Senior Manager, Product Design - UGC
About The Position
Scribd, Inc. is seeking a Senior Design Manager to lead their 5-person UGC Product Design team. This role is critical at a time when AI is reshaping the user-generated content (UGC) space, complexity is increasing, and current decisions will impact future operations. UGC encompasses customer trust, core features, and discovery across Scribd and Slideshare. AI presents opportunities to enhance content usefulness, trustworthiness, and navigability at scale. The manager will be responsible for team performance, clarity, and execution in this domain, setting standards for strategic thinking and design delivery, focusing on complex problems, and translating ambitious ideas into product impact for millions of users. The role is ideal for someone who enjoys leading talented designers through challenging problem spaces.
Requirements
- Track record of raising the bar for senior designers, including direct, consequential performance conversations.
- 10+ years of product design experience.
- 5+ years of people management experience.
- A hands-on approach to AI, actively experimenting with its application in team workflows.
- Comfort leading through ambiguity where problem definition is part of the work.
- Strong product judgment, with the ability to connect design decisions to business outcomes and push back on incorrect framing.
- Experience operating as a peer to senior product and research leadership, influencing roadmap, resourcing, and strategic direction.
- Resume.
- Portfolio or work samples demonstrating leadership and measurable impact.
- Password, if applicable.
Responsibilities
- Lead and develop the UGC design team, owning their growth, output, and accountability.
- Challenge designers to define the core problem before solutioning and maintain this standard.
- Provide direct, specific feedback to enhance thinking and outcomes.
- Manage performance effectively, including raising standards, addressing gaps, and implementing consequences.
- Partner closely with the Principal UGC Design Lead to challenge thinking, align on standards, and ensure quality execution.
- Drive how the team integrates AI into their practice, including workflows, prototyping, and quality assessment.
- Bring clarity and focus to ambiguous problems and drive simplification.
- Translate strategy into clear priorities, resourcing, and sequencing of design work.
- Strengthen planning, handoff, and cross-team alignment without adding unnecessary process.
- Contribute to shaping the broader Design organization's ways of working, tooling, and standards.
- Shape team rituals that reinforce clarity, ownership, and high standards.
- Hold designers accountable to role expectations and impact.
- Create an environment of psychological safety paired with high performance.
- Contribute to Design organization hiring, calibration, and bar-raising efforts.
Benefits
- Scribd Flex (flexible work model)
- Comprehensive health, dental, and vision coverage
- Mental health support and disability coverage
- Generous paid time off, including vacation, sick time, holidays, winter break, volunteer time, and sabbaticals
- Paid parental leave and family support benefits
- Retirement matching and employee equity
- Learning and development programs and professional growth opportunities
- Wellness and home office stipends
- Complimentary access to the Scribd, Inc. suite of products
- Enterprise access to leading AI tools
Stand Out From the Crowd
Upload your resume and get instant feedback on how well it matches this job.
What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Senior
Education Level
No Education Listed
