UI/UX Design Manager, AI-First

OverviewThe Opportunity: You\'ll own end-to-end web design for Puffy.com—a $1B+ e-commerce brand. Reporting directly to the CEO, you\'ll transform how the design team works by embedding AI into every workflow. The mandate: ship better designs, faster.What You\'ll OwnAI-First Design & DeliveryAI-Powered Creative Operations: Use tools like Figma AI and Adobe Firefly to rapidly explore page layouts, hero concepts, PDP modules, and image/copy variants — always with human QA and brand guardrails.Design for AI search & assistants: Create web experiences that work with conversational shopping (natural-language search, guided finders, Q&A on PDPs). Partner with engineering to implement semantic/LLM search UIs and chat patterns inspired by market leaders.Personalization & recommendations (design side): Own the UI patterns (placements, card density, explainer microcopy, “why this” affordances) for on-site recommendations. Collaborate on rules/guardrails; validate with staged rollouts.AI-driven experimentation (design practice): When surfaces are evergreen (banners, placements, recommendation modules), partner with Growth to use bandit allocation for faster wins; keep classic A/B for high-stakes causal changes.Drive Efficiency: Develop, implement, and enforce an AI-first workflow for the design team. Systematically target and eliminate workflow bottlenecks. Leverage AI to dramatically reduce excessive design versioning and accelerate the path from concept to deployment, with a goal of cutting handoff time by 40%.AI Content & Asset Operations: Build a prompt-library and review workflow for product copy, FAQs, size/fit guidance, policy explainers, and localized variants; ensure outputs are consistent with brand and legally sound. (Firefly/Express for imagery; LLMs for copy drafting.)Accessibility with AI assist: Bake WCAG 2.2 into the design system; use AI-assisted audits (contrast, alt-text suggestions, focus order checks) and pair with manual reviews before release.Core Web Design LeadershipProcess & Team Operations: Enhance the design team\'s workflow from a sequential to an agile, collaborative model. Implement and lead rituals like kickoff huddles to eliminate information silos and idle time. Manage team resources, mentor designers, and foster a culture of high-velocity, high-quality output.Site & LP ownership: Lead IA, wireframes, high-fidelity comps, prototypes, and motion specs for Home, Category/PLP, PDP, Cart/Checkout, editorial/education pages, and paid-media LPs.Design system: Maintain tokens/components responsive to AI-generated variants while preserving brand consistency and PageSpeed.Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO): Develop and execute a sophisticated roadmap of A/B tests and multivariate tests aimed at achieving and exceeding our add-to-cart conversion lift target.Handoff & quality: Use Dev Mode and structured specs; partner closely with engineering for crisp builds; monitor regressions post-launch.Stakeholder communication: Turn design decisions and experiment results into clear narratives for the CEO and cross-functional peers; run quarterly roadmap reviews.What You Bring7–10 years in web design for e-commerce, including 4+ years leading, mentoring, and managing the operations of a design team.A portfolio that shows shipped PDP/PLP/Checkout improvements tied to clear business metrics.Expert in Figma (components, variables, Dev Mode); strong visual/motion craft and responsive design sensibility.Proven experience implementing GenAI tools into a professional design pipeline, with a clear understanding of prompt engineering, quality control, and brand governance.Familiarity with AI-shaped UX patterns: conversational search, assistant UI, recommendation modules, and their measurement.Comfort collaborating on experiments (A/B vs multi-armed bandits) with Growth; understands trade-offs between optimization speed and causal certainty.Working knowledge of WCAG 2.2 and SEO fundamentals for structured content and schema on e-commerce sites.Who You\'ll Work WithYou\'ll lead the design function and collaborate daily with:CEO — Direct reporting line, weekly syncsGrowth Team — Partner on A/B tests and experimentsEngineering — Ship designs with Dev Mode handoffsDesign Team — Your direct reports to mentor and developOur team includes alumni from Apple, Deutsche Bank, Deloitte to name a few.Your Trajectory HereThis isn\'t a static role. Design leaders at Puffy can expand into:Head of Product DesignVP CreativeCross-functional leadership rolesWhat takes 4-5 years elsewhere happens in 1-2 here.Next StepsClick "Apply" to start your application today!#J-18808-Ljbffr