Staff Design Program Manager (Buyer Experience)

Requirements

  • 10+ years in program management, design operations, or a related field, with a significant portion leading operations for a large design or product organization
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  • A track record of independently identifying and building new operational programs - not just running established ones - in environments where the problem space was genuinely novel
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  • Experience operating at a multi-team or org-wide scope, with demonstrated ability to influence VP and senior director-level stakeholders without formal authority
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  • Deep familiarity with consumer product development, ideally including experience with multi-platform experiences (web and native app) or two-sided marketplace products
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  • Strong command of how design teams plan and ship work, including how design intersects with product management, engineering, and research across the product development lifecycle
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  • Experience building and scaling operational systems - planning rhythms, intake and prioritization frameworks, capacity models - for large (20+ person) design organizations
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  • Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, including a history of translating operational strategy into language that resonates with both creative and business audiences
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  • Fluency with Figma, Jira, Notion, Claude, and Google Workspace

What the job involves

  • We’re hiring a Staff Design Program Manager to lead the operations powering Etsy’s Buyer Experience. This is a senior individual contributor role with org-wide scope: you will own the most complex, high-stakes programs across the end-to-end buyer side of the marketplace, shape how the team plans and operates, and serve as a strategic thought partner to Design leadership across multiple groups within the organization
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  • At this level, you are highly independent - you identify where operational leverage is needed, build the initiatives to get there, and influence at the Director and VP level to make it happen. You bring clarity to novel, complex problem spaces and help the organization make sharper bets about where to focus
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  • This is a full-time position reporting to the Senior Director of Design Operations
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  • Own the highest-complexity programs: Lead the most long-term, cross-functional, and high-risk programs for the Buyer Experience design org. This includes initiatives that span multiple squads - from planning rhythm resets to cross-team alignment on shared buyer strategy
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  • Propose new ops-led initiatives: You do not wait to be assigned work. You identify gaps in how the org operates, build the case for addressing them, and own the solution end-to-end, even where the problem space is novel and the path forward is undefined
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  • Shape the operational model: Partner with the Director of Design Operations and Buyer Experience design leadership to define how this group plans, prioritizes, and reviews work across platforms (desktop, mobile web, and native app)
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  • Influence at the Director level: You bring data-informed strategy to Design directors and senior cross-functional leaders to drive organizational alignment. You are a credible, trusted voice in rooms where strategic trade offs are being made
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  • Unify across teams: Buyer Experience spans several distinct teams with different rhythms and priorities. You will build the connective tissue - shared rituals, communication cadences, planning frameworks - that help these teams operate as a coherent group rather than in silos
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  • Make impact visible: Develop audience-appropriate reporting and communications - dashboards, leadership summaries, team newsletters - that make the Buyer Experience design org’s work and progress legible to partners and leadership
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  • Invent novel operational models: At this level, you are not refining existing systems - you are building new ones. You will design scalable frameworks that address the specific challenges of a multi-platform, multi-squad buyer experience organization
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  • Drive adoption: You lead the organization through significant process and strategy shifts, with clear communication and empathy for the human element of change. You do not just document new ways of working - you ensure teams actually adopt them
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  • Tool and vendor stewardship: Partner with the Director of Design Operations on the long-term tool stack strategy for the Buyer Experience org, including evaluating new tools and managing key vendor relationships
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