Principal Product Designer Lead

The posting, as Linktree wrote it

The Role
We are looking for a Principal Product Designer Lead to lead and grow a team of senior individual-contributor designers, shaping how creators discover, organize, and share content through Linktree. This is a player-coach role: you'll manage, coach, and develop a small team of senior designers while staying hands-on with design yourself, personally owning some of the hardest or most ambiguous problems.

You'll set design vision and craft standards for your area, partner closely with Product, Engineering, and Marketing, and be accountable for both the quality of your team's work and your own. As the team scales, this role is on a path to grow into a broader leadership remit over time. As a member of the Design leadership team, you'll help define how Linktree scales design as the company grows.

Why This Role Matters
A consumer product at this scale is made or broken by design. The hard part isn't adding another pair of hands; it's the leadership to raise the whole team's ceiling — coaching senior designers, holding the craft bar, and turning scattered effort into shipped, coherent product. This role exists to be that multiplier: a player-coach close enough to the work to model the standard, and generous enough to grow the people who carry it.

What You’ll Own

• Lead, manage, and develop a small team (3–5+) of senior IC designers through the work, creating a culture of craft, ownership, candid feedback, and high performance.
• Personally own and ship design work on the highest-leverage or most ambiguous problems.
• Set design vision and craft direction for your area, ensuring quality and consistency across your team's work.
• Partner with Product, Engineering, and Marketing leaders to align design with business priorities.
• Own hiring and team composition for your area, adapting as the business and the team scale.
• Establish and evolve craft standards, critique practices, and design operating rhythms for the team.
• Represent design in cross-functional forums, translating design work into business impact.
• Balance individual craft contribution with management, modelling the standard you expect of the team.

Who We’re Looking For

• 10+ years of design experience, including prior experience managing and growing individual contributors (managing managers is a plus, but not a requirement).
• A genuine player-coach — still hands-on and excellent at the craft, and energized by both doing the work and developing others.
• Proven track record of shipping high-quality design within a consumer product or creator / marketplace platform.
• Strong craft judgment and the ability to provide feedback that meaningfully elevates team work.
• Demonstrable proof of using AI as part of how you explore, prototype, communicate, and create.
• Demonstrated ability to hire, coach, develop, and retain strong individual-contributor designers, especially at the senior level.
• Experience partnering with Product, Engineering, and Marketing leaders

[…]
nd you can choose the setup that works best for you: fully remote or a hybrid mix of office and home.
We offer autonomy in how you structure your days and weeks. While we’re mindful of time zones and occasionally collaborate outside the typical 9–5, we lean into async work to keep things flowing. Our culture is family-friendly and Zoom-casual where kids, pets, and delivery drivers are welcome.

How we’ll help you thrive

Our approach to benefits considers the whole person and the unique contributions they bring to Linktree. We want the experience at Linktree to be one that enables people to truly thrive so we can Go Further Together (one of our values). Some ways we support you:

• An annual wellbeing allowance to use on things like (but not limited to) fitness memberships, development courses, childcare, travel, charitable donations, pet insurance, home office set-up - the choice is yours!
• 100% coverage (and 80% for your dependents) of your monthly premiums for medical, dental, vision, disability and life insurance for US-based employees.
• Employer contribution towards your retirement.
• Generous time off for vacation, holidays, parental leave, volunteer time, and other categories.
• Employee stock option program - we want each and every employee to share in the company’s success.

At Linktree, we believe in promoting a culture that celebrates unique backgrounds, talents, and experiences, and we’re proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We are creating an inclusive workplace where every individual feels valued, respected, and has equal opportunities to thrive. We aim to foster a diverse and inclusive environment where all team members have a sense of belonging. Linktree welcomes all people regardless of sex, gender identity, race, ethnicity, disability, pregnancy, age, or other lived experience. If you require accommodations to fully participate in our opportunities, please don't hesitate to reach us at talent@linktr.ee – your needs are important to us.