Sr Design Manager, Adobe Firefly Platform

The opportunity

Are you passionate about the future of creativity and the role of Generative AI in that journey? Adobe is looking for a Senior Design Manager for Firefly Platform to lead the team that is designing the best next-generation experiences for creativity. We are seeking someone with exceptional visual and interaction design skills, impeccable aesthetic judgement, and an unreasonably high bar for design quality. This person will have the ability to guide a team of designers through a strong design process and quickly orient themselves to different projects, immediately adding value to product designs that inspire delight and bring clarity to the experience.

The team you will manage is responsible for a high quality intuitive designs and diplomatically balancing inputs from multiple partners while representing a strong and confident customer-centric POV. You and your team will be partnering closely with many cross stakeholders defining the future where generative technology will accelerate human creativity, not replace it.

What you'll do

As a leader with a vision on our team, you will be an integral part of designing comprehensive experiences to transform the future of Firefly. Because what we do involves many partner teams, we need someone who is motivated by collaboration and driving progress toward the best solutions through leadership and innovation. You need to be flexible and adaptable, finding ways to proactively move forward through ambiguity.

In this role, you will:

• Lead and mentor a high-performing team in crafting and owning a cohesive, innovative, intuitive and scalable experience. Attract design talent to the team, and hire, grow and retain talent. Jump in on key work streams, being responsible for the strategy and execution for high-impact projects.
• Partner cross-functionally with teams across Adobe Design, product, engineering, marketing, research, and content to envision the possibilities and opportunities for future technology.
• Drive a high volume of projects ranging in complexity, balancing macro and micro perspectives and company priorities with a strategic approach. Work across a complex product space, serving as a champion for cohesive workflows and empowering your team to drive alignment among collaborators.
• Influence and be a key partner to design leadership in conceptualizing the future of our product surfaces; focusing on long-term vision and near-term goals. Socialize new insights and ideas with design rationale grounded in user research and business goals. Your leadership will incite the team to take action for better user and business outcomes. You will need to have excellent written, oral, presentation and storytelling skills to be successful; with the ability to tailor a presentation to any audience from interns to executives.
• Inspire the team to push creative boundaries through critique, storytelling, and by example. Build an impactful collaborative environment and encourage deep partnerships with cross-functional teams, setting a high bar for design craft, conceiving, defining, and driving design strategy.

What you need to succeed

Must-haves:

• A deep understanding of creative workflows and personal experience working as a creative with deep connections to the creative community.
• 4+ years of creative leadership experience, with a proven track record of leading teams through large-scale, innovative projects that delight.
• A deep understanding of design, prototyping, and the development process across desktop, mobile and platforms.
• Experience influencing and championing user-centric design across functions. Ability to effectively collaborate with other cross stakeholders by influence.
• Empathetic leadership to cultivate an inclusive and empowering environment for the designers to do innovative and impactful work.
• A track record for working with leadership on ambiguous problems and crafting big-picture strategies driven by design.
• Excellent instincts for balancing creative vision with team dynamics and business objectives.
• The ability to facilitate collaboration across product/design/engineering teams in the early stages of strategic projects. This may sometimes involve driving design thinking workshops.
• A degree or equivalent experience in a design-related field (HCI, interaction, visual).
• Deep expertise in problem framing from customers’ point of view and solving problems through storytelling and high design craft.
• Comfort mentoring all levels of designers, while encouraging an inclusive and empowering environment for other designers to do innovative and impactful work.
• A demonstrated ability to deliver exceptional visual and UI design execution. High-level of proficiency with Figma and Adobe creative tools.
• Embodying a learners' mentality. AI and new technology is always changing!

Nice-to-haves:

• A background in leading a platform team and succeeding within a matrix organization.
• Prior experience in design systems and a track record of solving complex design problems with elegant, intuitive, and performant solutions.

How to apply

To be considered for this role, please submit your resume and portfolio. We’d especially like to see strong systems thinking, elegant design solutions, how you collaborate across teams, including engineering & product, and a proven ability to adapt your designs based on what you learn.