Staff Design Program Manager

The opportunity

We are looking for a Staff Program Manager to join our team and provide immediate impact to the Document Cloud design team within the broader Adobe Design team. In this role, your primary responsibilities include leading complex, multi-disciplinary programs and operationalizing design processes, including owning management tools, building alignment, and prioritizing work to ensure timelines and business objectives are met. Success in this role requires the ability to establish relationships and build rapport across teams, as well as to negotiate and influence cross-functional teams and leadership effectively. A successful Staff Design Program Manager demonstrates deep application/platform and design knowledge in combination with business and project management domain expertise to drive successful programs.

What you will do

• Lead: Foster cross-functional partnerships with product managers, engineering leads, and design leadership to ensure alignment and effective collaboration. Advocate for design excellence, streamline priorities, and drive consensus across teams.
• Strategize: Break down complex initiatives into manageable phases and align team members on priorities. Translate high-level goals into actionable, structured plans that advance initiatives in a dynamic environment.
• Communicate Thoughtfully: Confidently convey program plans and design strategies using strong written, verbal, and presentation skills. Share standards to improve program execution and foster alignment across the design organization.
• Drive Operational Excellence: Launch and manage initiatives to improve design operations, including creative workflows, schedules, and task assignments. Implement operational changes to optimize efficiency for designers.
• Build Relationships: Cultivate strong connections with design managers, designers, program managers, researchers, and cross-functional partners to promote collaboration.
• Collaborate on Project Decisions: Partner with design leadership on key project decisions, including requirements gathering, scheduling, resource allocation, and approvals.
• Integrate Products and Manage Risks: Support partners in integrating Adobe products more closely. Manage program risks, communicate progress and dependencies, and provide updates to executives and business partners.
• Adapt and Evolve Tactics: Understand and address the needs of partner organizations (PM, PMM, Engineering PgM, and Engineering) and adjust design operational tactics as needed to ensure positive, collaborative relationships.
• Maintain Shared Resources: Contribute to shared design resources and manage team documentation, including team sites, status updates, and centralized resources.
• Monitor Team Morale: Keep a pulse on team morale, raise risks to leadership, and find opportunities for improvement.

What you need to succeed

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent experience.
• 15+ years of applicable experience in a design and technology environment.
• Demonstrated delivery of large-scale programs and projects.
• Strong verbal, presentation, and written communication skills.
• Strong conflict resolution and negotiation skills with the ability to lead in an environment of ambiguity with a diverse range of partners.
• Experience working with a large internal design team, including product design, user research, content design, design operations, and the overall product design process.
• Ability to help plan design resourcing needs and map out quarterly priorities in partnership with design leadership.
• Ability to establish relationships, build rapport, and influence cross-functional teams and leadership.
• A passion to have an influential role with the product team as a driver for design process and product strategy, communicating design ideas persuasively and concisely to all functions of the organization, including executives.
• Ability to distinguish critical from non-critical issues and set teams focus and priorities accordingly.
• The ability to break down issues to key fundamentals and drive the team toward action.
• Ability to partner with design leadership to brainstorm ideas for team collaboration and relationship building events.
• An ability to organize cross-functional activities into a complete plan, recognizing interdependence, and establishing a framework for the team to build out the plan and mentoring the execution of that plan.
• Ability to coach others and champion member value.
• Ability to handle ambiguity, set goals and effectively deliver to them if project plans shift and need to adapt.
• A love for fun while getting things done! We have a strong culture of collaboration that embraces sharing opinions but always underscored by kindness.

How to apply

To be considered for this role, please submit your resume and a cover letter.