Manager, Design Program Management
at Instacart
Remote
We're transforming the grocery industry
At Instacart, we invite the world to share love through food because we believe everyone should have access to the food they love and more time to enjoy it together. Where others see a simple need for grocery delivery, we see exciting complexity and endless opportunity to serve the varied needs of our community. We work to deliver an essential service that customers rely on to get their groceries and household goods, while also offering safe and flexible earnings opportunities to Instacart Personal Shoppers.
Instacart has become a lifeline for millions of people, and we’re building the team to help push our shopping cart forward. If you’re ready to do the best work of your life, come join our table.
Instacart is a Flex First team
There’s no one-size fits all approach to how we do our best work. Our employees have the flexibility to choose where they do their best work—whether it’s from home, an office, or your favorite coffee shop—while staying connected and building community through regular in-person events. Learn more about our flexible approach to where we work.
OVERVIEW
Instacart is on a mission to make eating well effortless for everyone and great design is a key ingredient. As the Manager of Design & Research Program Management, you’ll lead and grow the team that enables creativity at scale. You’ll set the strategy for how we execute our roadmap as a design organization, while directly managing a high-performing team of design program managers.
This role is both strategic and people-focused: you’ll shape how we plan and deliver design work across the company, while nurturing a team that brings clarity, consistency, and quality to everything we ship.
ABOUT THE ROLE
You’ll lead our design program management function driving operational excellence, building systems that scale craft, and supporting the health and impact of the design organization. You’ll also grow and mentor a team of program managers, helping them deepen their partnerships, sharpen their practices, and develop their careers.
Success means a thriving, resilient design team that operates with clarity, moves with speed, and consistently delivers high-quality experiences.
ABOUT THE TEAM
The Instacart Design & Research org is a tight-knit collective of product designers, researchers, program managers, and content experts working to reimagine how people feed themselves and their families. Our Design Program Management function is the glue that holds it all together, driving alignment, removing friction, and enabling the creative work that powers our products.
You’ll report into the Head of Design & Research and lead a hybrid team structure with embedded DPMs and standardized practices—enabling both consistency and domain depth.
ABOUT THE JOB
- Lead and grow the Design Program Management team through mentorship, support, and development opportunities.
- Define the vision and roadmap for how Design Program Management drives operational excellence, craft empowerment, and cross-functional collaboration, while representing the function in leadership forums and company-wide planning.
- Scale systems, rituals, and playbooks to improve how design work is planned, staffed, executed, and delivered, while ensuring high-impact initiatives achieve customer and business outcomes.
- Act as a strategic partner across teams—ensuring alignment, mitigating risks, and supporting design team health through capacity planning, roadmapping, tooling, and standardized documentation.
- Track success metrics to drive continuous improvement in team performance, stakeholder satisfaction, and design impact, aligning closely with the Head of Design & Research and Design Leadership to support long-term organizational strategy.
ABOUT YOU
Minimum Qualifications
- 8+ years of experience in program management, operations, or related fields, including 3+ years of managing and growing a team.
- Experience leading design program management or a similar function within a design or creative organization.
- Deep understanding of product development life cycles, agile methodologies, and design team workflows, with an ability to drive organizational change and influence cross-functional partners at all levels.
- Proven ability to hire, coach, and develop high-performing teams while fostering trust, growth, and impact, and creating a culture of trust, learning, and impact.
- Excellent communication, facilitation, and collaboration skills—you bring clarity to complexity and momentum to ambiguity.
Preferred Qualifications
- Experience leading in a hybrid or embedded team model (e.g., “hub-and-spoke”) while balancing hands-on execution with strategic oversight in fast-paced environments.
- Familiarity with design and research tooling ecosystems (e.g., Figma, Linear, Dovetail, Jira, Google Workspace, etc.).
- Proven ability to design and implement team-wide systems, templates, and operating cadences.
- Demonstrated success in influencing leadership decision-making through data, insights, and storytelling.
- Skilled in translating leadership needs into actionable roadmaps and operating models for teams.
Instacart provides highly market-competitive compensation and benefits in each location where our employees work. This role is remote and the base pay range for a successful candidate is dependent on their permanent work location. Please review our Flex First remote work policy here.
Offers may vary based on many factors, such as candidate experience and skills required for the role. Additionally, this role is eligible for a new hire equity grant as well as annual refresh grants. Please read more about our benefits offerings here.
For US based candidates, the base pay ranges for a successful candidate are listed below.