Manager, Product Design

Disney; Santa Monica, San Francisco, New York (CA, CA, NY); Hybrid; USD 156,000 - 209,000; Full time

Job summary

Disney Santa Monica is seeking a Manager, Product Design to lead a team crafting human-centric experiences across the Disney+ portfolio. You will guide strategy, develop best practices, and mentor designers to raise the craft and impact of the group.

You will partner with product, engineering, research, and data science as a strategic peer, driving user-centered design from discovery through delivery in a dynamic media environment.

Qualifications

• 3+ years leading teams of full-time designers.
• 7+ years of product design experience across consumer-facing digital products.
• Ability to cultivate a positive environment for outstanding designers and raise quality.
• Experience in high-level product design strategy and connecting decisions to business outcomes.
• Strong understanding of user-centered design principles and design thinking.
• Proven leadership and mentorship competencies across career stages.
• Comfort navigating ambiguity and turning new tech opportunities into human-centered experiences.
• Ability to articulate design decisions to internal partners and stakeholders with clarity.
• Experience leading design across multiple product areas with evolving scope.
• Commitment to inclusive design culture and psychological safety.
• Ability to adapt department plans to meet business and viewer needs.
• Experience using AI-powered design/research tools to enhance workflows.
• Excellent communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Set team values, manage developers at different stages, and ensure deadlines.
• Own the vision for the group and align with department goals.
• Develop and evangelize best practices for design excellence and collaboration.
• Guide processes to maintain high quality with evolving tools and practices.
• Set strategy and product voice for your area of ownership.
• Partner with product management, engineering, research, and data science as strategic peers.
• Stay close to users via research to shape discovery and interaction experiences.
• Foster a culture of accountability, learning, and constructive critique.
• Recruit designers and participate in hiring to elevate team talent.

Skills

Team leadership

Product design

Communication

Design thinking

Mentorship

Strategic storytelling

Cross-functional collaboration

AI-powered design tools

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience

Job description

Job Posting Title

Manager, Product Design

Req ID

10152859

Job Description

About the Role & Team

Technology is at the heart of Disney's past, present, and future. Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology (DEEPT) is a global organization of engineers, product developers, designers, technologists, and data scientists working to power the technological backbone of Disney's media business. The team blends technology with creativity to build world-class products, enhance storytelling, and drive innovation at scale across Disney's media portfolio, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, ABC, and more. Design plays a central role in shaping consumer-facing and enterprise products across the Disney Entertainment & ESPN ecosystem.

Summary

The Disney+ Product Design team is seeking a Manager, Product Design who will be an outstanding addition to our team. You'll lead a team of designers focused on crafting human-centric experiences across a broad and evolving portfolio of the Disney+ product. Your domain may span areas such as live television, sports, player and playback experiences, personalization, content discovery, or emerging interaction paradigms. As a design leader, you will use your full range of product, interaction, systems, and design experience to raise the craft of the team and guide them through the end-to-end development cycle.

As a Manager, Product Design, you are looked at to steer strategy across multiple areas of the product and align with business goals. You create clarity from ambiguity, translating new technologies and shifting product landscapes into grounded, human-centered design direction. You develop, codify, and share best practices, primarily focusing on design excellence, team growth, and stakeholder management. You will own the vision for a group and understand the impact on individual growth, department growth, and company goals.

The right person for this role has experience developing data-informed, holistic strategies and future-thinking experiences. You care as much about design as you do about the people behind it. You are energized by mentoring and helping others achieve their potential. You inspire, empower, and develop people. You will lead individuals and are accountable for their performance and results. You adapt to business plans and priorities to address user needs, and you thrive when the problem space is wide open.

What You’ll Do

• Set team values and manage individuals at different stages of development. This requires setting clear goals, managing project loads, allocating designers accordingly, ensuring deadlines are met, and setting up team members for overall success.
• Own the vision for your group, its relationship with the department and business goals, and provide clarity when it's needed. Help your ICs work more effectively and encourage them to implement the most desirable design solution.
• Develop, codify, and evangelize best practices, primarily focusing on design excellence, team growth, and stakeholder management.
• Guide your team to develop processes for ensuring a high bar of quality, including evolving critique practices, design rituals, and workflows that keep pace with emerging tools and technologies.
• Set the strategy and vision for your area of ownership, even as the boundaries of that area shift. Offer a strong product and design voice with your cross-functional partners.
• Partner closely with product management, engineering, research, and data science as a true strategic peer. Co-author product strategy and champion the user perspective in roadmap conversations.
• Stay close to users through research and experimentation, helping define how people discover, interact with, and experience content across current and future paradigms.
• Foster a culture of confidence, accountability, design thinking, continuous learning, and constructive critique.
• Recruit new designers and actively participate in the hiring process, raising the bar for talent while building a team that reflects diverse perspectives and backgrounds.

What To Bring

• 3+ years of experience building or leading teams of full-time designers.
• 7+ years of product design experience across consumer-facing digital products or platforms.
• Ability to cultivate a positive environment for outstanding designers and continually raise the bar for quality and innovation.
• Demonstrated experience and expertise in high-level product design strategy, with the instincts to co-create product vision documents and connect design decisions to business outcomes.
• A strong understanding of user-centered design principles and design thinking practices.
• Proven leadership and mentorship competencies, with a clear philosophy on growing designers at different career stages.
• Comfort navigating ambiguity and turning new technology opportunities into human-centered experiences.
• The ability to clearly articulate your team's design decisions to internal partners and build trust with cross-functional and executive stakeholders through storytelling and clear design documentation.
• Experience leading design across multiple or shifting product areas, where the problem space and team scope evolve.
• A commitment to adding to an inclusive design culture, fostering psychological safety, and attracting world-class talent.
• The ability to adapt department plans and priorities and drive business and viewer needs.
• Experience leveraging AI-powered design, research, and productivity tools (e.g., generative AI, prototyping, or analytics tools) to enhance product design workflows is strongly preferred.
• You're a fantastic communicator!

Required Education

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience

Additional Information

This role is based inthe Santa Monica office from Monday through Thursday and remote on Fridays.

Evaluation Notes

• Non-Eligible Experience: We do not consider candidates whose experience is solely in marketing/campaign-based design, brand design, illustration, or industrial product design. These areas should only supplement a robust UX/UI portfolio.
• Educational Background: The institution from which a candidate received their design degree or certifications will not influence our evaluation process.
• Industry-Specific Experience: Experience in "streaming" or "living room" environments does not receive preferential consideration. We evaluate all candidates based on their overall design capabilities, leadership qualities, and strategic thinking.
• Domain Experience: Prior experience with any specific product domain listed above is not required. We are evaluating adaptability, leadership maturity, and design judgment over domain expertise.

The hiring range for this position in Glendale and Santa Monica, CA is $155,700.00 - $208,700.00 per year. The hiring range for San Francisco, CA is $170,500 - $228,600 per year. The hiring range for New York is $163,100 - $218,700. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.

Job Posting Segment

Design

Job Posting Primary Business

Design - Streaming

Primary Job Posting Category

User Experience Designer

Employment Type

Full time

Primary City, State, Region, Postal Code

Santa Monica, CA, USA

Alternate City, State, Region, Postal Code

USA - CA - 1200 Grand Central Ave, USA - CA - Market St, USA - NY - 7 Hudson Square

Date Posted

2026-06-15