Senior Lead Program Manager, Design

airbnb, Inc.; United States; Remote; USD 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Join a forward-thinking company as a Senior Lead Design Program Manager, where you will lead cross-functional teams to deliver innovative design solutions. This role is pivotal in driving alignment across various departments, ensuring that product objectives are met efficiently. You will leverage your extensive experience in program management to enhance operational excellence and foster collaboration within the design organization. If you thrive in a dynamic environment and are passionate about shaping impactful design initiatives, this is the perfect opportunity to make a significant difference in the user experience.

Benefits

Bonus

Equity

Employee Travel Credits

Benefits

Qualifications

• 15+ years in Consulting, Program Management, or relevant experience.
• Ability to work through ambiguity to detailed solutions.

Responsibilities

• Drive delivery of quarterly and annual roadmap objectives.
• Oversee program management and operations of design teams.

Skills

Program Management

Product Management

Project Management

Problem Solving

Leadership

Negotiation

Conflict Resolution

Cross-functional Collaboration

Education

BA/BS

Job description

Airbnb was born in 2007 when two hosts welcomed three guests to their San Francisco home, and has since grown to over 5 million hosts who have welcomed over 2 billion guest arrivals in almost every country across the globe. Every day, hosts offer unique stays and experiences that make it possible for guests to connect with communities in a more authentic way.

The Community You Will Join

Design Operations enables Airbnb’s Design group to run effectively to make products that are usable, lovable, and scalable for our users. Partnering closely with Design, Product Management, Engineering, and business leaders, we drive Airbnb’s priorities through seamless day-to-day operations and strong stakeholder alignment, with an eye towards scale and efficiency.

The Design Program Managers on this team lead the end-to-end planning, execution, and budgeting of programs to deliver success for our product, hosts, and guests. With a strong appreciation for the practice and process of design, you understand the multiple disciplines that go into a successful product. You bring creativity to the operational aspects of a design team and deal with solving the “how,” freeing up your design lead peers to focus on crafting the “what.”

You anticipate how decisions are made, persistently explore and uncover new ways of doing things, and work collaboratively with stakeholders. You have demonstrated strong performance in your prior roles; you thrive in ambiguity and demonstrate problem-solving leadership with limited oversight.

The Difference You'll Make

As a Senior Lead Design Program Manager (DPM), you will partner with our Design Managers and/or Directors and cross-functional leaders to drive delivery of quarterly and annual roadmap objectives and ensure that what we promise in our roadmap is what we deliver in our product. You will drive tight alignment of activities across teams through cross-functional planning, strong communication, and rigorous program management.

In this role, you are responsible for the program management and operations of multiple design teams focused on a portfolio of critical product initiatives (as part of a broader launch). You will structure design worktracks, establish an operating rhythm within your team, and sometimes delegate program management responsibilities across a team of Design Program Managers. You will oversee the end-to-end scoping, planning, execution, and launch of your programs to deliver success for our product, hosts, and guests. You will also serve as the bridge between critical business functions, aligning stakeholders, providing visibility into the portfolio’s progress, elevating risks, and shepherding the team through the process of bringing our work to life. You will partner closely with Design Operations leadership to provide insight on program progress and raise any red flags that could affect delivery.

A Typical Day

• Drive consistency and harmony in design team operating rhythm, including communication structures, project templates, leadership cadence, and resource utilization.
• Initiate and run internal initiatives that significantly improve the Design org’s operations and cross-functional ways of working.
• Optimize interaction models between Product Marketing, Engineering, Design, Creative, and Marketing, influencing cross-functionally to identify opportunity, unlock productivity, and accelerate execution.
• Drive continuous improvement leveraging lessons learned from teams to celebrate successes as well as identify ways to improve.
• Identify and predict obstacles, collisions, and risk to projects across multiple teams and seek solutions to eliminate them.
• Inspire, develop, and challenge Airbnb's Design Program Management team, modeling excellence.
• Build a following: attract and nurture the best talent.

Your Expertise

• BA/BS with 15+ years Consulting, Program Management, Product Management, Project Management or relevant experience.
• Demonstrated ability to work through ambiguity to detailed solutions. You can take a vague problem, crisply frame the challenge, identify a path forward, and drive multiple initiatives over the finish-line.
• Track record of managing and shipping impactful design initiatives in a large digital product org.
• Long-term strategic thinking balanced with near-term execution skills. Distinctive problem solving skills.
• Proven ability to build strong relationships and influence business leaders.
• Demonstrable leadership skills and experience in mediation, negotiation, and conflict resolution.
• Demonstrated track record successfully managing ambitious and operationally complex projects with cross-functional teams.
• Experience in structuring and implementing initiatives at scale with design and product teams.
• Background in establishing systems: experience developing process where little exists, and demonstrated flexibility to get things done.
• Passionate and enthusiastic about organizational excellence and attention to detail.
• Thrives in ambiguity in a fast-paced, hyper-growth organization.
• Ability to effectively structure and delegate work, while creating career growth opportunities for others.

Preferred Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of and appreciation for the Product Design process.
• Experience with or understanding of cross-functional (Design, Product Management, Product Marketing, Engineering) product-driven organizations or digital agency.

Our Commitment To Inclusion & Belonging:

Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible. We believe diverse ideas foster innovation and engagement, and allow us to attract creatively-led people, and to develop the best products, services and solutions. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply.

We strive to also provide a disability inclusive application and interview process. If you are a candidate with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in order to submit an application, please contact us at: [e-mail]. Please include your full name, the role you’re applying for and the accommodation necessary to assist you with the recruiting process.

We ask that you only reach out to us if you are a candidate whose disability prevents you from being able to complete our online application.

How We'll Take Care of You:

Our job titles may span more than one career level. The actual base pay is dependent upon many factors, such as: training, transferable skills, work experience, business needs and market demands. The base pay range is subject to change and may be modified in the future. This role may also be eligible for bonus, equity, benefits, and Employee Travel Credits.