As a Principal Program Manager for Industrial Design, you will serve as a trusted advisor and strategic leader, defining and delivering significantly complex design programs with broad cross-organizational and cross-regional impact. Operating with complete independence, you will manage the design process for our most innovative consumer products from initial strategy through market launch, requiring exceptional judgment in managing executive-level escalations and influencing senior stakeholders including VPs and SVPs.
Key job responsibilities
Strategic Program Leadership
Define and deliver high-visibility design programs with company-wide impact across multiple organizations and regions. Independently solve significantly complex problems affecting organizational goals and establish standards for Industrial Design programs. Serve as trusted advisor to senior leadership, representing complex decisions to executives up to 3 levels above.
Cross-Organizational Collaboration & Execution
Drive collaboration between Industrial Design, UX, Product Design, Hardware Engineering, Product Management, and Operations teams. Influence and align senior stakeholders including VPs and SVPs on program strategy. Foster shared understanding by harmonizing discordant views and leading consensus on contentious issues. Own all aspects of significantly complex design programs from concept to market as an individual contributor. Make complex trade-offs balancing opportunity, resources, and sustainability across concurrent programs.
Operational Excellence & Process Innovation
Create and optimize scalable mechanisms and best practices. Actively remove bottlenecks to accelerate operational excellence. Model best practices in status reporting, documentation, stakeholder management, and risk management.
Design Process Management
Coordinate design efforts across multiple programs spanning home to mobile products. Own Industrial Design development schedules for strategic initiatives across the Lab126 PDP. Approve designs and samples while handling logistics including model orders, executive reviews, and international travel planning.
A day in the life
You start your morning reviewing design schedules across three concurrent product programs-a new device concept, home product refresh, and strategic innovation initiative. A quick sync with Hardware Engineering helps define a path to resolve a constraint affecting industrial design timelines. Your meetings include presenting trade-off options to a VP, balancing cost and launch dates with design. You coordinate sample approvals to remove a bottleneck blocking model delivery. You work with the Operations teams, driving consensus on cost data to be presented. You coordinate international travel logistics for next week's design review in Shenzhen.
About the team
This Design Program Management team has far-reaching impact across Amazon Devices & Services, influencing cross-organizational goals, cross-regional business operations, long-term beneficial impact on products and design tools/operations, company-wide standards and best practices for Design program management, and strategic direction of significantly complex, high-visibility consumer product initiatives.
BASIC QUALIFICATIONS
• Bachelor's degree in industrial design, mechanical engineering, product design, or equivalent
• 10 years of demonstrated experience developing home or mobile consumer electronics (or related industry)
• Demonstrated experience managing significantly complex, high-visibility programs with cross-organizational impact
• Expert knowledge of program management methodologies and tools
• Advanced understanding of design and research methodologies
• Proven ability to influence and align senior stakeholders including VPs and SVPs
• Exceptional communication skills with ability to present to executive leadership
PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
• Experience as a Principal-level technical or design program manager in consumer product development with a focus on hardware design, but software user experience design is a bonus.
• Proven track record of defining and delivering strategic programs with company-wide impact
• Experience working with overseas partners in the manufacture of consumer products at scale
• Demonstrated ability to create scalable mechanisms and drive organizational change
• Experience managing multiple complex programs simultaneously with competing priorities
• Track record of identifying organizational gaps and making strategic headcount/resourcing recommendations
• Recognized as an exemplary practitioner and educator in design program management
• Experience operating as a trusted advisor to senior leadership
The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.
USA, WA, Seattle - 172,800.00 - 233,800.00 USD annually
