Senior Design Manager

About the Team:

Grindr is an AI-native platform powering how millions of gay people connect globally. With 15M+ monthly users, 130B+ annual messages, and a team of fewer than 200, we move fast, stay lean, and tackle technical problems at a scale few companies ever see.

The Design team at Grindr punches well above its weight. Designers here work directly alongside product and engineering leadership, shaping what gets built and how it shows up for millions of users - not just executing against briefs handed down from above. This Design Manager role sits at the intersection of craft and culture: someone who brings the structural rigor and quality standards forged at scale, and the scrappy, high-ownership execution that only comes from building in a leaner environment.

This manager will support a strong team of 5-8 full time and contractor designers. They will manage core aspects of the Grindr app and help lead the charge on innovating with AI tools while improving quality. The opportunity is to build something that lasts - a design culture and operating model that makes every designer on the team better and every product decision sharper.

At Grindr, we operate in Grindr Mode. Moderately hardcore day to day, truly hardcore when it counts. It's about doing great work without burning out. Outcomes over outputs. Smart, driven people who raise your bar, with room to live full lives.

This is a hybrid role based in our San Francisco office and will require you to be in person Tuesdays and Thursdays.

About the Job:

• Lead and develop a team of product designers - setting a high craft bar, giving direct and actionable feedback, and creating the conditions for designers to do their best work

• Own the design quality and strategic direction for your product area, staying close enough to the work to make strong creative calls and credibly push back when the work isn't there yet

• Partner with product and engineering leadership to shape roadmap decisions upstream - not just reviewing designs after direction is set, but helping set direction

• Build the structures, rituals, and standards that make the design team more consistent, more efficient, and more impactful over time - without adding process for its own sake

• Hire and develop strong design talent, raising the overall density of the team and maintaining a high bar through growth

Role Requirements:

• 7+ years of product design experience, including at least 3 years managing and developing designers in a professional setting

• Experience working in both large, structured design organizations and smaller, resource-constrained environments - with the ability to bring the best of both to a lean team

• Strong design craft - a portfolio or body of work that demonstrates you have not drifted away from the work and can evaluate quality with credibility and specificity

• Track record of developing designers - not just managing workloads, but actively coaching individuals, delivering hard feedback, and helping people grow into larger scopes

• Demonstrated ability to operate as a cross-functional partner at the leadership level - influencing product direction, navigating competing priorities, and building trust with PM and engineering peers

• Experience hiring designers and maintaining a high talent bar through a recruiting process - not just backfilling seats but building a team deliberately

You May Thrive in this Role if You:

• Are AI-native or rapidly becoming so - you actively use AI tools in your workflow and are always looking for new ways to leverage them

• Have seen how design operates at scale and know which parts of that are worth importing - and which parts slow things down in a leaner environment

• Stay close to the craft even as your scope grows - you can give specific, credible feedback on a design decision without needing to redo it yourself

• Build trust quickly with engineers and PMs - not by accommodating every request, but by showing up with clear reasoning, strong opinions, and genuine curiosity about their constraints

Benefits and Perks:

• Health, Dental & Vision Full premium coverage for you. Partial coverage for dependents.

• Family Formation Up to $300,000 in fertility and family-building support, covering IVF, surrogacy, egg freezing, and adoption.

• Retirement: 401(k) with 6% match and immediate vesting.

• Compensation: Industry-competitive compensation, company bonus, and equity for every employee.