Lead Design Program Manager
Description For Lead Design Program Manager
Salesforce Design Operations Team is seeking a Lead Design Program Manager to join their Global Apps & Industries team. This role is crucial in bridging the gap between design teams and organizational success. The position involves working with executive leadership to shape product priorities, establish resource models, and ensure design work alignment. The ideal candidate will be responsible for creating processes that foster team collaboration, managing cross-functional relationships, and serving as a strategic operational center for the Apps & Industries UX leaders in the APAC region.
The role demands someone who can masterfully balance strategic thinking with operational excellence. You'll be instrumental in creating frameworks that help define, prioritize, and review work while identifying best practices across Salesforce's UX teams. The position requires deep understanding of design operations, software development processes, and the ability to influence at all organizational levels.
Key aspects of the role include facilitating collaboration between design teams, managing dependencies, and ensuring clear communication across all stakeholders. The successful candidate will need at least 7 years of experience in enterprise software, combining Design, DesignOps, or Program Management expertise. They should possess strong interpersonal skills, understand software development at scale, and have experience with agile methodologies.
This opportunity offers the chance to shape how design teams operate at one of the world's leading enterprise software companies. You'll be at the forefront of implementing design systems and working with cutting-edge technologies, including generative AI. The role provides exposure to executive leadership and the opportunity to influence product strategy while building a collaborative design community.
The position is based in either Hyderabad or Bangalore, India, offering the chance to work with global teams while being part of the APAC region's growth story. This role is perfect for someone who combines strategic thinking with operational excellence and has a passion for building scalable design processes in a complex enterprise environment.
Responsibilities For Lead Design Program Manager
- Partner with executive leadership across design organization and cross-functional stakeholders
- Influence resourcing models, shape product priorities, and align teams
- Create rituals and cadences that foster team connection and collaborative design community
- Create processes and frameworks for Apps & Industries UX to define, prioritize, and review work
- Facilitate collaboration and highlight design dependencies
- Serve as point-of-contact for business units and functions
- Coordinate method and measure reviews, lead team events, and organize presentation materials
- Operationalize how the Global Apps & Industries UX organization works together
Requirements For Lead Design Program Manager
- Outstanding partnership, interpersonal, and relationship-building skills
- Ability to collaborate in cross-functional, matrix management environment
- Experience partnering with product management and engineering teams
- Thorough familiarity with design processes and dependencies
- Superb communication skills across multiple mediums
- Strong understanding of software development at scale
- Experience with agile and/or scrum processes
- Ability to master internal project management tools
- Bachelor's Degree in relevant field or PMP certification
- Experience designing and thinking in systems
- Experience designing for or with generative AI systems and tools
