Seed Studio Visual Design Manager, Devices and Services

Designer Jobs; Portland (OR); On-site; USD 188,000 - 274,000; Full time

Job summary

Google Seed Studio in Portland, OR is seeking a Visual Design Manager to shape ecosystem-level experiences for Devices and Services. You will lead UX and visual strategy for Google Hardware, partnering with teams to define how products, surfaces, and design languages work together as a system.

Based onsite in Portland, you will oversee end-to-end design efforts tied to Pixel Watch faces and broader visual direction across hardware surfaces, mentoring designers and aligning cross-functional teams

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of experience in product design or UX.
• 3+ years leading design projects and managing people or teams.
• Experience implementing visual design systems across platforms in an iterative software development environment.
• Portfolio, website, or other link included in your resume.

Responsibilities

• Lead design projects that conceptualize products or define a category’s goals.
• Guide the team in development and execution of Pixel Watch watch faces.
• Provide leadership for visual designers exploring future opportunities for Google Hardware and create visual, motion, and system design directions.
• Develop visual presentations, storyboards, and prototypes communicating solutions and context to peers, users, and leadership.
• Drive a holistic design approach through a design system and design language across teams or products.

Skills

8+ years experience

Lead design projects

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent

Master’s degree (preferred)

Job description

At Google’s Seed Studio, this Visual Design Manager role supports the design of ecosystem-level experiences for Devices and Services. You will shape user-focused UX and visual strategy for Google Hardware, partnering with teams to define how products, surfaces, and design languages work together as a system.

Based in Portland, OR (onsite), you will lead end-to-end design efforts that connect vision to execution, including work tied to Pixel Watch watch faces and broader visual and motion direction across existing hardware surfaces.

What you’ll do

• Lead design projects that either conceptualize individual products or define the goal for a category as a whole.
• Guide the team in development and execution of Pixel Watch Watch Faces.
• Provide leadership for visual designers as they explore future opportunities for Google Hardware and create visual, motion, and system design directions for existing surfaces.
• Develop clear visual presentations, storyboards, and prototypes that communicate solutions and context to peers, users, and leadership.
• Drive a holistic design approach through a design system and/or design language across teams or products.

Required experience

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience.
• 8+ years of experience in product design or UX.
• 3+ years leading design projects and managing people or teams.
• Experience implementing visual design systems across platforms within an iterative software development environment.
• Portfolio requirement: include a portfolio, website, or other relevant link to your work in your resume, with viewable access or instructions.

Preferred qualifications

• Master’s degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Computer Science, a related field, or equivalent practical experience.
• 3 years working with executive leaders.
• Experience collaborating with multidisciplinary UX or product teams (motion, interaction, UX research, engineering, content strategy) on technical implementation.
• Experience conceiving and documenting solutions using personas, user journeys, storyboards, value propositions, and sketches.
• Experience working in a complex, cross-functional organization.

Compensation and location

• Location: Portland, OR (onsite)
• Salary: USD 188,000 - 274,000 per year

Benefits

• Health, dental, vision, life, disability insurance
• 401(k) with company match
• 20 days of vacation per year, accruing at a rate of 6.15 hours per pay period for the first five years of employment
• Sick Time: 40 hours/year (increased to 69 hours/year for Seattle), including 5 discretionary sick days per instance
• Maternity Leave (Short-Term Disability + Baby Bonding): 28-30 weeks
• Baby Bonding Leave: 18 weeks
• 13 paid days per year