Manager career levels

Manager
You lead a team with regular support from your manager. You're developing your people management skills. You help your team succeed by providing clear direction, assigning appropriate projects, and providing feedback consistently. You coach your directs on their career progression, and build and maintain effective cross-functional relationships.

Senior Manager
You oversee the vision and execution of multiple major projects or business areas. You guide your team and influence other teams or departments to help achieve your team's goals. You lead initiatives that span multiple teams.

Director
You lead a department OR a function within a large department, and drive major initiatives. You forge strong relationships with cross-functional partners to remove roadblocks for your team, and have a vision for the team 1 to 2 years in the future. You exemplify the values of Figma and hold others accountable to do the same.

Senior Director
You generally lead multiple teams and/or departments. You drive innovative and impactful initiatives across different areas of the business. You are skilled at navigating the overall organization to support your team/department's efforts. You have a long term vision for your teams, and are able to rally others around that vision. You find scalable ways to impact Figma's culture across the company.

VP
You lead an organization within the company, overseeing multiple layers of managers. You create, inspire, lead and drive the organization's functional strategy towards Figma's long term vision. You guide priorities on your team and others, and collaborate with fellow leaders on the larger vision.

(Sr) VP
You oversee the operations, strategy, and the vision of an entire functional area of a company.

The team
You're developing your leadership craft (e.g., leadership trainings, working with mentors, etc)
When you're unsure you quickly get help from your manager.
You guide and support your team in effective execution of multiple projects.

The team
At this level, your scope and focus expands—perhaps through different types of team members, managing managers, overseeing a larger budget, or wider impact of projects.
You are an emerging thought-leader who proactively brings ideas and strategies to your manager for their feedback.
You're accountable for the success of your broader team's work.

The department
You are leading and building a department, and are accountable for the department's impact.
You're a proactive cross-functional partner and accountable for the performance of your department's work.
You are leading a strategic part of the business and guide multiple teams that are leading multiple cross functional projects.

The department
You generally only have people managers as your direct reports.
You are supporting and taking accountability for the company's most important initiatives.
You own and lead a larger strategic area of the business.

The organization
You direct multiple levels of management.
You shape all activities of the organization, and how they tie to the larger company strategy.
You and your team are core contributors to defining and achieving our company-wide objectives with visible, sustainable, and meaningful impact.

The company
You are a key member of the senior leadership team, and are a visible role model throughout the whole company.Along with other execs, you set and evolve the strategic direction of your org and the whole company.You set the tone for talent management and development for the org and beyond. All Execs function as “Chief Talent Officers.”

Your team trusts you as a subject matter expert of your domain.

You make clear, informed decisions about the day-to-day work of your team with minimal support.

You guide your team to balance user, business, and quality goals.

Teams across the company consult with you as a subject matter expert in your domain.

You make decisions that affect the longer-term direction of your team(s), and incorporate input from your manager and stakeholders.

You influence adjacent teams through a strong user-centered perspective.

People outside of Figma are starting to seek you out for advice, mentorship, and/or functional expertise.

You strategically identify areas where work/investment is not paying off and direct your teams to pivot accordingly.

You shape product strategy through design insights and cross-team collaboration.

You work across the company to inspire Figmates to your vision, resolve ambiguity, and streamline execution for your organization.

You are developing in your thought leadership and can solve complex and ambiguous problems that impact the company's long-term success.

You actively influence other executives and represent the organization on matters of great significance.

You are broadly recognized as a thought leader both internally and externally.

You shape company-wide strategy grounded in customer and design excellence.

TBD

You work with leaders in your organization to define and communicate team goals and metrics.

As a maker, you partner with leaders and ICs across the team to get the work done.

You act as an owner of your team's work, and use data to ensure that goals are being hit.

You are able to show your's and your team's impact (directly or indirectly) as related to company-wide metrics & initiatives.

As a maker, you partner with leaders and ICs across the team to get the work done.

You lead design strategies that move company metrics and drive customer success.

You are a key driver counted on for core business metrics.

As a maker and coach, you drive results directly as well as through other leaders and ICs.

You identify opportunities where design creates competitive or business advantage.

You are a key driver for core business metrics.

As a maker and coach, you drive results directly as well as through other leaders and ICs.

You lead large design initiatives that significantly impact company results.

You assist with Sales motions (customer workshops, media briefings, etc.) to help Figma close deals.

You are accountable for key business outcomes. You define success metrics at scale and ensure the leaders on your team are aligned, and delivering.

As a maker, you partner with leaders and ICs across the team to get the work done.

You champion design, internally and externally, as a core lever for innovation and long-term business performance.

TBD

You build relationships and proactive communication channels with your reports and cross-functional partners.

With support, you navigate ambiguity and conflict within the team and between teams to drive bigger outcomes.

You foster open, inclusive design rituals that connect design, product, and engineering and encourage constructive critique.

You influence cross-functional groups as a trusted partner, and execute effectively against the team's plans and goals.

You proactively surface and confront conflict, addressing directly and coming to the best outcome holistically, not just for your team.

You lead design collaborations (vision sprints, crits, etc.) that align teams around shared outcomes.

You navigate complex cross-team dependencies and relationships.

You often manage/guide others who have more domain expertise than you.

You are able to hold contradicting views at once, remove personal bias and navigate outcomes to be in the best interest of Figma.

You create and leverage relationships with senior leaders throughout the org to drive collaboration cross-functionally.

You are able to objectively weigh pros and cons of significant conflict and navigate with diplomacy.

You champion collaboration models that position design as a strategic partner in company direction.

You influence internal and external partners globally to champion the company's strategy and mission.

You serve as "deputies" for the C-level executives.

You solve complex cross-functional conflicts or problems that impact the company, in partnership with executive leadership.

You model executive partnership and inclusive leadership that positions design as a driver of innovation.

TBD

You actively share your team's work with others

With support, you connect the work completed by your team to your broader team.

You are developing your ability to translate and present ideas and plans.

You use storytelling, visuals, and prototypes to clarify design intent, align partners, and drive decisions.

You proactively present to and interface with senior leaders across teams/departments representing the work of your team.

You actively adjust your communication style with different types of people and situations, communicating with empathy, directly and clearly.

With support, you gain buy-in for your ideas through concise, compelling asks and storytelling.

You coach designers to tailor messages to audience needs, connecting user insights to business goals.

You often advise on decisions outside of your core area and model clear, empathetic and direct communication for your team and department.

You give credit to the work of others, whenever appropriate, and speaking to the collective efforts of team.

You elevate the storytelling quality of design presentations, critiques, and leadership updates.

You guide senior designers and managers to express design impact in a way that inspires confidence and alignment.

You inspire your team with visionary communication, providing purpose and anchoring to the bigger picture.

You proactively share and coach others to share perspectives cross-functionally.

You are often presenting at org or company-wide meetings, and need little help in conveying ideas/perspectives

You represent design's vision and priorities in executive and company-wide forums, as well as external events.

You are a senior company spokesperson, both internally and externally.

You proactively communicate perspectives across the company, including those that may be unpopular opinion, and coach others to do the same.

You represent Figma's design vision publicly, shaping the industry's understanding of design leadership.

TBD

You are actively involved in your team's hiring processes, including creation of job descriptions and interview panels, partnering with recruiters and interviewers as needed.

You focus on hiring by reviewing resumes, encouraging referrals, posting on LinkedIn, and reaching out to your network.

You proactively build your talent pipeline, evaluating design portfolios to understand craft and potential.

You are accountable for your team's hiring goals.

You model effective hiring manager practices and disrupt biases you observe through the hiring and selection process.

With support, you create effective org designs, which consider the long term balance of your team and representation across your team on all variables (background, skillsets, etc).

You coach designers to participate effectively in hiring and improve how your team reviews portfolios and conducts design crit interviews.

You have a track record of hiring exceptional talent and help close strong candidates across functions.

You plan how your org will scale over the next year and coach managers on org design and inclusive hiring.

You identify gaps in design craft, systems thinking, or leadership, and shape hiring strategies to address them.

You leverage and scale your network to source top design talent for Figma's design team.

You build the optimal structure for your organization 2+ years out, and influence org design and/or hiring decisions with partner teams

You use data to hold your leadership team accountable to hiring exceptional candidates

You actively champion BEI within hiring searches across the org.

You play an active role in hiring key leadership roles across Figma.

You define the bar for design craft and leadership in hiring at scale, ensuring clear and consistent evaluation.

You are skilled at understanding the levels and skills that will be needed to grow your org 3+ years into the future.

You strategically give advice to leaders throughout the organization on how to build representative and efficient teams.

You hire senior leaders who build functions.

You set the vision for design hiring quality and help shape how design leadership is evaluated at Figma.

You elevate Figma's external presence to attract top design talent through thought leadership and strong interviewing culture.

TBD

You are infusing play in your team activities

You are prioritizing psychological safety and inclusive practices on your team to ensure that everyone feels recognized, appreciated, and comfortable speaking up.

You reinforce design values by encouraging curiosity, openness in crit, and appreciation for thoughtful craft.

You shape team rituals that encourage learning, connection, and alignment across design and XFN partners.

You have a strong pulse on and strategy around the engagement and retention of your teams.

You are regularly refining your org strategy, with support from your People Partner, through insights learned from culture and pulse surveys.

You coach your team on how to create inclusion and psychological safety on their teams. You give constructive, meaningful feedback to others when you see bias, disrupt your own bias, and invite others to hold you accountable.

You build inclusive practices and anti-bias throughout your org, and model continuous learning and openness to feedback.

You promote shared standards for craft and a culture of thoughtful iteration.

You champion a design culture that values quality, critique, and system-level thinking across the entire product area.

You set a cultural standard for your organization, and work with your leadership team to do the same.

You optimize team operating principles, engagement, effectiveness, and employee experience.

You scale inclusive practices and anti-bias throughout all levels of your org (e.g., You keep a close pulse on high potential talent within the organization in an effort to pursue appropriate sponsorship).

You influence XFN leaders to understand and support the cultural needs of a high-performing design org.

You and your team are cultural role models for the rest of the company.

You motivate and energize the team to rally around the department and company goals.

You are accountable for fostering a company-wide culture of inclusive practices.

You shape the culture of design at Figma, helping the company understand the impact of great design.

You amplify the design team's presence externally, positioning Figma as a great place to work at as a designer.

TBD

You are communicating job/role expectations with your direct reports

You are having quarterly development conversations with each of your direct reports to support their career journey, and are consistently seeking feedback about your directs from peers & stakeholders

You are mediating conflict as it arises within your direct team

You are proactively looping in your people & employee relations partners to support with any people issues within your team

You help designers build confidence by guiding them through decisions, feedback, and early ambiguity.

You hold your directs accountable for managing performance.

You navigate difficult conversations with others that both get the message across but also strengthen rapport.

You foster and support development plans to help your team (both directs & skips) reach their potential and career aspirations.

You offer mentorship and coaching to people who do not directly report to you, both formally and informally.

You support skill-building across design disciplines, helping individuals grow in craft, product thinking, and collaboration.

You foster a high-performance and feedback-forward culture across the department through appropriate platforms (e.g., skip-level 1:1s)

You hold your teams accountable for their performance and results.

You actively mentor strong leaders and high-performing peers.

You collaborate with other leaders to ensure individuals across the department are well-leveraged and continuously growing.

You help managers coach their teams through complex UX and product challenges with clarity and confidence.

You are coaching other managers on your team and across the company, advising them on management best practices.

You are a skilled and proactive partner at spotting "smoke before the fire" when it comes to potential people issues.

You enable your design leaders to operate effectively without you always being involved.

You push your team to engage in external design leadership opportunities (conferences, writing, etc.)

You are enabling coaching and performance growth for your org at scale.

You are often coaching high level leaders and presenting to others on growth and development.

You are exemplifying company-wide standards on coaching, learning and development.

You define the philosophy of design leadership at Figma and coach leaders on modeling our values in feedback, quality, and growth.

You represent design leadership standards internally and externally, shaping how Figma grows great design leaders.

TBD

You give clear, actionable craft feedback.

You step in as a maker when needed to demonstrate expectations or unblock work.

You ensure work is accurate, on brand, and aligned with guidelines.

You maintain a steady critique cadence for your team.

You set and uphold a consistent quality bar across multiple teams.

You coach designers to identify quality gaps and articulate rationale.

You are recognized cross-functionally as a strong evaluator of design quality.

You push the craft vision quality bar for your pillar.

You help evolve org-wide quality mechanisms including frameworks, principles, and design reviews.

You ensure your pillar's design output takes platform-level considerations into account, pushing for cross-pillar collaboration as necessary.

You set craft direction across multiple surface areas and time horizons.

You raise leadership-level craft taste by coaching managers, senior ICs, and XFN leaders on 'what great looks like'.

You connect craft decisions to long-term product and business strategy.

You define Figma-wide craft excellence standards.

You represent world-class design quality externally.

You ensure multi-product output is coherent across Figma's entire platform.

You create an environment where craft thrives across the organization.

TBD

You establish and run core team rituals such as crits, reviews, and async sharing.

You ensure strong PM and engineering collaboration and shared clarity on requirements.

You coach ICs on healthy process habits, documentation, and workflows.

You begin improving team-level systems and standards.

You anticipate dependencies and align cross-team decisions.

You guide teams on prototyping, research, and validation approaches.

You influence partners on how design should operate within the product development process.

You build multi-team systems that reduce ambiguity and execution friction.

You drive cross-pillar alignment on workflow and quality gates to achieve multi-product consistency.

You partner with DesignOps, Research, Data, Design Systems, and PM leadership to shape org-wide practices.

You shape long-term operational models for design at scale.

You lead major systems-level initiatives, such as complex cross-platform patterns.

You ensure design, research, writing, and systems teams operate cohesively.

You define the enterprise operating model for design.

You enable high-leverage design operations across staffing, frameworks, and cross-org systems.

You elevate design's role in company-wide planning and execution.

TBD

You help ICs clarify goals, constraints, and user needs, knowing when deeper research is needed.

You facilitate early problem-framing activities and hypothesis development.

You escalate upstream strategy issues when they impact team direction.

You own vision for a functional area or surface, driving new strategic explorations.

You coach teams to handle ambiguity and define impactful requirements.

You align partners on shared direction and evaluate competing paths.

You lead major vision initiatives that influence pillar-level roadmaps.

You anticipate future opportunities through research, customer signals, and industry insight.

You align multiple teams around a coherent strategic narrative.

You shape multi-year product strategy for broad surfaces or cross-product experiences.

You connect design strategy to market direction, and speak on behalf of Figma's product vision externally as appropriate (conferences, speaking engagements, etc.)

You lead high-ambiguity explorations and identify major strategic bets, helping to shape company-level narrative.

You define company-wide strategic design vision with executive peers.

You spot long-range industry shifts and position Figma ahead of them.

You ensure design strategy is integrated into planning and messaging across the organization.

TBD