Job description

Discord has a highly engaged community of millions of daily active users who use the platform for many different reasons, but there’s one thing that nearly everyone does: play video games. Discord plays a uniquely important role in the future of gaming, and we are focused on making it easier and more fun for people to hang out before, during, and after playing games. Growth sits at the front door of Discord's consumer experience. Our mission is to grow Discord's community responsibly — helping new people discover Discord, land and activate quickly, and stay connected to what they care about. This role owns the full arc of a new user's first experience: how they find us through search, how they register and log in, how onboarding introduces what Discord is, and how notifications bring them back to the moments that matter. As our Senior Design Manager, you'll report to the Director of Product Design and lead a talented team of designers across the full product development cycle, from strategic visioning through launch and iteration. Your team owns the new user's journey — spanning discovery, sign-up, onboarding, notifications, and the earliest days of the Discord experience. What You'll Be Doing Lead and grow a team of product designers working across acquisition, activation, and re-engagement Inspire teams through strategic storytelling, leading vision sprints that turn complex problems into compelling product directions with milestoned experimentation proposals Balance competing priorities between growth velocity, user value, and product quality, ensuring we build experiences that are effective, high craft, and responsible Uphold high design quality standards, and bring moments of delight and joy across the new-user journey, while ensuring our solutions respect user agency and build trust Partner closely with cross-functional leaders in product, engineering, and data science to align on strategy and execution Champion informed design — through product design, user research, and data — helping your team deeply understand both new and returning users Foster a culture of creative excellence, where designers feel empowered to tackle ambiguous problems with empathy and innovation What you should have 10+ years of experience in scaled consumer-facing digital product design work, ideally including growth, onboarding, acquisition, or lifecycle product experiences 4+ years directly managing design teams of 4 or more, with a track record of growing talent and building cultures of creative excellence Ability to bring simplicity and clarity to complex problems or opportunity spaces, and turn insights into compelling product directions Experience designing acquisition, activation, or lifecycle experiences, with a strong sense of how early product moments shape long-term retention Ability to communicate to peers and executive stakeholders in ways that drive action and uplevel execution Strong leadership skills rooted in empathy: you understand how to staff and grow your direct reports in challenging, supportive ways while motivating teams to deliver excellent results Comfort operating in ambiguity and navigating tradeoffs between business goals and user value A working understanding and curiosity of AI-assisted design workflows - from ideation and prototyping to generative UI - and the design judgment to know when AI output needs a human hand before it ships Bonus Points Personal use of Discord, and/or gaming experience Experience with growth experimentation frameworks and data-driven design iteration Understanding of how products reach and grow users across surfaces — notifications, search/SEO, onboarding, and shareable/viral loops Background in behavioral psychology, habit formation, or user motivation The base salary range for this full-time position is listed below. This position will also be eligible for equity and benefits. Our salary ranges are determined by role and level. Within the range, individual pay is determined by additional factors, including job-related skills, experience, and relevant education or training. Please note that the compensation details listed in role postings reflect the base salary only, and do not include equity, or benefits. Base Salary $272,000 — $340,000 USD Why Discord? Discord plays a uniquely important role in the future of gaming. We're a multiplatform, multigenerational and multiplayer platform that helps people deepen their friendships around games and shared interests, and helps developers build and grow their businesses. We believe games give us a way to have fun with our favorite people, whether listening to music together or grinding in competitive matches for diamond rank. Join us in our mission! Your future is just a click away! Discord is committed to inclusion and providing reasonable accommodations during the interview process. We want you to feel set up for success, so if you are in need of reasonable accommodations, please let your recruiter know. Please see our Applicant and Candidate Privacy Policy for details regarding Discord’s collection and usage of personal information relating to the application and recruitment process by clicking HERE.

Requirements

Must-haves

What You'll Be Doing
Lead and grow a team of product designers working across acquisition, activation, and re-engagement
Inspire teams through strategic storytelling, leading vision sprints that turn complex problems into compelling product directions with milestoned experimentation proposals
Balance competing priorities between growth velocity, user value, and product quality, ensuring we build experiences that are effective, high craft, and responsible
Uphold high design quality standards, and bring moments of delight and joy across the new-user journey, while ensuring our solutions respect user agency and build trust
Partner closely with cross-functional leaders in product, engineering, and data science to align on strategy and execution
Champion informed design — through product design, user research, and data — helping your team deeply understand both new and returning users
Foster a culture of creative excellence, where designers feel empowered to tackle ambiguous problems with empathy and innovation
What you should have
10+ years of experience in scaled consumer-facing digital product design work, ideally including growth, onboarding, acquisition, or lifecycle product experiences
4+ years directly managing design teams of 4 or more, with a track record of growing talent and building cultures of creative excellence
Ability to bring simplicity and clarity to complex problems or opportunity spaces, and turn insights into compelling product directions
Experience designing acquisition, activation, or lifecycle experiences, with a strong sense of how early product moments shape long-term retention
Ability to communicate to peers and executive stakeholders in ways that drive action and uplevel execution
Strong leadership skills rooted in empathy: you understand how to staff and grow your direct reports in challenging, supportive ways while motivating teams to deliver excellent results
Comfort operating in ambiguity and navigating tradeoffs between business goals and user value
A working understanding and curiosity of AI-assisted design workflows - from ideation and prototyping to generative UI - and the design judgment to know when AI output needs a human hand before it ships

Nice-to-haves

Personal use of Discord, and/or gaming experience
Experience with growth experimentation frameworks and data-driven design iteration
Understanding of how products reach and grow users across surfaces — notifications, search/SEO, onboarding, and shareable/viral loops
Background in behavioral psychology, habit formation, or user motivation
Please see our Applicant and Candidate Privacy Policy for details regarding Discord’s collection and usage of personal information relating to the application and recruitment process by clicking HERE.

Application prep

Use the role’s language and application details while tailoring your materials.

Keywords to mirror

Platform: greenhouse
Effort: quick

Benefits

Benefits detected in the listing.

Vision