Design Strategist Jobs in California (NOW HIRING)

Technology is at the heart of Disney's past, present, and future. Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology (DEEPT) is a global organization of engineers, product developers, designers, technologists, and data scientists working to power the technological backbone of Disney's media business. The team blends technology with creativity to build world-class products, enhance storytelling, and drive innovation at scale across Disney's media portfolio, including Disney+, Hulu, ESPN, ABC, and more. Design plays a central role in shaping consumer-facing and enterprise products across the Disney Entertainment & ESPN ecosystem.

The Disney+ Product Design team is seeking a Manager, Product Design who will be an outstanding addition to our team. You'll lead a team of designers focused on crafting human-centric experiences across a broad and evolving portfolio of the Disney+ product. Your domain may span areas such as live television, sports, player and playback experiences, personalization, content discovery, or emerging interaction paradigms. As a design leader, you will use your full range of product, interaction, systems, and design experience to raise the craft of the team and guide them through the end-to-end development cycle.

As a Manager, Product Design, you are looked at to steer strategy across multiple areas of the product and align with business goals. You create clarity from ambiguity, translating new technologies and shifting product landscapes into grounded, human-centered design direction. You develop, codify, and share best practices, primarily focusing on design excellence, team growth, and stakeholder management. You will own the vision for a group and understand the impact on individual growth, department growth, and company goals.

The right person for this role has experience developing data-informed, holistic strategies and future-thinking experiences. You care as much about design as you do about the people behind it. You are energized by mentoring and helping others achieve their potential. You inspire, empower, and develop people. You will lead individuals and are accountable for their performance and results. You adapt to business plans and priorities to address user needs, and you thrive when the problem space is wide open.

• Set team values and manage individuals at different stages of development. This requires setting clear goals, managing project loads, allocating designers accordingly, ensuring deadlines are met, and setting up team members for overall success.
• Own the vision for your group, its relationship with the department and business goals, and provide clarity when it's needed. Help your ICs work more effectively and encourage them to implement the most desirable design solution.
• Develop, codify, and evangelize best practices, primarily focusing on design excellence, team growth, and stakeholder management.
• Guide your team to develop processes for ensuring a high bar of quality, including evolving critique practices, design rituals, and workflows that keep pace with emerging tools and technologies.
• Set the strategy and vision for your area of ownership, even as the boundaries of that area shift. Offer a strong product and design voice with your cross-functional partners.
• Partner closely with product management, engineering, research, and data science as a true strategic peer. Co-author product strategy and champion the user perspective in roadmap conversations.
• Stay close to users through research and experimentation, helping define how people discover, interact with, and experience content across current and future paradigms.
• Foster a culture of confidence, accountability, design thinking, continuous learning, and constructive critique.
• Recruit new designers and actively participate in the hiring process, raising the bar for talent while building a team that reflects diverse perspectives and backgrounds.

• 3+ years of experience building or leading teams of full-time designers.
• 7+ years of product design experience across consumer-facing digital products or platforms.
• Ability to cultivate a positive environment for outstanding designers and continually raise the bar for quality and innovation.
• Demonstrated experience and expertise in high-level product design strategy, with the instincts to co-create product vision documents and connect design decisions to business outcomes.
• A strong understanding of user-centered design principles and design thinking practices.
• Proven leadership and mentorship competencies, with a clear philosophy on growing designers at different career stages.
• Comfort navigating ambiguity and turning new technology opportunities into human-centered experiences.
• The ability to clearly articulate your team's design decisions to internal partners and build trust with cross-functional and executive stakeholders through storytelling and clear design documentation.
• Experience leading design across multiple or shifting product areas, where the problem space and team scope evolve.
• A commitment to adding to an inclusive design culture, fostering psychological safety, and attracting world-class talent.
• The ability to adapt department plans and priorities and drive business and viewer needs.
• You're a fantastic communicator!

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent work experience

• This role is based in Santa Monica, CA with a hybrid schedule: in-office Monday–Thursday and remote on Fridays

• Non-Eligible Experience: We do not consider candidates whose experience is solely in marketing/campaign-based design, brand design, illustration, or industrial product design. These areas should only supplement a robust UX/UI portfolio.
• Educational Background: The institution from which a candidate received their design degree or certifications will not influence our evaluation process.
• Industry-Specific Experience: Experience in "streaming" or "living room" environments does not receive preferential consideration. We evaluate all candidates based on their overall design capabilities, leadership qualities, and strategic thinking.
• Domain Experience: Prior experience with any specific product domain listed above is not required. We are evaluating adaptability, leadership maturity, and design judgment over domain expertise.

The hiring range for this position in Santa Monica, California is $155,700.00 - $208,700.00 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate’s geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.