Senior Manager, Product Design (UI/Visual)

Zillow

5d•$186,900 - $314,300•Remote

About The Position

Zillow is seeking a Senior Manager of Product Design to lead the Design Foundations team focused on visual design practice and visual language. The role will help shape clear, cohesive, high-quality customer experiences across Zillow’s apps, website, and other digital products. The manager will co-own the evolution of Zillow’s visual identity with Brand and Studio, while guiding how that identity is refined and applied in Product to meet customer and product-team needs. Reporting to the Senior Director of Design Foundations, this leader will develop a specialized design team and own and evolve the Product Design partner enablement program. The team will work early with priority launches and future-facing concepts, including AI experiences, and help define and scale Zillow’s emerging AI Visual Identity. In partnership with Design Technology, the role will embed visual-quality standards into AI-enabled tools and workflows so that increased speed does not diminish design quality. The role also sets product-focused visual principles, standards, and guidance; contributes to the visual-language layer of the design system; and partners across Product Design, Design Systems, Engineering, Brand, Marketing Design, Content Design, and Accessibility. It is categorized as remote. Remote employees work from a physical location of their choice that must be identified to the Company; U.S. employees may live in any of the 50 states, with limited exceptions.

Requirements

8+ years of Product Design experience, with a Visual Design, brand, or digital-craft specialization.
4+ years of experience managing and developing designers, including Senior and Principal individual contributors.
Experience leading a Visual Design practice, design-quality initiative, or related craft discipline, or serving as a senior craft expert within one, at a technology or product-focused organization.
Experience shipping digital products and bringing design work from concept through execution.
Experience partnering closely with Product, Engineering, Design Systems, and Brand, Marketing, or Content Design teams.
Experience translating visual standards into scalable systems, tooling, or workflows.
A portfolio demonstrating strong Product craft, clear creative direction, and thoughtful people leadership.
Strong Product Design foundation and deep expertise in Visual Design or a related craft discipline, with fluency in UI design, typography, hierarchy, layout, interaction states, motion, iconography, and information design.
Experience refining and applying visual language in digital Product experiences, from concept through execution.
Ability to lead through a specialized team by setting direction and priorities, providing creative direction and feedback, and building guidance, practices, and tools that scale visual quality.
Ability to build a visual design practice that supports Product Design teams with guidance, feedback, and craft support.
Strong cross-functional partnership, clear communication, and sound judgment to build alignment across complex work.
Embraces AI-native ways of working and uses new tools to protect and improve design quality.

Responsibilities

Lead a product design team focused on Zillow’s visual language.
Co-own refinement of Zillow’s visual identity with Brand and Studio, ensuring it works for Product use cases.
Own the application of Zillow’s visual identity in Product experiences, ensuring it meets customer and Product-team needs while remaining thoughtful and consistent.
Set Product-focused visual principles, standards, and guidance to help teams create cohesive, high-quality interfaces.
Drive the evolution of the design system’s visual language, partnering with Design Systems designers on components and patterns shaped around Product-team needs.
Engage early in priority concepts and launches to improve interface clarity, cohesion, and quality, and identify needs addressable through shared guidance or the design system.
Own and evolve the Partner Enablement program, pairing Foundations designers with Product Design teams to understand needs, provide targeted guidance, and connect teams with expertise across Design Foundations.
Use insights from partnerships to strengthen enablement and identify opportunities for focused guidance, shared solutions, and earlier collaboration.
Mature the Visual Design practice by providing Product Design teams with guidance, tooling, feedback, and support to strengthen design craft.
Partner with Design Technology to embed visual-quality standards and guidance into AI-enabled design tools and workflows.
Help define and scale Zillow’s emerging AI Visual Identity in Product alongside Brand Strategy, Product Marketing, Content Design, and Product Design partners.
Lead, coach, and grow a specialized team of designers ranging from mid-level to principal.
Set direction, operating priorities, and work plans, and allocate team capacity across foundational work, Product partnerships, and focused exploration.
Provide creative direction and thoughtful feedback so the team can make sound design decisions and deliver high-quality work.
Build a culture of excellence, accountability, and collaboration.
Partner with Product Design, Design Systems, and Engineering to improve interface quality, evolve the design system’s visual-language layer, and address Product-team needs.
Work with Brand Strategy, Marketing Design, and Content Design to refine Zillow’s visual and verbal identity and invest in enablement capabilities.
Coordinate with Marketing Design and other Design Foundations partners to support cohesive customer experiences across Product and Marketing touchpoints.