Senior Manager, Product Design - Design Platform

Upstart

4h•$198,700 - $275,000•Remote

About The Position

Upstart's Design Platform team is building the AI-native foundation for how we design and build products across the company. We own the design system, the platform strategy across web and native mobile, and the AI-enabled tools and standards that connect design to code. Our goal is to help every designer and engineer ship high-quality work faster. We sit within Product Design and work closely with frontend platform engineering to turn these ideas into systems teams use in production every day. As Senior Manager on the Design Platform team, you will lead two senior designers and spend most of your time building alongside them (60/40 split). This is a role for someone who wants to stay close to the craft rather than step away from it. You will set the direction for Upstart's design system, shaping its component architecture, token strategy, and visual language. From there, you will decide how our products come together across web and native mobile, and build the AI-enabled workflows that change how designers and engineers work day to day. The result is a foundation every team at Upstart builds on to move from idea to production.

Requirements

8+ years of product design experience, including 2+ years of direct people management experience.
Experience building or substantially scaling a design system adopted across multiple product teams.
Experience defining design patterns or platform strategy across both web and native mobile experiences.
Experience owning design systems work across components, tokens, documentation, governance, and visual design direction.
Experience partnering directly with engineering on design system implementation, including component APIs and token architecture.

Nice To Haves

Ability to prototype or contribute to component implementation.
Experience with AI-assisted design, prototyping, build tooling, or design-to-code workflows.
Knowledge of multi-platform theming and native mobile design systems across iOS and Android.
Analytical skills to use data to measure impact, identify insights, and inform decisions.
Business judgment to set priorities, make tradeoffs, and build leadership support.
Experience developing senior individual contributors and facilitating design critique.

Responsibilities

Shape the next generation of Upstart’s design system, defining the component architecture, token strategy, and visual language that guide how products are built across the company.
Define our platform strategy across web and mobile app, deciding what should be shared and where each experience should feel distinct.
Explore what AI-enabled design systems can become, turning emerging capabilities into new workflows, machine-readable standards, and tools that change how teams build.
Define how we measure impact, using data to guide priorities and build leadership support.
Establish the operating model for the Design Platform, creating clear ownership, governance, and contribution models across platform and product teams.
Develop two senior designers as leaders and builders, giving them the context, feedback, and space to take on ambitious platform work.
Partner with engineering and product design leaders to rethink how products get built, making the Design Platform the foundation teams use to move from idea to production.

Benefits

Competitive compensation, including base pay, bonus opportunities, and annual equity grants that vest quarterly
Retirement benefits to help you plan for the future, including a 401(k) or Group Retirement Savings Plan with a company match of $2 for every $1 contributed, up to $15,000 annually (USD in the US, CAD in Canada)
Employee Stock Purchase Plan (ESPP) with discounted stock purchase options for eligible employees (US only)
Comprehensive health coverage designed to support you and your family, including medical, dental, vision, and wellness resources for US and supplemental health coverage for Canada.
Health Savings Account contributions from Upstart for eligible plans (US only)
Income protection benefits, including life insurance and disability coverage for added financial security
Paid time off, sick leave, and company holidays, in line with local requirements
Paid family and parental leave to support caregiving and major life moments (duration varies by country)
Family-centered benefits to support fertility, parenthood, and caregiving needs
Employee Assistance Program (EAP) offering mental health support and life-centered resources
Financial wellness resources, including access to financial planning tools and a financial concierge service (US Only)
Annual wellness allowance to support your physical and emotional well-being and personal development, based on what matters most to you
Annual productivity allowance to invest in relevant tools and resources you need to do your best work, no matter where you work from
Connection and community through team events, all-company updates, and employee resource groups (ERGs)
Onsite perks, including catered lunches and fully stocked micro-kitchens when working from one of our offices in the Bay Area, Austin, Columbus, and New York City (opening Summer 2026!)