Principal Design Program Manager

About the team

Zillow’s mission is to “give people the power to unlock life’s next chapter.” The Zillow Experience Design (ZxD) team envisions and crafts the experiences that turn this mission into a reality for millions of people. We are a multidisciplinary team — researchers, designers, content designers, design technologists and operators — collaborating with partners across product, engineering, data science, and marketing to build products and experiences that transform the real estate industry and make “getting home” easier.

About the role

As a Design Program Manager, you’ll play a pivotal role in shaping how product development comes to life at Zillow. You’ll drive clarity, alignment, and impact across teams, ensuring design excellence scales throughout the organization.

You Will Get To: 

• Drive program strategy and execution for large-scale, cross-functional product and design initiatives, ensuring alignment with business and user experience goals.

• Champion design and product excellence by elevating user experience, preventing duplicative systems, and fostering cross-team innovation.

• Facilitate collaboration and communication across Design, Product, Engineering, and Marketing to align on strategy, timelines, and outcomes.

• Optimize processes and tools by designing scalable workflows and introducing AI-driven efficiencies to enhance operational effectiveness.

• Ensure quality and alignment by driving reviews, critiques, and governance to uphold Zillow’s product vision and brand standards.

• Partner with design leadership on resource and capacity planning, including staffing, prioritization, and headcount decisions.

• Proactively identify risks, develop mitigation strategies, and remove roadblocks to keep teams moving forward.

• Foster a culture of high performance and collaboration by leading through influence, enabling design teams to do their best work.

This role has been categorized as a Remote position. “Remote” employees do not have a permanent corporate office workplace and, instead, work from a physical location of their choice, which must be identified to the Company. U.S. employees may live in any of the 50 United States, with limited exceptions.

In California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state, and Washington DC the standard base pay range for this role is $173,300.00 - $276,800.00 Annually. This base pay range is specific to California, Colorado, Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington state, and Washington DC and may not be applicable to other locations.

In addition to a competitive base salary this position is also eligible for equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance and location. Actual amounts will vary depending on experience, performance and location.

Who you are

• 8+ years of product/software program management experience, with a track record of delivering large, integrated B2C or B2B2C product design programs.

• Experience applying AI tools and to drive efficiency in design, research, or product in the development process.

• Strong proficiency in the product development lifecycle, with the ability to bridge agile and waterfall methodologies and anticipate evolving product design needs, continuously adapting methods to innovate and scale.

• Highly organized with excellent problem-solving, prioritization, and analytical skills.

• Exceptional written, verbal and facilitation skills; able to align diverse stakeholders around a shared vision while guiding teams through ambiguity. 

• Proficiency in program management tools (e.g., JIRA, Confluence) with a willingness to adopt emerging technologies

• Strong relationship-building skills with the ability to influence without authority across design, product, and engineering teams.

Get to know us

Zillow is reimagining real estate to make home a reality for more and more people.

As the most-visited real estate website in the United States, Zillow® and its affiliates help movers find and win their home through digital solutions, first class partners, and easier buying, selling, financing and renting experiences. Millions of people visit Zillow Group sites every month to start their h