Senior Manager - Design Systems

Senior Manager - Design Systems

Spotify’s centralized Design System is essential for every user experience we create. Spanning our Consumer products, Business-to-Business (B2B) offerings, and Internal Tools, our system enables cohesive, accessible, and scalable design components across all touchpoints. As we enter a new era powered by AI, we’re looking for a visionary Senior Manager to lead our team and drive our design system to the next level.

As Senior Manager you will own the vision, strategy, and execution of Spotify’s centralized design system. You’ll lead a talented multidisciplinary team, bridging design, engineering, and AI to ensure our system empowers all product and design teams with best-in-class tools, patterns, and practices. You’ll play a key role in evolving our design system to unlock the full potential of AI, driving innovation, efficiency, and design coherence at scale. Your background could be in Design, Product or Engineering. 

What You'll Do

• Lead the Centralized Design System: Set the strategic direction, roadmap, and priorities for Spotify’s design system, ensuring it meets the needs of consumer products, B2B platforms, and internal tools.
• Drive AI Innovation: Champion the integration of AI-driven capabilities—such as generative design, automation, and intelligent components—to advance how teams use and contribute to the system.
• Team Management: Grow, mentor, and inspire a diverse team of designers, engineers, and design ops specialists, fostering a culture of collaboration and excellence.
• Cross-Company Collaboration: Build strong relationships with product, engineering, and business partners to ensure system adoption, alignment, and impact across all verticals.
• Governance and Quality: Oversee robust governance, documentation, and contribution models to maintain quality, accessibility, and scalability.
• Measure and Improve: Define targets and success metrics, gather feedback across R&D, and continually iterate to improve the system’s effectiveness and reach.
• Evangelize and Educate: Advocate for the value and impact of the design system, hosting internal workshops, presentations, and documentation to drive awareness and engagement.

Who You Are

• You have significant experience managing and scaling design systems, ideally in a centralized capacity for large-scale consumer and/or enterprise products.
• You have deep expertise in design principles, UX/UI standards, accessibility, and design operations.
• You have demonstrated experience integrating AI, automation, or machine learning into design systems or workflows.
• You possess strong leadership skills with experience building and mentoring high-performing, cross-functional teams.
• You have a proven ability to influence and collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders, from designers and engineers to product and business leads.
• You are proficient with modern design, prototyping, and documentation tools, and a familiarity with front-end frameworks.
• You are passionate about fostering an inclusive and innovative design culture.
• You have a solid understanding of Design Excellence

Where You'll Be

• This role is based in London (UK) or Stockholm (Sweden).
• We offer you the flexibility to work where you work best! There will be some in person meetings, but still allows for flexibility to work from home.

Spotify is an equal opportunity employer. You are welcome at Spotify for who you are, no matter where you come from, what you look like, or what’s playing in your headphones. Our platform is for everyone, and so is our workplace. The more voices we have represented and amplified in our business, the more we will all thrive, contribute, and be forward-thinking! So bring us your personal experience, your perspectives, and your background. It’s in our differences that we will find the power to keep revolutionizing the way the world listens.

At Spotify, we are passionate about inclusivity and making sure our entire recruitment process is accessible to everyone. We have ways to request reasonable accommodations during the interview process and help assist in what you need. If you need accommodations at any stage of the application or interview process, please let us know - we’re here to support you in any way we can.

Spotify transformed music listening forever when we launched in 2008. Our mission is to unlock the potential of human creativity by giving a million creative artists the opportunity to live off their art and billions of fans the chance to enjoy and be passionate about these creators. Everything we do is driven by our love for music and podcasting. Today, we are the world’s most popular audio streaming subscription service.