Senior Manager, Product Design - Platform Engineering

Netflix is one of the world's leading entertainment services, with 283 million paid memberships in over 190 countries enjoying TV series, films and games across a wide variety of genres and languages. Members can play, pause and resume watching as much as they want, anytime, anywhere, and can change their plans at any time.The Netflix Platform Engineering team drives business growth and innovation through a robust infrastructure platform essential to Netflix's scale and operations. The platform empowers engineers, data, and machine learning practitioners to achieve unparalleled productivity, offering cloud infrastructure, software development, data analytics, research, experimentation, and AI capabilities. It delivers intuitive experiences, streamlined workflows, and intelligent automation that enhance user experience and operational excellence. Designed for reliability, performance, security, and compliance, the platform adapts effortlessly to evolving business needs.As the Senior Manager of Product Design, you will lead a team of senior and staff product designers in the evolution of our technical product portfolio, ensuring coherent user experiences and solving for end-to-end journeys through user-centric design. You will guide the team to craft impactful experiences, setting a clear design vision aligned with business and product goals. Leveraging your expertise in systems thinking, interaction, visual design, user insights and research, you will elevate strategic thinking and design craft within your team, fostering an inclusive environment that encourages diverse perspectives. Your technical knowledge will be key in navigating the platform landscape and advocating for design’s value in the organization.As a thought leader, you will identify strategic opportunities and influence the platform’s vision. You will spearhead the shift towards dynamic, AI-enabled experiences, creating contextual insights, recommendations, and guidance tailored to the user's journey, enhancing our platform's competitive advantage for Netflix. You excel at building partnerships and collaborating with cross-functional teams to build deep business context and trust, ensuring alignment and shared goals.In this pivotal role, you will oversee product design across the entire platform. Your leadership will shape the future of our platform, supporting Netflix's mission to entertain the world.What You Will DoLead, Grow, and Inspire a High-Performing Team• Continue to cultivate a high-performing team of senior and staff product designers, fostering a culture of excellence and inclusivity.• Mentor and coach designers to enhance their skills in visual design, interaction principles, strategic thinking, business acumen, collaboration, data-driven design, and user insights and research.• Provide strategic clarity and optimize project prioritization and resource allocation, establishing clear processes for work intake and delivery to enhance team efficiency and impact.Drive Strategic Vision and Alignment• Establish and communicate a clear design vision and strategy that aligns with business and product goals, ensuring coherent user experiences.• Serve as a strategic thought partner to cross-functional leadership, influencing product and technical strategy while balancing user-centricity with technical feasibility and business needs.• Tackle challenges using data and intuition to make informed choices amid ambiguity.Champion User-Centered Design and Innovation• Establish design standards and processes for consistency and quality, implementing user-centered design and systems thinking methodologies to enhance user satisfaction and usability.• Drive the evolution of design systems and component libraries to scale design impact across the platform.• Integrate design thinking into the broader organization, introducing scalable practices that drive innovation, efficiency, and cross-disciplinary collaboration.• Foster design-led innovation by supporting initiatives that bring new ideas and improvements to the product.Enhance Cross-Functional Collaboration• Strengthen partnerships with engineering, product, and data science teams, establishing design as a proactive partner in strategic and technical decisions.• Facilitate effective communication and collaboration across domains, connecting the dots between different product areas to ensure cohesive and integrated solutions.• Develop and nurture relationships with stakeholders to align on priorities and execute product roadmaps effectively.• Set and manage stakeholder expectations through clear communication of design priorities and timelines.Foster a Culture of Continuous Improvement• Encourage feedback and continuous learning, supporting designers in their professional growth, and actively seeking and providing constructive feedback.• Embody a growth mindset and cultivate curiosity about the business, emerging technologies, and human behavior to identify and capitalize on product opportunities.What We’re Looking ForProven Leadership• 8+ years of experience in design, with at least 5 years in management roles leading product design teams, with a track record of shipping impactful technical products.• Proven ability to inspire and lead design teams toward ambitious goals, providing critical business context, feedback, and direction.• Experience mentoring and developing senior and staff designers, contributing to the design community, and fostering accountability and trust.• Experience managing hybrid, remote, and diverse teams.Visionary and Strategic Thinking• Ability to articulate a clear product and design vision, set multi-year goals, and create roadmaps that align with business objectives and user needs.• Demonstrated ability to serve as a strategic thought partner to engineering and product leadership, connecting the dots across the organization and influencing product direction and strategy.• Experience elevating design's influence in technically-focused organizations through effective communication of design value to stakeholders at all levels.• Track record of balancing short-term delivery with long-term strategic initiatives while maintaining alignment with broader organizational mission.Design and Product Expertise• Deep understanding of design thinking, systems thinking, and user-centered methodologies, with proven ability to apply these in technical environments.• Experience building and scaling design systems and component libraries to drive consistent experiences across platforms.• Commitment to design excellence, with high standards and ability to drive innovation.• Strong technical understanding of platform engineering concepts, with expertise in designing complex tools for developers and data practitioners.• Ability to engage in technical discussions, influence architectural decisions, and balance user needs with technical constraints.• Passion for platforms, developer productivity, and developer experience.• Familiarity with design practices at the intersection of User Experience and AI.Collaboration and Communication Skills• Strong ability to build relationships and drive alignment with cross-functional partners, with proven ability to manage stakeholder expectations while maintaining strong partnerships.• Exceptional communication skills, both written and verbal, to effectively represent design work and advocate for design’s value.• Proven track record of driving alignment and adoption of successful cross-organizational initiatives and working on large-scale, complex projects across multiple teams.Cultural Fit• Open-minded, empathetic leader who values candor, trust, feedback, and collaboration, aligning with Netflix's company culture.• Ability to navigate ambiguity, drive clarity, and adapt to evolving problem spaces, with a willingness to fail and learn.More About Platform Engineering @ Netflix• MIT CODE 2024 Practitioners Panel: Design & User Experience Perspectives (video)• Netflix’s Distributed Counter Abstraction (techblog)• Unifying the Netflix engineering experience with a federated platform console (video)• Incremental Processing using Netflix Maestro and Apache Iceberg (techblog)• Lessons from designing Netflix’s experimentation platform (video)• Full Cycle Developers at Netflix -- Operate What You Build (techblog)• Netflix Data Engineering Summit (techblog)Be sure to review our culture page to learn more about the unique Netflix culture and the opportunity to be part of our team.Our compensation structure consists solely of an annual salary; we do not have bonuses. You choose each year how much of your compensation you want in salary versus stock options. To determine your personal top of market compensation, we rely on market indicators and consider your specific job family, background, skills, and experience to determine your compensation in the market range. The range for this role is $100,000 - $630,000.Netflix provides comprehensive benefits including Health Plans, Mental Health support, a 401(k) Retirement Plan with employer match, Stock Option Program, Disability Programs, Health Savings and Flexible Spending Accounts, Family-forming benefits, and Life and Serious Injury Benefits. We also offer paid leave of absence programs. Full-time hourly employees accrue 35 days annually for paid time off to be used for vacation, holidays, and sick paid time off. Full-time salaried employees are immediately entitled to flexible time off. See more detail about our Benefits here.Netflix is a unique culture and environment. Learn more here.Inclusion is a Netflix value and we strive to host a meaningful interview experience for all candidates. If you want an accommodation/adjustment for a disability or any other reason during the hiring process, please send a request to your recruiting partner.We are an equal-opportunity employer and celebrate diversity, recognizing that diversity builds stronger teams. We approach diversity and inclusion seriously and thoughtfully. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, ancestry, national origin, caste, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity or expression, age, disability, medical condition, pregnancy, genetic makeup, marital status, or military service.Job is open for no less than 7 days and will be removed when the position is filled.