Senior Manager, Product Design - Articulate

Job Title: Senior Manager, Product Design
Job Location: United States
Job Listing URL: https://jobs.lever.co/articulate/0138aa6a-c7f0-455d-81e6-5964c80c3e80
Job Description: Articulate is the leading SaaS provider of online training solutions for the new world of work. Our industry-leading software and services make it simple for enterprises and SMBs to develop, deliver, and analyze online training that’s engaging and effective.

As a Sr Manager, Product Design, you are a strategic, people-first leader who ensures our designers own usability throughout the product lifecycle, champions design excellence, and builds high-performing teams. You lead a team of senior designers across a broad and evolving product area, helping them grow in scope, influence, and confidence. You coach not only your direct reports but also align with your management tripod peers to coach the tripods they operate within, modeling strong collaboration, strategic alignment, and outcome-driven design.

You are accountable for the design quality and usability of solutions shipped by your team and bring clarity and focus through ambiguity as our organization scales. You partner deeply with Product Management and Engineering leadership to cultivate healthy tripods and ensure usability is upheld across discovery, delivery, and iteration. You support and shape how empowered product teams move from discovery to outcomes, embedding design into every part of the product development process.

You operate with autonomy, hold deep domain expertise, and contribute strategic leadership across the broader design org.

What You'll Do
Overall Impact
Lead a team of senior designers, coaching for craft, collaboration, influence, business impact, and career growth
Own the bar for usability and design quality across your team’s product area, ensuring solutions are usable, cohesive, and solve real customer problems
Partner with PM and Eng leads to coach the collaboration and discovery practices of multiple tripods
Drive clarity and focus across customer problem areas, reducing ambiguity and helping teams prioritize for impact
Actively shape design team systems, rituals, and practices as a peer to other functional leaders
Ensure that Product Design decisions align with company goals and drive measurable business outcomes.

Team Leadership & People Development
Coach senior ICs and leads to strengthen strategic thinking, decision-making, and cross-functional influence, shifting from directive guidance to growth
Support performance, growth, and strategic planning conversations while fostering adaptability and psychological safety
Help your team stay focused and aligned through ambiguity by modeling clarity, inclusivity, and resilient leadership
Play an active role in hiring and onboarding, while also anticipating future skill needs to scale a diverse, high-performing design team for evolving business demands

Design Quality & Usability Ownership
Define and uphold what "good" looks like across all stages of product development, especially around usability, simplicity, and polish
Review design work across discovery, delivery, and iteration to ensure strategic alignment, usability quality, and execution standards
Hold your team accountable for shipping trustworthy, valuable, and testable experiences that address real user needs and enable successful outcomes
Partner with Research and Data to ensure user insights guide design decisions and uncover usability gaps early

Tripod Collaboration & Coaching
Act as a peer coach to your area’s PM and Engineering leaders, helping tripods improve discovery, collaboration, and prioritization practices
Help empower Design in effectively owning usability as part of the tripod’s shared accountability for outcomes
Guide teams toward evidence-guided, assumption-testing workflows and avoid solution-first traps
Model how to align early on what "usable enough" means in testing, and instill effective usability testing and alignment practices ahead of key releases

Strategic Influence & Org Leadership
Help define team level strategy, especially during moments of ambiguity, change, or rapid growth
Represent Design in cross-functional leadership forums and collaborate to shape roadmap direction, team health, and delivery quality
Lead cross-team initiatives that evolve design standards, operational systems, and customer experience quality. Ensure continuity across the end-to-end customer journey
Support the evolution of planning, staffing, and rituals as we scale our design practice and shift toward outcome-focused product development
What You Should Have
8+ years of product design experience, including 3–5 years in people management
Proven track record leading design teams through growth, change, and product discovery
Deep understanding of user-centered design principles and usability heuristics
Experience working in empowered product teams (e.g., tripods/trios) with ownership of outcomes
Excellent communicator and facilitator with ability to synthesize, align, and influence across disciplines
Passion for coaching, cross-functional collaboration, and user advocacy
Demonstrated ability to operate autonomously and provide strategic leadership in ambiguous or evolving contexts
Deep domain expertise within your product space
Ability to remain objective and identify solutions in the face of difficult dynamics, moments of ambiguity, or compressed timelines
Highly accountable and strong prioritization skills
Nice To Haves
Experience in SaaS, platform, or enterprise software design
Familiarity with Figma, analytics tools, and usability testing methods
Experience designing and scaling design operations, systems, or rituals