Product Design Manager, Design Systems

Lyft • San Francisco, NY

8d • Hybrid

About The Position

Lyft is seeking a Design Systems Manager to join Design Foundations, the infrastructure layer of Lyft's design organization. The Design System at Lyft, known as the Lyft Product Language (LPL), is integral to the user experience, spanning product surfaces, marketing, and brand, and is shipped directly to code. This role will own the craft and execution of the system, partnering closely with design, engineering, and marketing. The manager will lead Design Systems work through a period of active global growth and capability expansion. This position reports to the Director of Design Foundations and collaborates with a dedicated DPM, Engineering managers, and a team of design systems practitioners.

Requirements

• 7+ years in product or brand design, including 2+ years managing designers.
• Direct experience leading a design system at scale: components, patterns, guidelines, and shipped-to-code workflows.
• Fluency across mobile and web platforms, with a working understanding of how systems are consumed by engineers.
• Strong track record of partnership with engineering on architecture, releases, and quality.
• Experience setting and defending craft standards across cross-functional stakeholders.
• Excellent written communication; comfortable operating in an async-heavy environment with documented decisions.
• Comfortable driving disagree-and-commit decisions and making tradeoffs in ambiguity.

Nice To Haves

• Familiarity with AI-assisted design tooling (Figma MCP, generative workflows, agentic prototyping) is a strong plus.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategy and roadmap for Lyft Product Language (LPL) across product, marketing, and brand surfaces, in partnership with the Director of Design Foundations, engineering leadership, and the Design Systems team.
• Lead the AI transformation of the system: integrate AI into LPL tooling, adoption workflows, and the day-to-day designer experience at Lyft.
• Represent Design Systems in reviews and other senior leadership forums.
• Manage and develop a team of design systems designers and illustrators working across iOS, Android, web, and brand.
• Hold the quality bar for system-wide design: cross-platform coherence, accessibility (WCAG), road safety, localization, and brand consistency.
• Coach the team on making educated tradeoffs between flexibility, coherency, usability, and efficiency.
• Partner closely with the Design Systems DPM and engineering managers to maintain system health, sequence work, and unblock teams.
• Own the LPL component contribution and review process end-to-end, from intake through release.
• Communicate system decisions, adoption expectations, and quality standards upward and across product, engineering, and marketing.

Benefits

• Great medical, dental, and vision insurance options with additional programs available when enrolled
• Mental health benefits
• Family building benefits
• Child care and pet benefits
• 401(k) plan with company match to help save for your future
• In addition to 12 observed holidays, salaried team members have discretionary paid time off, hourly team members have 15 days paid time off
• 18 weeks of paid parental leave. Biological, adoptive, and foster parents are all eligible
• Subsidized commuter benefits
• Monthly Lyft credits and complimentary Lyft Pink membership

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Manager
• Education Level: No Education Listed