Design Program Manager

Job Title: Design Program Manager

Location: Burlingame, CA (hybrid- 3 days in office)

Duration: 6 months (possibility to extend to long term)

Our client is seeking an experienced Design Program Manager (DPM) to drive, innovate, and support design operations within our client wearables team. This role partners closely with Design Program Management, Product Design Managers, and Product Designers to enable world-class user experiences for devices.

Must-Have Skills

Design Program/Project Management:

• 5 years supporting product design teams, especially in consumer electronics, hardware, or digital products.
• Design Systems Experience: Proven track record working on design systems and improving design team workflows.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Strong ability to work with engineering, product management, content design, user research, and other partners

Nice-to-Have Skills

• Design systems experience
• 2D/3D Art Collaboration: Experience working with 2D/3D artists, Creative Directors, and Designers.
• Data-Driven Problem Solving: Comfortable using data to identify workflow issues and communicate solutions.

Responsibilities

• Optimize and streamline design operations to drive team efficiency and impact, specifically for design systems projects.
• Communicate clearly and effectively by succinctly articulating requests, questions, and findings to ensure stakeholders are informed of work and progress.
• Develop and leverage frameworks to create efficiencies, streamline operational responsibilities, improve communication, and help the design team deliver on business goals related to design systems.
• Cultivate strong relationships and serve as a dependable point of contact with stakeholders and partners across design and cross-functional product teams.
• Track record of operating independently, being detail-oriented, and delivering results in a highly organized manner.
• Ability to thrive in a fast-paced environment with independent time management, task prioritization, and a drive to identify problems and work towards solutions.
• Provide flexible processes that meet team needs and help keep work on track.
• Experience working with product design teams at scale.
• Proficiency with professional project management tools for tracking design work, resource allocation, and reporting.
• Comfortable working in environments with ambiguity and rapid change.
• Experience using data to identify problems and communicate solutions.

Degrees:

• Bachelor’s degree in a relevant field (e.g., Design, Engineering, Project Management, Business) preferred.
• Project management certifications (e.g., PMP, Agile/Scrum) are a plus but not strictly required.