The RoleWe are looking for a Principal Design Manager to lead and grow a team of senior individual-contributor designers, shaping how creators discover, organize, and share content through Linktree. This is a player-coach role: you'll manage, coach, and develop a small team of senior designers while staying hands-on with design yourself, personally owning some of the hardest or most ambiguous problems.
You'll set design vision and craft standards for your area, partner closely with Product, Engineering, and Marketing, and be accountable for both the quality of your team's work and your own. As the team scales, this role is on a path to grow into a broader leadership remit over time. As a member of the Design leadership team, you'll help define how Linktree scales design as the company grows.
What You'll Own- Lead, coach, and develop a team of senior individual-contributor designers.
- Stay hands-on as a player-coach - personally owning and shipping design work on the highest-leverage or most ambiguous problems.
- Set design vision and craft direction for your area, ensuring quality and consistency across your team's work.
- Partner with Product, Engineering, and Marketing leaders to align design with business priorities.
- Own hiring and team composition for your area, adapting as the business and the team scale.
- Establish and evolve craft standards, critique practices, and design operating rhythms for the team.
- Represent design in cross-functional forums, translating design work into business impact.
- Balance individual craft contribution with management, modelling the standard you expect of the team.
Who We're Looking For- 10+ years of design experience, including experience managing and growing individual contributors (managing managers is a plus, not a requirement).
- A genuine player-coach - still hands-on and excellent at the craft, and energized by both doing the work and developing others.
- Proven track record of shipping high-quality design within a consumer product or creator / marketplace platform.
- Demonstrated ability to hire, coach, develop, and retain strong individual-contributor designers, especially at the senior level.
- Strong craft judgment and the ability to give - and model - high-leverage feedback.
- Experience partnering with Product, Engineering, and Marketing leaders.
- Ability to translate ambiguous business problems into a clear design direction.
- Comfort balancing personal craft work with team leadership, and good judgment on when to do versus delegate.
- Excellent written and verbal communication.
- A growth mindset toward AI-accelerated design tools and how they change workflows.
Why Join Linktree- Be part of a rapidly growing company that's shaping the future of how people connect online.
- Contribute to a product that impacts millions of users worldwide, driving innovation in digital experiences.
- Shape the user experience for one of the most popular platforms globally, impacting millions of users.
- Be part of a collaborative and inclusive culture that values diversity and innovation.
- Enjoy competitive compensation, flexible work arrangements, and robust professional development opportunities.
Linktree is committed to providing a fair and competitive compensation package including cash, equity, and benefits. The base salary offered for this role is targeted at $250,000 - $290,000 for roles based in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Final offers depend on multiple factors including location, experience, expertise, and role scope, and may vary from the range listed.
P.S. If you don't tick every box in this listing, please don't rule yourself out. We take pride in inclusion and hiring incredible human beings with great potential over ticking boxes - so if this role resonates with you, hit that apply button!
