Senior Design Manager - Design Systems

Datadog•New York, NY

1d•$204,000 - $255,000•Hybrid

About The Position

The way products get built is changing. Agents write a growing share of shipped interfaces, designers work in code, and a design system's output is bigger than a component library. At Datadog we're redefining ours for that world, and evolving how the product looks and feels at the same time. DRUIDS is the design system behind every Datadog surface, used daily by more than a hundred designers and thousands of engineers across thirty-plus products. You'll lead the team that owns it: designers and design engineers who set the system's direction, hold the quality bar for what ships, and build the tools that make designing in code the default way to work. The team partners closely with product designers, frontend engineers and PMs across the company. This is a hands-on leadership role in a technical, engineering-forward company. You'll be expected to have a point of view and defend it, to be the person the design org asks about quality, and to make the call when work isn't good enough yet. Much of what a design system should be right now hasn't been settled — here or anywhere else. If you're a designer who never stopped making things, and you'd rather decide what a system should be than maintain one that already exists, this is the role. At Datadog, we place value in our office culture - the relationships and collaboration it builds and the creativity it brings to the table. We operate as a hybrid workplace to ensure our Datadogs can create a work-life harmony that best fits them.

Requirements

8+ years in product design, 3+ of them managing.
Managed a design system team and grown it.
Read and write front-end code, and can have conversations about it.
Designs, has opinions and a point of view.
A clear communicator.
Feedback improves quality and direction.
Can build relationships with fellow leaders and influence them
Developed reports, and handled people who weren't performing.
Want to work in an engineering-forward company.

Responsibilities

Lead the team and set its direction
Decide what DRUIDS owns, what it ships, and what stays with product teams.
Own where the system goes next. Have a view on what a design system should be, and argue for it.
Turn direction into a roadmap, and work with partners on what gets built and when.
Coach the designers and design engineers on your team, be clear about what each person owns, and hire as the team grows.
Own craft and quality
Own the craft and quality of components, patterns, and principles.
Decide what's good enough to go into DRUIDS.
Raise the quality of the product through the system, and through the way design gets made here.
Say when work isn't good enough.
Own the tooling the system runs on
Own the tooling that makes the system usable, and the workflows people use to build with it.
Work out how design quality gets evaluated, by people and by agents, and where that belongs in how software gets shipped.
Decide what the system ships beyond components, and which formats and surfaces it needs to reach.
Stay close to product design
Keep a pulse on what’s getting built and where teams are struggling.
Define how the system shows up for product teams — the touchpoints, relationships and working models needed to support them.
Make the system something teams want to use.

Benefits

New hire stock equity (RSUs) and employee stock purchase plan (ESPP)
Continuous professional development, product training, and career pathing
Intradepartmental mentor and buddy program for in-house networking
An inclusive company culture, ability to join our Community Guilds (Datadog employee resource groups)
Access to Inclusion Talks, our internal panel discussions
Free, global mental health benefits for employees and dependents age 6+
Competitive global benefits
Healthcare
Dental
Parental planning
Mental health benefits
401(k) plan and match
Paid time off
Fitness reimbursements
Discounted employee stock purchase plan