Senior Design Manager - Observability

Elastic, the Search AI Company, enables everyone to find the answers they need in real time, using all their data, at scale — unleashing the potential of businesses and people. The Elastic Search AI Platform, used by more than 50% of the Fortune 500, brings together the precision of search and the intelligence of AI to enable everyone to accelerate the results that matter.

We are seeking a Product Design Manager who excels in both leadership and hands-on contribution. While your primary focus will be on managing and mentoring a team, you’ll also be ready to review designs and provide clear direction and actionable guidance. In this role, you will be an integral part of both the Security and Observability teams, with a primary focus on advancing our Observability initiatives. You’ll lead a team driving innovation in GenAI-powered UX, Advanced Analytics, Analyst experiences, and Investigation workflows.

Your role will include shaping and overseeing the product design roadmap, supporting the team in aligning their work with the broader Observability design strategy, and fostering a culture of excellence and growth. Collaborating closely with other design managers, you will align on priorities and approaches to ensure a cohesive and consistent user experience across Elastic’s portfolio. You’ll also work alongside the Design Director to evolve and refine Elastic’s Observability design strategy, maintaining a balance between strategic oversight and diving into details to support timely and high-quality execution.

Key responsibilities include:

• Removing blockers for your team.
• Providing strategic guidance aligned with our overarching design vision.
• Ensuring the successful delivery of projects.
• Contributing to advancing design excellence within Elastic by collaborating with other solution design teams, the central design system team, and cross-functional partners.
• Shaping design systems, cross-organizational design processes, and fostering alignment to ensure consistency and scalability across Elastic’s products.

What You Will Be Doing:

• Support, influence, and lead the creation and management of the product design roadmap in line with the broader Observability design strategy.
• Mentor and support designers, helping them to develop their skills and careers.
• Work with other design managers to prioritize projects and align design approaches.
• Manage the team's work balance to ensure optimal productivity and creativity.
• Help execute projects on time by ensuring that the team is meeting milestones and deadlines.
• Unblock projects by providing clear tactical directions that are in line with the design strategy.
• Dive into details while staying strategic.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure design is integrated into product development.

What You Bring:

• 5+ years of experience in product design management.
• Strong leadership and communication skills.
• Experience with managing product design roadmaps and delivering products on time without sacrificing quality.
• Ability to mentor and support designers.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to navigate ambiguity.
• Experience with cross-functional collaboration.
• Excellent understanding of design principles, trends, and best practices.
• Ability to balance attention to detail with the ability to stay focused on the big picture.

Bonus Points:

• Understanding and experience in designing UIs that handle extensive data.
• Strong background in SaaS platform design and usability.
• Proficiency in creating and improving complex workflow designs.
• Experience in the Observability space, such as monitoring, logging, tracing, or alerting.

Additional Information:

As a distributed company, diversity drives our identity. Elastic is the type of company where you can balance great work with great life. We strive to have parity of benefits across regions, and while regulations differ from place to place, we believe taking care of our people is the right thing to do.

• Competitive pay based on the work you do here and not your previous salary.
• Health coverage for you and your family in many locations.
• Ability to craft your calendar with flexible locations and schedules for many roles.
• Generous number of vacation days each year.
• Increase your impact - We match up to $2000 (or local currency equivalent) for financial donations and service.
• Up to 40 hours each year to use toward volunteer projects you love.
• Parental leave of at least 16 weeks.

Elastic is an equal opportunity employer and is committed to creating an inclusive culture that celebrates different perspectives, experiences, and backgrounds. Qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, ethnicity, color, religion, sex, pregnancy, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, age, marital status, protected veteran status, disability status, or any other basis protected by law.