Product Design Manager, Core Rider Journey

Lyft; Toronto (OH); Hybrid; USD 123,000 - 153,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Extended health & dental

Life insurance & disability

Mental health benefits

Family building benefits

Child care & pet benefits

Lyft Health Savings Account

RRSP matching

Flexible PTO policy

Parental leave 18 weeks

Commuter benefits

Lyft ride credits

Job summary

Lyft is seeking a Product Design Manager to lead design for the core rider journey and to manage a team responsible for long‑term vision and day‑to‑day craft. You will collaborate with a Staff Product Manager and engineering leads to set direction and execute migrations, AI‑native tooling, and design standards across a high‑traffic rider experience, including AVs and rider segments.

You will balance long‑range vision with reliable shipping, ensuring craft quality and cross‑functional

Qualifications

• 6+ years in product design, including 2+ years managing designers.
• Experience owning design for a high‑traffic core product journey.
• Strong systems thinker with long‑term vision and simultaneous execution.
• Close partnership with product and engineering for strategy and platform work.
• Comfortable managing ambiguity and interdependencies at scale.
• Familiarity with AI‑assisted design and development tooling is a strong plus.
• Excellent written and verbal communication to diverse audiences.
• Able to drive disagree‑and‑commit decisions amid ambiguity.

Responsibilities

• Own the design vision and roadmap for the core rider journey.
• Manage and develop a team of product designers with clear expectations and feedback.
• Partner with product and engineering to align strategy and sequence work.
• Guide platform‑level execution including migrations and AI tooling adoption.
• Maintain a high quality bar for craft, consistency, and usability.
• Define how the journey extends to AVs and rider segments in partnership with others.
• Link design decisions to business outcomes, influencing conversion and retention.
• Represent Rider Design in cross‑functional and leadership forums.

Skills

Design leadership

Mentoring designers

Cross-functional collaboration

AI‑assisted design

Executive communication

Job description

At Lyft, our purpose is to serve and connect. We aim to achieve this by cultivating a work environment where all team members belong and have the opportunity to thrive.

The Core Rider team is responsible for the Lyft consumer app you know and love. This team spans the entire consumer journey across the request and purchase flows, search, pickups and dropoffs, the post-match experience, and the in-trip experience.

We're looking for a Product Design Manager to lead design for this journey, and to manage a team of designers who own both the long‑term vision for that experience and the day‑to‑day craft and quality that keeps it coherent as the app scales. This is the core of the Lyft rider experience, used by millions of people every day, and the foundation that every other part of the Rider org builds on top of. Your team's work needs to hold up everywhere, from the simplest suburban home to JFK Airport, and across every mode of transportation, rideshare, autonomous vehicles, and beyond.

This role sits at the center of Rider Design, managing a team of designers responsible for the core journey and the platform work that supports it. You'll partner closely with a Staff Product Manager and cross‑functional engineering leads to set direction for the experience, and you'll manage the execution layer that makes that direction real: migrations, AI‑native tooling adoption, and the design standards that keep the journey consistent as it extends to serve AVs and targeted rider segments. You'll balance long‑range vision with the discipline of shipping reliably, and you'll be the person who ensures craft quality holds across a broad, high‑traffic surface.

Responsibilities:

• Own the design vision and roadmap for the core rider journey
• Manage and develop a team of product designers, setting clear expectations and providing regular, direct feedback to reinforce strong work
• Partner closely with product and engineering leadership to align on strategy, sequence work, and unblock teams as the journey evolves
• Guide your team through platform‑level execution, including flow and UI migrations and AI‑native tooling adoption, ensuring these efforts serve and strengthen the core experience
• Hold the quality bar for craft, consistency, and usability across the journey, and act as a design standard‑bearer for teams building on top of it
• Help define how the core journey extends to serve AVs and specific rider segments, in partnership with adjacent design and product teams
• Connect design decisions to business outcomes, with a clear point of view on how your team's work drives conversion, retention, and reliability at scale
• Represent Rider Design in cross‑functional and senior leadership forums

Experience:

• 6+ years in product design, including 2+ years managing designers
• Demonstrated success in mentoring designers and establishing collaborative relationships
• Experience owning design for a high‑traffic, high‑complexity core product journey, not just a single feature or flow
• Strong systems thinker; able to hold a long‑term vision while managing complex, in‑flight execution across multiple concurrent workstreams
• Track record of close partnership with product and engineering on strategy and platform‑level execution
• Comfortable managing ambiguity, complexity, and interdependencies in a structured, organized way
• Familiarity with AI‑assisted design and development tooling (agentic prototyping, AI‑native dev workflows) is a strong plus
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to represent your team's work to a wide range of audiences, from partner teams to executive levels
• Comfortable driving disagree‑and‑commit decisions and making tradeoffs in ambiguity

Benefits:

• Extended health and dental coverage options, along with life insurance and disability benefits
• Mental health benefits
• Family building benefits
• Child care and pet benefits
• Access to a Lyft funded Health Care Savings Account
• RRSP plan with company match to help save for your future
• In addition to provincial observed holidays, salaried team members are covered under Lyft's flexible paid time off policy. The policy allows team members to take off as much time as they need (with manager approval). Hourly team members get 15 days paid time off, with an additional day for each year of service
• Lyft is proud to support new parents with 18 weeks of paid time off, designed as a top‑up plan to complement provincial programs. Biological, adoptive, and foster parents are all eligible.
• Subsidized commuter benefits and Lyft ride credits

Lyft is committed to creating an inclusive workforce that fosters belonging. Lyft believes that every person has a right to equal employment opportunities without discrimination because of race, ancestry, place of origin, colour, ethnic origin, citizenship, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital status, family status, disability, pardoned record of offences, or any other basis protected by applicable law or by Company policy. Lyft also strives for a healthy and safe workplace and strictly prohibits harassment of any kind. Accommodation for persons with disabilities will be provided upon request in accordance with applicable law during the application and hiring process. Please contact your recruiter if you wish to make such a request.

Lyft highly values having employees working in-office to foster a collaborative work environment and company culture. This role will be in-office on a hybrid schedule — Team Members will be expected to work in the office at least 3 days per week, including on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Lyft considers working in the office at least 3 days per week to be an essential function of this hybrid role. Your recruiter can share more information about the various in-office perks Lyft offers. Additionally, hybrid roles have the flexibility to work from anywhere for up to 4 weeks per year. #Hybrid

The expected base pay range for this position in the Toronto area is CAD $172,000 - CAD $215,000, not inclusive of potential equity offering, bonus or benefits. Salary ranges are dependent on a variety of factors, including qualifications, experience and geographic location. Your recruiter can share more information about the salary range specific to your working location and other factors during the hiring process.

Lyft may use artificial intelligence to screen applicants, however, Lyft employees make the ultimate selection and hiring decisions.

This job fills an existing vacancy.