Senior Design Program Manager II

Instacart

10d•$139,000 - $176,000•Remote

About The Position

Instacart is seeking a Senior Design Program Manager to drive operational excellence and program execution across the Design organization. The role builds AI-enabled systems, scales critical processes, and manages tools and vendor relationships that support creative work. It combines design craft, technical operations, and strategic execution, including close partnership with the Instacart Design System (IDS) team to connect design, engineering, and tooling infrastructure. The position owns end-to-end execution of high-visibility design initiatives and builds the operational foundation needed to scale the Design organization. It uses AI to automate workflows, manages design-tool vendors and contractors, and creates repeatable systems that turn design, creative, and product strategies into shipped experiences. The role reports to the Director of Technical Program Management and works with Design and Product Leadership, Marketing, Engineering, and other cross-functional partners. The role is remote under Instacart’s Flex First approach. For U.S.-based candidates, the annual base-pay ranges vary by permanent work location: $167,000–$176,000 in CA, NY, CT, and NJ; $159,000–$168,000 in WA; $153,000–$161,500 in OR, DE, ME, MA, MD, NH, RI, VT, DC, PA, VA, CO, TX, IL, and HI; and $139,000–$146,500 in all other states. The role is eligible for a new-hire equity grant and annual refresh grants.

Requirements

At least 6 years of experience in program management and design operations within design or product organizations, driving operational excellence and culture for design and product teams.
Strong product sense and design craft sensibility, with methods and tools for moving programs into the market.
Experience across all stages of the product development lifecycle, including launching products end-to-end.
Technical fluency to collaborate with design system and engineering teams, including understanding system architecture, component APIs, design-to-code workflows, and technical constraints.
Track record driving complex cross-functional programs from 0 to 1 and scaling operational systems in fast-paced environments.
Experience using AI tools, including LLMs and automation platforms, to improve efficiency and scale programs.
Vendor and contract management experience, including negotiating software contracts, managing relationships, optimizing spend, and ensuring compliance.
Deep knowledge of design and program management tooling ecosystems, including Figma, Linear, Jira, Dovetail, asset management, and prototyping tools.
Ability to drive organizational change and influence cross-functional partners while bringing clarity to complexity.
Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, including comfort presenting to executive leadership.

Nice To Haves

Design systems expertise, including building or scaling systems, managing component libraries, defining tokens, and driving adoption programs.
Experience building AI-powered workflows for creative operations or design tooling integrations.
Success translating leadership vision into actionable roadmaps and operating models.
Experience in hybrid or embedded team models with deep cross-functional partnership.
Comfort balancing hands-on execution with strategic oversight.
Track record using data and storytelling to influence leadership and secure buy-in for operational investments.

Responsibilities

Drive end-to-end delivery of complex, multi-quarter design initiatives across Design, Product, Engineering, Marketing, Legal, Business Development, and other teams.
Build and deploy AI-enabled workflows to automate program management tasks such as status reporting, resource tracking, documentation synthesis, and stakeholder communication; promote AI fluency in Design.
Own strategic vendor relationships and contract management for design tooling, negotiate contracts, optimize licensing spend, and ensure infrastructure scales with growth.
Manage contractor and agency relationships, partnering with Finance, Legal, and IT on compliance and cost efficiency.
Support team health through capacity planning, roadmapping, and resource allocation; build operational metrics and tooling integrations.
Partner with the Instacart Design System team to align programs with system evolution and component adoption, and drive governance programs that scale the system across product teams.
Act as a strategic partner to Product, Engineering, Marketing, Legal, and Operations; translate design strategy into executable programs with visibility into progress and outcomes.
Facilitate planning cycles and milestone reviews where design intersects with product roadmaps.
Apply design thinking and product sense to program design, understand user needs, and iterate operational experiences based on feedback.
Build systems that empower designers and product managers while balancing flexibility and consistency, creative exploration and scalable patterns, and craft excellence and business impact.