Design Manager - Web & Mobile App Design System

General Motors • Warren, MI

2d • Hybrid

About The Position

As a Design Manager within the HID Platform Governance team, you will oversee the integrity, scalability, and long-term health of GM’s web and app design system. This is a senior individual contributor role with broad organizational influence. You will operate at the intersection of design systems, governance, and cross-functional alignment, ensuring that teams across GM build with coherence, quality, and intent. This role requires both deep systems knowledge and the confidence to navigate high-stakes conversations with senior Marketing, Product, Engineering and Agency partners when work diverges from established standards. You are not a production designer. You are a highly experienced and technically skilled advocate of design quality, active at the organizational level with 10+ years of hands-on experience designing for software, web, and mobile products. You are a Figma expert and bring strong systems thinking and a passion for scalable, well-documented design processes. Your craft is rooted in clarity, structure, and functionality—not just aesthetics—and you’re comfortable collaborating closely with engineers to ensure high-fidelity implementation.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Design, Human Computer Interaction, Visual Communications, or related field, or equivalent professional experience.
• 10+ years of professional experience in product design, systems design, or design systems roles.
• Demonstrated experience owning or significantly contributing to large-scale design systems across multiple products, brands, or platforms.
• Strong portfolio showing system-level thinking, decision-making frameworks, and long-term impact rather than only artifact production.
• Proven ability to influence without direct authority and to hold firm on standards under pressure.
• Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, including experience presenting to senior leaders and navigating contentious discussions.
• Deep expertise in modern design tools and systems workflows, including Figma-based system management.

Nice To Haves

• Experience working with global brands, complex brand architectures, or federated organizations.
• Prior experience engaging with Marketing organizations and external agencies in governance or review contexts.
• Background in automotive, enterprise platforms, or large-scale digital ecosystems.
• Demonstrated success balancing standardization with brand expression and local market needs.
• Experience defining governance models, review processes, or contribution frameworks for design systems.
• Strong understanding of accessibility standards and their application at the system level.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve a team of designers focusing on core elements of GM’s web and app design system, including patterns, guidelines, and usage principles.
• Define clear system boundaries and guardrails, including where flexibility is allowed and where it is not.
• Partner with Marketing, Product, Engineering, and external agencies to ensure proper adoption and use of the design system.
• Lead design reviews focused on system alignment, quality, and long-term scalability rather than surface-level execution.
• Intervene when teams or agencies go off-system, guiding course correction through principled, credible design rationale.
• Translate system intent into clear guidance, documentation, and decision frameworks that teams can use.
• Act as a advocate for design quality and system application in complex, sometimes adversarial conversations where brand, speed, or local needs conflict with system integrity.
• Mentor designers across the organization on systems thinking, design judgment, and governance best practices.
• Champion accessibility, inclusivity, and consistency as non-negotiable system qualities.
• Present system strategy, decisions, and tradeoffs to senior leadership and executive stakeholders.

Benefits

• From day one, we're looking out for your well-being–at work and at home–so you can focus on realizing your ambitions.
• Learn how GM supports a rewarding career that rewards you personally by visiting Total Rewards resources.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level