can confidently execute against
Ensure design decisions ladder to user value, platform goals, and long-term strategy
Govern and evolve the design system to ensure consistency, scalability, and accessibility

• Balance speed and craft by enabling teams to move fast without compromising quality
• Partner with product and research to ensure insights meaningfully shape product direction

Manage and support the user research team, ensuring research is actionable and strategic
Use evidence, data, and research to influence decisions and challenge assumptions
Partner closely with Product, Engineering, Content, Trust and Safety, and Ads to align on experience outcomes and tradeoffs
Influence product direction through clear design narratives, not just artifacts
Facilitate design critiques, workshops, and working sessions that move teams toward clarity and alignment
Drive alignment on priorities, tradeoffs, and outcomes through strong design storytelling
Advocate for the role of design as a strategic partner, not a downstream function
Help the organization understand how great design drives engagement, trust, and growth
Proven experience leading and scaling design teams in a product driven organization
Strong design point of view with the ability to set direction and make hard tradeoffs
Track record of influencing product direction through design narrative and user insight
Strong cross functional collaborator who can partner effectively with senior leaders