Principal Design Manager

Linktree; Los Angeles (CA); Hybrid; USD 250,000 - 290,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Wellbeing allowance

Medical/dental/vision coverage

Retirement contribution

Stock options

Job summary

Linktree is seeking a Principal Design Manager to lead and grow a team of senior designers while staying hands‑on and personally owning the hardest or most ambiguous problems.

This player‑coach role requires setting design vision, crafting direction, and partnering with Product, Engineering, and Marketing to drive business impact. You will hire, mentor, and elevate the design craft across the group.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of design experience, including experience managing and growing individual contributors.
• A genuine player‑coach — still hands‑on and excellent at the craft, and energized by both doing the work and developing others.
• Proven track record of shipping high‑quality design within a consumer product or creator/ marketplace platform.

Responsibilities

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of senior individual‑contributor designers.
• Stay hands‑on as a player‑coach — personally owning and shipping design work on high‑leverage or ambiguous problems.
• Set design vision and craft direction for your area, ensuring quality and consistency across the team's work.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Marketing leaders to align design with business priorities.
• Own hiring and team composition for your area, adapting as the business and the team scale.
• Establish and evolve craft standards, critique practices, and design operating rhythms for the team.
• Represent design in cross‑functional forums, translating design work into business impact.
• Balance individual craft contribution with management, modelling the standard you expect of the team.

Skills

Design leadership

Hands-on design

Player-coach

Team growth

Cross-functional collaboration

Communication

Mentoring

Job description

The Role

We are looking for a Principal Design Manager to lead and grow a team of senior individual-contributor designers, shaping how creators discover, organize, and share content through Linktree. This is a player-coach role: you'll manage, coach, and develop a small team of senior designers while staying hands-on with design yourself, personally owning some of the hardest or most ambiguous problems.

Why This Role Matters

A consumer product at this scale is made or broken by design. The hard part isn't adding another pair of hands; it's the leadership to raise the whole team's ceiling — coaching senior designers, holding the craft bar, and turning scattered effort into shipped, coherent product. This role exists to be that multiplier: a player-coach close enough to the work to model the standard, and generous enough to grow the people who carry it.

What You’ll Own

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of senior individual-contributor designers.
• Stay hands‑on as a player‑coach — personally owning and shipping design work on the highest‑leverage or most ambiguous problems.
• Set design vision and craft direction for your area, ensuring quality and consistency across your team's work.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Marketing leaders to align design with business priorities.
• Own hiring and team composition for your area, adapting as the business and the team scale.
• Establish and evolve craft standards, critique practices, and design operating rhythms for the team.
• Represent design in cross‑functional forums, translating design work into business impact.
• Balance individual craft contribution with management, modelling the standard you expect of the team.

Who We’re Looking For

• 10+ years of design experience, including experience managing and growing individual contributors (managing managers is a plus, not a requirement).
• A genuine player‑coach — still hands‑on and excellent at the craft, and energized by both doing the work and developing others.
• Proven track record of shipping high‑quality design within a consumer product or creator / marketplace platform.
• Demonstrated ability to hire, coach, develop, and retain strong individual‑contributor designers, especially at the senior level.
• Strong craft judgment and the ability to give — and model — high‑leverage feedback.
• Experience partnering with Product, Engineering, and Marketing leaders.
• Ability to translate ambiguous business problems into a clear design direction.
• Comfort balancing personal craft work with team leadership, and good judgment on when to do versus delegate.
• Excellent written and verbal communication.
• A growth mindset toward AI‑accelerated design tools and how they change workflows.

Why Join Linktree

• Be part of a rapidly growing company that's shaping the future of how people connect online.
• Contribute to a product that impacts millions of users worldwide, driving innovation in digital experiences.
• Shape the user experience for one of the most popular platforms globally, impacting millions of users.
• Be part of a collaborative and inclusive culture that values diversity and innovation.
• Enjoy competitive compensation, flexible work arrangements, and robust professional development opportunities.

Linktree is committed to providing a fair and competitive compensation package including cash, equity, and benefits. The base salary offered for this role is targeted at $250,000 - $290,000 for roles based in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Final offers depend on multiple factors including location, experience, expertise, and role scope, and may vary from the range listed.

Our Story

We’re on a mission to empower anyone to curate, grow, and monetize their digital universe. We created the “link in bio” category — and we’re just getting started. From creators, artists, and entrepreneurs to global brands, we’re redefining how people connect with their communities, showcase their content and promote products — all in one link.

Today, a community of 70+ million use Linktree, including icons like Adidas, TikTok, the UN Environmental Program, The NFL, Manchester United, World Central Kitchen, Sabrina Carpenter, Olivia Rodrigo, and Selena Gomez. With 48,000 new accounts created every day, Linktree is the fastest‑growing leader in our space.

We’ve teamed up with some of the world’s biggest platforms including TikTok, Snap, YouTube, GoFundMe, Spotify, Google, Stripe, Reddit, Laylo, and Kajabi, to unify Linkers’ digital spaces, and we partner with retail brands Amazon, Nike, Nordstrom Target, Sephora, Vuori, and more to share products they love.

We’re a tight‑knit, passionate team building best‑in‑class tools that make online presence simple, powerful, and yours. If you're excited by the idea of shaping a new category, setting the standard, and making space for everyone to be seen and succeed, we’d love to meet you.

Where And How We Work

We're a global, diverse team spread across continents with offices in London, Los Angeles, Melbourne, and San Francisco. We work together flexibly and you can choose the setup that works best for you: fully remote or a hybrid mix of office and home.

We offer autonomy in how you structure your days and weeks. While we’re mindful of time zones and occasionally collaborate outside the typical 9–5, we lean into async work to keep things flowing. Our culture is family‑friendly and Zoom‑casual where kids, pets, and delivery drivers are welcome.

How We’ll Help You Thrive

• An annual wellbeing allowance to use on things like (but not limited to) fitness memberships, development courses, childcare, travel, charitable donations, pet insurance, home office set‑up - the choice is yours!
• 100% coverage (and 80% for your dependents) of your monthly premiums for medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance for US‑based employees.
• Employer contribution towards your retirement.
• Generous time off for vacation, holidays, parental leave, volunteer time, and other categories.
• Employee stock option program - we want each and every employee to share in the company’s success.

At Linktree, we believe in promoting a culture that celebrates unique backgrounds, talents, and experiences, and we’re proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are creating an inclusive workplace where every individual feels valued, respected, and has equal opportunities to thrive. We aim to foster a diverse and inclusive environment where all team members have a sense of belonging. Linktree welcomes all people regardless of sex, gender identity, race, ethnicity, disability, pregnancy, age, or other lived experience. If you require accommodations to fully participate in our opportunities, please don't hesitate to reach us at [e-mail] – your needs are important to us.