Whatnot

Design Program Manager

Whatnot

full-time

Posted on:

Location Type: Remote

Location: Remote • California, New York, Washington • 🇺🇸 United States

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Salary

💰 $190,000 - $210,000 per year

Job Level

SeniorLead

About the role

  • Drive operational excellence across the Design Studio—creating clarity, alignment, and predictability for high-impact initiatives.
  • Partner closely with Design, Product, and Engineering leadership to plan, prioritize, and sequence work across multiple parallel tracks.
  • Manage planning cycles, scoping, resourcing, timelines, and cross-team dependencies.
  • Operationalize and oversee the evolution of the Whatnot Design System (WDS), ensuring smooth adoption and collaboration across product teams.
  • Facilitate communication flows—run standups, reviews, crits, and cross-functional syncs that keep teams aligned and unblocked.
  • Build lightweight processes that scale without slowing teams down; identify inefficiencies and continuously improve how the studio operates.
  • Ensure projects have clear goals, success metrics, and feedback loops; maintain documentation that keeps teams aligned and informed.
  • Act as the connective tissue between disciplines—fostering strong relationships across Design, Product, Engineering, Marketing, and Leadership.

Requirements

  • 7+ years experience in Design Operations, Program Management, Creative Operations, or equivalent roles within high-velocity product organizations.
  • A track record of working directly with product design teams and cross-functional partners, ensuring delivery of high-quality design solutions
  • Proven track record managing complex, multi-stakeholder design projects in consumer technology companies
  • Demonstrated ability to influence without authority and drive consensus across diverse teams
  • Experience with project management methodologies and tools (Agile, Jira, Confluence)
  • Experience with design systems is a strong plus.
Benefits
  • Flexible Time off Policy and Company-wide Holidays (including a spring and winter break)
  • Health Insurance options including Medical, Dental, Vision
  • Work From Home Support
  • Home office setup allowance
  • Monthly allowance for cell phone and internet
  • Care benefits
  • Monthly allowance for wellness
  • Annual allowance towards Childcare
  • Lifetime benefit for family planning, such as adoption or fertility expenses
  • Retirement; 401k offering for Traditional and Roth accounts in the US (employer match up to 4% of base salary) and Pension plans internationally
  • Monthly allowance to dogfood the app
  • Parental Leave
  • 16 weeks of paid parental leave + one month gradual return to work *company leave allowances run concurrently with country leave requirements which take precedence.

Applicant Tracking System Keywords

Tip: use these terms in your resume and cover letter to boost ATS matches.

Hard skills
Design OperationsProgram ManagementCreative OperationsProject ManagementDesign SystemsAgile Methodology
Soft skills
Influence without authorityDrive consensusCommunicationRelationship buildingOperational excellence