At TripActions, “It’s all about the user. All of them” We’re passionate about providing seamless and intuitive products for business travelers, travel managers, finance teams, as well as the travel agents and support teams they rely on. Our goal is to transform how people experience business travel and how companies handle expense management.

What you'll do:

We look for our Design Managers to not only be great managers, but to have deep expertise in the craft of product design. Yes, we want you to manage, but we also want you to know how to lead design. You should be able to talk in detail about a page’s hierarchy, type, or function – and in addition, know how to lead your team through proper planning and project management. You are a coach who has been a player.

A few things specifically you’ll be responsible for:

• Hiring, coaching, and mentoring the designers on the team
• Building strong partnerships with product, engineering, operations, marketing, etc.
• Implementing strategies and operations for multiple design initiatives and projects
• Advocating for the role and impact of design across the company
• Running the day to day o operations of the team and ensuring design work is high quality, validated, and impactful

Like many companies, your role as a design manager will be dynamic based on the priorities and needs of the team and business. But here is a sample of some of the work you might do during the first three months in the role:

First 30 days

• Build an understanding of the TripActions product and business landscape
• Build relationships and garner trust with the team, both your direct reports and cross-functional partners.
• Participate in and help lead the existing team rituals. These could be design lead critiques, planning sessions, retrospective, or engineering standups.

First 60 days:

• Completely own the day to day execution of the team. This includes all team planning sessions, design reviews, research planning, timeline negotiations, etc
• Hire within your team. We’re growing and you’ll get to be a part of that.
• Help the team make the necessary trade-off decisions that every team faces when building and shipping a product.
• Help identify and define projects for the design team to invest in that will both uplevel the product and impact the business

First 90 days:

• Work with the team to identify ways to improve how we deliver and validate our work. Could be updates to how we handle localization, systems, design/eng handoff, etc.
• Help the team formulate and define strategies related to our long term vision and future roadmap
• Participate in long term planning sessions with senior leadership

What We’re Looking For:

• 7+ years of product design experience, 3+ years experience managing product design teams
• A deep sense of care and concern for both our customers and the team you’ll manage. You understand that both design and being a design manager is all about people.
• A commitment to details, excellence, and execution. You know how to inspire, set, and maintain high quality design and run an efficient team.
• A collaborative, positive, and open approach to design. You think the best work is done with -- and among -- a team of diverse perspectives. Almost like dancing, with everyone moving in complementary ways.
• A bias for action. You are self motivated and comfortable bring definition to ambiguity
• Strong written and verbal communication skills. Yes, we use Slack, but we also Zoom and Loom often.
• A proven track record of quality and impactful work. You have a portfolio of both projects you yourself have designed and work you helped lead teams through.
• Self-awareness and a growth mindset. Every leader is on their own journey to not just be a better leader, but a better version of themselves. We’d love to participate and help you in that journey.