[Hiring] Senior Design Program Manager II @Instacart

Role Description

Instacart is on a mission to make eating well effortless for everyone and great design is a key ingredient. As a Senior Design Program Manager, you'll drive operational excellence and programmatic execution across the Design organization—building AI-enabled systems, scaling critical processes, and managing the tools and vendor relationships that power our creative work.

This role sits at the intersection of design craft, technical operations, and strategic execution. You'll bring strong design sensibility—whether from product design or design systems—to build scalable programs, automate workflows using AI, and ensure our design team has the infrastructure, tools, and processes to deliver world-class experiences efficiently.

You'll own end-to-end program execution for high-visibility design initiatives while building the operational backbone that enables the Design organization to scale. You'll leverage AI to automate workflows, manage critical vendor relationships (Figma, design tooling, contractors), and create repeatable systems that translate our design, creative and product strategy into shipped experiences.

You'll report to the Director of Technical Program Management and work closely with Design and Product Leadership, Marketing, Engineering, and several other cross-functional partners to deliver outcomes that matter.

Qualifications

• 6+ years in program management and design operations within design or product organizations.
• Strong product sense and design craft sensibility.
• Experience with all stages of the product development lifecycle.
• Technical fluency to collaborate with design system and engineering teams.
• Proven track record driving complex, cross-functional programs from 0→1.
• AI fluency: Experience leveraging AI tools to drive efficiency.
• Vendor/contract management experience.
• Deep knowledge of design and program management tooling ecosystems.
• Ability to drive organizational change and influence cross-functional partners.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.

Requirements

• Strong product sense and design craft sensibility, with well-developed methods and tools for driving fluid programs forward into the market.
• Experience with all stages of the product development lifecycle, launching products end-to-end.
• Technical fluency to collaborate with design system and engineering teams—understanding system architecture, component APIs, design-to-code workflows, and technical constraints.
• Proven track record driving complex, cross-functional programs from 0→1 and scaling operational systems in fast-paced environments.
• AI fluency: Experience leveraging AI tools (LLMs, automation platforms) to drive efficiency and scale programs.
• Vendor/contract management experience: negotiating software contracts, managing relationships, optimizing spend, ensuring compliance.
• Deep knowledge of design and program management tooling ecosystems (Figma, Linear, Jira, Dovetail, asset management, prototyping tools).
• Ability to drive organizational change and influence cross-functional partners—bringing clarity to complexity.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills; comfortable presenting to executive leadership.

Benefits

• Highly market-competitive compensation and benefits.
• Remote work flexibility.
• New hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants.