The Community You Will Join:

Design Operations is the team that enables Airbnb’s Design group to run effectively to make products that are usable, lovable, and scalable for our users. Partnering closely with Product Management, Design, Engineering, Marketing, and business leaders, we drive Airbnb’s priorities through seamless day-to-day operations and strong stakeholder alignment, with an eye towards scale and efficiency.

The Difference You Will Make:

You bring creativity to the operational aspects of a design team and deal with solving the “how,” freeing up your peers to focus on crafting the “what.” You anticipate how decisions are made, persistently explore and uncover new ways of doing things, and work collaboratively with stakeholders. You have demonstrated strong performance in your prior roles; you thrive in ambiguity and demonstrate problem-solving leadership with limited oversight.

As part of this team, you understand how to drive results in a hyper-dynamic product design org. Experts in driving quality and process across design teams at scale, you are analytical and strategic with a pragmatic sense of how to get things done. You set high-level goals to improve productivity and drive operational excellence for our internal teams, allowing them to focus on delivering successful products for our hosts and guests.

As a Lead Design Operations Program Manager, you are responsible for establishing and improving workflows and processes to ensure that we deliver excellence with predictability at scale. You will focus on our toolset (i.e. Airtable, Asana, Google Drive), optimize how and when we use them, and drive AI adoption when and where it makes sense for our team across our toolset. You will leverage these tools to drive operational excellence in support of vendor and contract management, budget operations, resourcing tracking and tool/license administration. You will also evolve our resourcing strategy beyond simple tracking capabilities to intelligent capacity planning, reporting and forecasting. Responsibilities range from day-to-day operational execution to developing future state enhancements that meet our long term goals.

A Typical Day:

• Partner with Design Ops leadership on initiatives that impact all of Design—including resourcing strategies, tool optimization and education, budget, contract & tool management, and process improvements that help us scale and operate efficiently and effectively.


• Shape, drive, and document processes and tools for effective org planning workflows by assessing current tools and gaps and iterating on improvements toward a longer-term vision for more seamless workstreams.


• Collaborate with internal and cross functional (XFN) teams to simplify, unify, and streamline both Design and XFN processes and tools (Airtable) to enhance productivity.


• Support overarching planning processes (e.g. monthly planning) to ensure headcount staffing and contractor resourcing plan meets larger skillset needs of team and business.


• Drive and evolve management of contracts, Design budget and tool administration.


• Collaborate with Design Ops and Design Program Managers (DPMs) to ensure consistency in overarching ways-of-working to drive successful program delivery.


• Coordinate periodic reporting on team output and key metrics, manage work plans, analyze data, and ensure recommendations are effectively implemented.


• Engage with partner teams to maintain excellent and timely data accuracy.


• Develop a system to regularly update and maintain accuracy of documentation relative to Operating System, onboarding, process and tools.


• Support the development of capacity planning, scoping, and roadmap planning standards across Design functions.


• Participate in and support cultural moments as part of Design.


• Other design operational responsibilities may be required but will be considered and determined based on experience, capability, organizational need, and bandwidth. 

Your Expertise:

• BA/BS with 10+ years consulting, program management, product management, project management with demonstrated experience establishing methods and processes, implementing systems, and supporting org-wide operations.


• Proactive approach with a demonstrated ability to work through ambiguity to detailed simple solutions. You can take a vague problem, crisply frame the challenge, identify a path forward, and drive an initiative over the finish line. 


• Demonstrable leadership skills and experience in mediation, negotiation, and conflict resolution.


• Demonstrated track record successfully managing ambitious and operationally complex projects with cross-functional teams.


• Long-term strategic thinking balanced with near-term execution skills. Distinctive problem solving skills.


• Highly organized with a talent for structuring and implementing initiatives at scale.


• Proficiency in managing tooling and design systems, including Airtable, Asana, and Figma with an ability to learn technical systems quickly.


• Highly tactical operator with a focus on tracking, reporting, and process improvement.


• Set the bar in optimizing program management tools for enhanced efficiency.


• Expert in collecting, organizing, and interpreting data. 


• Proven ability to build strong relationships and influence business leaders.


• Proven track record and a desire to collaborate with cross-functional teams.


• Adaptability to thrive in a high-growth, ambiguous, and constantly evolving organization.


• Exceptional analytical and problem-solving abilities.


• General understanding of user-centered design methodologies and iterative development approaches.


• Project descriptions, relevant project plans, prioritization.

Your Location:

This position is US - Remote Eligible. The role may include occasional work at an Airbnb office or attendance at offsites, as agreed to with your manager. While the position is Remote Eligible, you must live in a state where Airbnb, Inc. has a registered entity. Click here for the up-to-date list of excluded states. This list is continuously evolving, so please check back with us if the state you live in is on the exclusion list. If your position is employed by another Airbnb entity, your recruiter will inform you what states you are eligible to work from.

Our Commitment To Inclusion & Belonging:

Airbnb is committed to working with the broadest talent pool possible. We believe diverse ideas foster innovation and engagement, and allow us to attract creatively-led people, and to develop the best products, services and solutions. All qualified individuals are encouraged to apply. We strive to also provide a disability inclusive application and interview process. If you are a candidate with a disability and require reasonable accommodation in order to submit an application, please contact us at: [email protected]. Please include your full name, the role you’re applying for and the accommodation necessary to assist you with the recruiting process. 

We ask that you only reach out to us if you are a candidate whose disability prevents you from being able to complete our online application.