Product Design Manager, Vertical Experiences

About the role

We are looking for a Product Design Manager to join our team and own the design strategy and execution for a critical portfolio of products at BetterUp. In this role, you will act as a player-coach responsible for managing and mentoring a pod of four product designers who craft experiences for some of our most important user groups. You will ensure that design is not just a final step but a foundational driver of product decisions from the very first idea. Your work will directly influence how our members, partners, coaches, and internal teams experience our platform and our brand. You will be expected to bring a high level of craft, systems thinking, and operational rigor to every interaction. This is a role for a leader who believes that the best outcomes come from a blend of strong management, deep design expertise, and a commitment to continuous growth.

Key facts

What you'll do

• Manage and develop four direct reports across multiple time zones, providing consistent 1:1 coaching, actionable feedback, and tailored growth opportunities.
• Run end-to-end design operations for your pod, including establishing review cadences, maintaining Figma hygiene, defining handoff standards, and ensuring active participation in sprint planning and execution.
• Embed design leadership in the earliest stages of product discovery, ensuring that design is in the room before the PRD is written and that user needs shape the initial problem framing.
• Establish and uphold sign-off gates prior to engineering handoff, enforcing quality standards and maintaining visual and interaction consistency across all surfaces you own.
• Act as a key liaison with Vice Presidents of Product for Partner, Coach, and Member pods, aligning on strategic priorities, managing tradeoffs, and communicating design rationale.
• Proactively identify and surface systemic experience quality issues during your pod's work, escalating them to weekly design review sessions for collaborative problem-solving.
• Contribute to and elevate team-wide rituals such as cross-pod critiques, design jams, and quarterly dogfooding initiatives to foster shared learning and continuous improvement.
• Maintain your own craft as a hands-on designer while leading your pod, collaborating closely with growth, core, AI, and design systems teams to ensure technical feasibility and design coherence.
• Leverage your experience managing designers across diverse product areas, including B2B, B2C, and two-sided marketplace interfaces, to create flexible and effective workflows.
• Champion the integration of AI-powered design tools and workflows, using them to accelerate prototyping, enhance user research, and push the boundaries of what your team can deliver.

Requirements

• Possess 7+ years of professional product design experience, with a minimum of several years in a people management capacity overseeing other designers.
• Demonstrate a proven ability to manage and grow product designers across multiple, distinct product areas at the same time without sacrificing quality or delivery.
• Show strong systems thinking in your approach to design, understanding how your pod's surfaces connect to broader business goals and user journeys.
• Have a documented history of getting design involved early in the product lifecycle, influencing decisions before code is written rather than only polishing final outputs.
• Thrive in fast-paced, ambiguous environments where you must make high-quality decisions even when information is incomplete or timelines are aggressive.
• Embrace a player-coach mindset where you are equally committed to honing your own design taste and developing the careers of the designers on your team.
• Be highly proficient with Figma and related modern design tools, including prototyping, component management, and design system maintenance.
• Bring experience adopting and applying AI-powered design tools, such as AI-assisted prototyping, generative design features, and AI-driven user research analysis methods.
• Have a track record of designing for coaching, health, wellness, or human development platforms, where empathy and behavioral change are central to the product experience.
• Demonstrate comfort working with enterprise B2B design patterns, complex administrative workflows, and data-heavy interfaces that serve business stakeholders.
• Have direct experience designing two-sided marketplace or platform products, balancing the needs of multiple distinct user groups within a single experience.
• Show evidence of integrating AI capabilities into product experiences, whether through chatbots, intelligent assistants, or other AI-enhanced features.

Nice to have

• Previous experience in enterprise environments where security, compliance, and data sensitivity are critical considerations in design decisions.
• Familiarity with coaching or personal development frameworks that influence how users engage with guided journeys and transformational content.

Practical notes

This role operates in Austin, Texas, and requires relocation or local candidacy. The position is full-time and involves significant travel between offices and stakeholder meetings as needed. You will be expected to participate in our ongoing design culture, including evening and occasional weekend commitments during major release cycles.