Senior Manager, NGSS Product Design

WHAT MAKES US A GREAT PLACE TO WORK

We are proud to be consistently recognized as one of the world’s best places to work. We are currently the top ranked consulting firm on Glassdoor’s Best Places to Work list and have earned the #1 overall spot a record seven times. Extraordinary teams are at the heart of our business strategy, but these don’t happen by chance. They require intentional focus on bringing together a broad set of backgrounds, cultures, experiences, perspectives, and skills in a supportive and inclusive work environment. We hire people with exceptional talent and create an environment in which every individual can thrive professionally and personally.

WHO YOU’LL WORK WITH

You’ll join our Technology Services Group team in GBS Warsaw. This team supports Bain’s global business through technology products and services that help our teams work more effectively and deliver impact for clients. You’ll collaborate with colleagues across functions, geographies, and seniority levels, partnering closely with product owners, engineering teams, senior stakeholders, vendors, Legal, Risk, Procurement, and other technology teams

WHERE YOU’LL FIT WITHIN THE TEAM

The Design Lead is a senior leader, whose mission is to drive better and faster results for Bain consultants and clients through AI-powered digital products embedded in Bain’s consulting solutions. In this role, the Design Lead shapes product and experience strategy across complex workstreams, translating customer, business, product/data, and evolving AI capabilities into cohesive experience direction and partnering with senior Product, Engineering, AI/ML, and business stakeholders to influence product vision, roadmap, prioritization, and investment decisions.
The Design Lead applies deep functional and technical design expertise to advise on complex strategic issues, guide designers responsible for execution, and determine where and how AI can create meaningful user and business value. The Design Lead plays a significant leadership role across the product, builds relationships across the organization, and may be responsible for the management, professional development, and coaching of other designers.

Principal Accountabilities

Product & Design Strategy (50%)
 • Shape product and experience strategy across complex workstreams, translating business objectives, customer needs, product/data strategy, and evolving AI capabilities into a cohesive long-term direction.
 • Partner with senior Product, Engineering, AI/ML, and business stakeholders to influence product vision, roadmap, prioritization, and investment decisions.
 • Determine where and how AI capabilities can create meaningful user and business value, establishing experience principles for human-agent interaction, transparency, trust, uncertainty, and appropriate human oversight.
 • Guide design across concurrent workstreams to ensure coherence, scalability, and measurable product impact.
 
Research, Discovery & Product Direction (20%)
 • Establish discovery and research strategy for complex or ambiguous product opportunities, ensuring evidence informs product strategy and investment decisions.
 • Synthesize user research, product data, business context, and technical/AI capabilities into clear strategic recommendations.
 • Facilitate senior stakeholder discussions and working sessions to align teams around opportunities, trade-offs, priorities, and product direction.
 
Cross-Functional Leadership & Product Impact (20%)
 • Serve as a trusted thought partner to senior Product, Engineering, AI/ML, and business leaders on complex product, experience, and AI-related decisions.
 • Orchestrate design across teams and workstreams, resolving dependencies and guiding designers responsible for detailed execution.
 • Influence scope and sequencing to focus teams on the highest-value outcomes while maintaining long-term product coherence.
 
Design Capability & Team Leadership (10%
 • Manage and develop designers where applicable, providing strategic direction, coaching, and oversight while enabling independent execution.
 • Establish and scale reusable standards, design system patterns, and human-agent interaction patterns that improve quality and delivery efficiency.
• Contribute leadership beyond the immediate product by sharing expertise, developing capability, and advancing effective AI-enabled product design practices.

ABOUT YOU

Knowledge, Skills, Abilities

• Recognized expertise in product design strategy, systems, and emerging technologies, with deep understanding of how AI is changing product experiences, development practices, and the role of Design.
 • Exceptional strategic and systems thinking; rapidly synthesizes complex business, technical, data, and AI context to identify opportunities, risks, and broader organizational implications.
 • Demonstrates strong organizational judgment across competing priorities, dependencies, capacity, and investment needs, balancing near-term outcomes with long-term product direction.
 • Proven leadership capability, including developing senior talent, setting a high bar for quality and judgment, and providing direction across complex teams and workstreams.
 • Anticipates shifts in AI and product development and translates them into scalable capabilities, standards, and ways of working that strengthen the broader team.

Experience

•Associate’s/Bachelor’s degree or an equivalent combination of education, training and experience.

•8-10 years of relevant experience in product design, technology, or a related field.

•Extensive product design leadership experience across highly complex products or interconnected workstreams, including teams delivering AI/ML-enabled features or products.
 • Significant experience shaping product and experience strategy, ideally including AI- or data-driven products.
 • Experience leading and developing designers; direct management experience preferred.
 • Experience with complex software and/or digital products in the B2B or B2C space, including AI-powered products.
 • Experience advancing modern AI-enabled design and product development approaches using tools such as Figma, Miro, Claude Design, Claude Code, Cursor, v0, and GitHub.
 • Experience defining and scaling human-agent interaction patterns, AI experience standards, or related organizational capabilities, a plus.

WORKING MODEL

This role is based in GBS Warsaw and follows a hybrid working model, with a minimum expectation of two days per week in the office. Working model details will be confirmed as part of the recruiting process.