Lead Design Program Manager

Denver · Bellevue, WA · USD 132,000-145,000 / year · 7+ years experience · Contract · Hybrid · Posted Sep 30, 2026

At a glance

The Principal Design Program Manager serves as the operating backbone for eComm Design, managing how design work is requested, planned, tracked, and delivered.
This role balances program leadership with systems building, overseeing high-visibility programs and experimentation sprints while managing Jira structures for a team of 20+ designers.
The position requires daily partnership with Design, Product, Engineering, Research, and Marketing stakeholders to ensure design alignment and operational efficiency.

Own the Jira operating model including ticket intake, kanban boards, sprint planning, and status definitions.
Maintain team dashboards and reporting to provide leadership with visibility into work in progress.
Drive story pointing and due dates on tickets while coaching designers and product partners.
Track designer capacity to identify overload or underuse and support resourcing decisions.
Lead design program management for major initiatives from kickoff through post-delivery dev support.
Translate cross-domain timelines into design milestones, handoff dates, and risk assessments.
Facilitate the Experimentation & Growth sprint cycle, including grooming, prioritization, and review.
Manage inbound requests by setting priority expectations and pushing back on side-channel asks.
Use AI tools to automate reporting, status updates, and administrative tasks.
Act as a thought partner to the design manager regarding team health, capacity, and priorities.

7+ years of program or project management in a design, product, or technology environment.
Deep Jira fluency including workflows, dashboards, JQL, custom fields, and reporting.
Proven experience designing and rolling out process or operating models.
Experience with Agile practices such as sprints, grooming, story pointing, and retros.
Strong working knowledge of design processes, Figma, design systems, and UX terminology.
Confluence and documentation habits that keep knowledge shared and current.
Comfort presenting status, risks, and tradeoffs to Directors and VPs.
Ability to work with ambiguity and manage multiple large programs simultaneously.
Working knowledge of AI tools such as Claude and a track record of helping others adopt them.
Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience.