Manager, Product Design

Who We Are

Ontic provides software that helps corporate and government security teams identify threats, assess risk, and respond faster to keep people and organizations safe. Its AI-powered Connected Intelligence Platform unifies security operations and data into a centralized system of record, enabling organizations to conduct risk assessments, protect against workplace violence, and manage threats and incidents more efficiently. Fortune 500 companies and federal agencies rely on Ontic to support security programs such as executive protection, threat intelligence, and corporate investigations. Learn more at ontic.ai or follow us on LinkedIn.

As Design Manager, you'll lead a team of 5–6 product designers, owning both the day-to-day coordination of design work and the people management of your team. You'll be the connective tissue between planning, execution, and individual support; and you'll be the person your designers rely on for feedback, growth, and career development.

What You'll Do

• Work allocation: Assign design work based on priorities, skills, and availability.
• Day-to-day operations: Keep projects moving and be the person designers go to when they're blocked.
• Engineering partnership: Be the main design counterpart for Engineering and Product leads on planning and delivery.
• Team health: Track how each designer is doing: who's thriving, who needs support and build plans to help each grow.
• Escalation point: Resolve blockers and cross-team friction.
• Design operations support: Keep shared tools and processes current and followed. Help shape the evolving role of Design at Ontic, including the working agreements between Engineering, Product, and Design.
• Process Improvement: Identify and improve processes that slow progress or contribute to team frustration.
• Evolve our use of AI: Set high standards for how our team uses AI for design work; keep pushing that standard forward as the tools change.
• Hands-on design work: While it's not a core expectation of this role, you may pick up design work occasionally as team capacity requires.

People Management

• Career growth: Build and maintain individual growth plans for each designer, tied to clear expectations for their level.
• Performance reviews: Own the performance review cycle, including calibration, ratings, and written feedback.Ensure you are providing feedback regularly, not just during review cycles.
• 1:1s and coaching: Meet regularly with each designer to coach through blockers, skill gaps, and career questions.
• Hiring: Lead sourcing, interviewing, and hiring decisions for open roles on the team when needed.
• Team structure and capacity: Plan team capacity against roadmap needs and flag gaps to leadership.

What You'll Bring

• 5+ years of product design experience, including 2+ years leading design teams.
• Design experience in enterprise SaaS; you understand the complexity, stakeholders, and constraints of B2B software.
• Strong technical craft across interaction design and user experience.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience managing people directly, including running 1:1s, writing performance reviews, building growth plans and having tough conversations when needed.

Nice to Have

• Experience improving design team processes or workflows, especially using AI tools.
• Experience implementing and scaling an established design system.
• Experience working in heavily regulated, data-heavy problem spaces.
• A strong portfolio of UX Design work.