Senior Design Manager (Infrastructure)

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior Design Manager (Infrastructure) Company: Canonical - Jobs Location: Home based - Europe, Rome, Italy Job Type: Full-time Category: Design Management / UX Design / Technical Infrastructure Date Posted: September 18, 2025 Experience Level: Mid-Senior Level (implied 5-10 years) Remote Status: Fully Remote (EMEA Region)

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead a team of designers focused on Canonical's core infrastructure products, including cloud experiences and software distribution mechanisms.
• Drive the quality and evolution of UX design for technical products, ensuring they meet the needs of developers, cloud engineers, and the open-source community.
• Foster professional growth and development for individual designers through effective coaching and mentorship.
• Collaborate closely with product and engineering stakeholders to define, validate, and deliver on product roadmaps, ensuring timely and high-quality project execution.

📝 Enhancement Note: The role is explicitly for a "Senior Design Manager (Infrastructure)" at Canonical, a company known for its open-source contributions, particularly Ubuntu. This suggests a focus on the design of technical products that underpin cloud services, software delivery pipelines, and potentially security aspects of software packaging. The "Infrastructure" designation implies a need for deep technical understanding beyond typical consumer-facing UX, requiring designers to grasp complex systems and developer workflows. The target candidate should bridge strong UX leadership with technical savviness.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Oversee and review the UX design work of the Infrastructure Design team, ensuring alignment with company standards, user needs, and strategic objectives.
• Provide direct management and professional development support to designers, focusing on skill enhancement, career progression, and individual growth plans.
• Continuously improve operational workflows within the design team, including processes for production outsourcing, cross-functional collaboration with Web Engineering, and design system implementation.
• Actively engage with product managers, engineering leads, and other technical stakeholders to clearly define project scope, validate design outcomes, and ensure effective delivery against roadmaps.
• Develop and refine design systems, style guides, and best practices to drive consistency, efficiency, and scalability across infrastructure design initiatives.
• Collaborate with other design leadership to mature the collective design practice at Canonical, sharing insights and promoting best practices.
• Facilitate knowledge sharing and cultural strengthening within the design team and across the broader organization through presentations, workshops, and team events.
• Engage with the open-source community to gather feedback, understand user needs, and communicate the value and impact of Canonical's infrastructure designs.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a blend of people management, process improvement, strategic collaboration, and technical design oversight. The emphasis on "operational workflows," "design systems," and "stakeholder engagement with Engineering" points to a need for a manager who can translate complex technical requirements into actionable design strategies and ensure efficient execution within a distributed, remote-first environment.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Behavioral Science, Computer Science, or a related technical or design discipline. Exceptional educational achievements are emphasized.

Experience:

• Proven experience in managing and leading UX design teams, preferably within a technical or software development context.
• Demonstrated full lifecycle experience in UX design, from user needs discovery and research through to validation and guiding implementation.
• Experience working with and managing teams that interact closely with technical stakeholders, particularly engineering organizations.
• Commitment to transparent project delivery and a strong track record of owning and meeting team deadlines.
• Familiarity with quantitative optimization approaches and data-driven decision-making in design.

Required Skills:

• UX Design Leadership: Proven ability to guide and review high-quality UX design work for complex technical products.
• Team Management & Coaching: Experience in managing designers, supporting their professional growth, and fostering a collaborative team environment.
• Technical Savviness: Deep understanding or demonstrable ability to quickly grasp technical domains, including cloud infrastructure, software distribution, and packaging.
• Stakeholder Management: Excellent communication and interpersonal skills to effectively collaborate with product, engineering, and community stakeholders.
• Process Optimization: Ability to improve operational workflows, implement design systems, and drive efficiency within the design process.
• Portfolio Demonstration: A strong portfolio showcasing outstanding UX design quality and technical acumen.
• Project Delivery Ownership: Commitment to transparent project delivery and meeting team deadlines.
• Quantitative Optimization: Familiarity with using data and quantitative methods to inform and optimize design decisions.

Preferred Skills:

• Experience in open-source development environments or with open-source communities.
• Knowledge of cloud computing platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) and related infrastructure concepts.
• Expertise in evolving and maintaining complex design systems for technical products.
• Experience with A/B testing and other validation methodologies for technical UIs.
• Understanding of software packaging and distribution mechanisms.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Exceptional educational achievements" and "savviness in technology" requirements suggest that candidates from top design programs or those with a strong technical background (e.g., computer science with a design focus) will be highly regarded. The emphasis on "quantitative optimisation" points towards a need for data-informed design leadership rather than purely aesthetic or intuitive approaches.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• A comprehensive portfolio showcasing a range of UX design projects, with a particular emphasis on complex technical systems, developer tools, or infrastructure-related products.
• Demonstrate the full design lifecycle from initial user research and problem definition through to detailed design, prototyping, and post-launch analysis.
• Include case studies that clearly articulate the problem, the design process, the solutions implemented, and the measurable impact or outcomes achieved.
• Highlight experience in evolving or contributing to design systems, emphasizing consistency, scalability, and efficiency gains.
• Showcase examples of how quantitative data or optimization techniques were used to inform design decisions and improve user experience or product performance.
• Provide evidence of managing design projects, including scope, timelines, and stakeholder communication.

Process Documentation:

• Examples of how you have documented and optimized design workflows, including collaboration with engineering and the use of production outsourcing.
• Case studies demonstrating the implementation and impact of design systems and guidelines on team efficiency and product quality.
• Evidence of processes for gathering user feedback from technical audiences and the open-source community.
• Show how you have measured the success of design initiatives and used data to drive continuous improvement.

📝 Enhancement Note: For a Senior Design Manager role, the portfolio should not only showcase individual design craft but also leadership capabilities. This includes demonstrating how the candidate has managed teams, improved processes, influenced product strategy, and driven measurable business outcomes through design. The "quantitative optimisation" requirement means portfolio pieces should ideally include metrics and data validation.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• Given the "Senior" title, "Home based - Europe, Rome" location, and the technical domain, a competitive salary range for a Senior Design Manager in Western Europe (Italy specifically) would typically fall between €80,000 - €130,000 annually. This estimate is based on industry benchmarks from sources like Glassdoor, LinkedIn Salary, and industry salary surveys for similar roles in major European tech hubs, adjusted for Rome's cost of living and Canonical's global compensation philosophy. Actual compensation will depend on the candidate's specific experience, skills, and location within the EMEA region.

Benefits:

• Fully remote working environment – a core tenet of Canonical's operational model.
• Personal learning and development budget of $2,000 USD per annum, supporting continuous skill enhancement.
• Annual compensation review to ensure competitive and equitable pay.
• Recognition rewards for outstanding contributions.
• Generous annual holiday leave.
• Comprehensive parental leave policies.
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for personal and professional support.
• Opportunity to travel to new locations for internal company events and team sprints (up to 4 times annually).
• Priority Pass for travel, potentially including travel upgrades for long-haul company events.

Working Hours:

• While specific hours are not detailed, Canonical operates as a remote-first company, implying flexibility. Standard full-time hours (approximately 40 hours per week) are expected, with an emphasis on output and results rather than strict time tracking, especially within the EMEA timezone context.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range is an estimate based on typical compensation for senior design leadership roles in major European tech markets, adjusted for Italy. Canonical's stated compensation philosophy aims for equity across its global workforce, suggesting a structured approach to pay. The benefits package is robust, particularly highlighting the remote work infrastructure and personal development support.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Open Source Software, Cloud Computing, Operating Systems, Enterprise Technology. Canonical is a key player in the open-source ecosystem, driving innovation with Ubuntu across cloud, IoT, and AI. Company Size: 1,200+ colleagues globally. This indicates a mature, established organization with a significant global footprint, yet small enough to maintain a close-knit, collaborative feel. Founded: 2004. Canonical has a long history as a pioneer in remote-first work and open-source development, establishing a stable and experienced organizational culture.

Team Structure:

• The Infrastructure Design team likely consists of UX designers, UI designers, and potentially UX researchers specializing in technical products.
• This role reports into senior design leadership within Canonical, with a dotted line or strong collaborative relationship with engineering and product management leads for infrastructure products.
• Cross-functional collaboration is key, involving close partnerships with Engineering, Product Management, Developer Relations, and potentially Marketing teams.

Methodology:

• Canonical emphasizes a data-driven approach to product development and operational improvement.
• Workflow planning and optimization are continuous processes, especially critical in a remote, distributed setting.
• Automation and efficiency are core tenets, reflecting the nature of software development and infrastructure management.
• A strong focus on community engagement and open-source principles likely influences design and development processes.

Company Website: https://canonical.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: Canonical's long-standing remote-first model and focus on open source suggest a culture that values autonomy, trust, proactive communication, and a commitment to technical excellence. The "Infrastructure" focus implies a culture that appreciates deep technical understanding and problem-solving for complex systems.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This role is positioned at a senior management level within the design function. It requires not only design expertise but also a proven ability to lead, mentor, and strategize for a specialized team. The scope involves managing critical infrastructure products that are foundational to Canonical's offerings. Reporting Structure: The Senior Design Manager will likely report to a Director or VP of Design, with significant collaboration and influence over product and engineering leadership within the Infrastructure domain. The team consists of individual contributors in design roles. Operations Impact: The design of Canonical's infrastructure products directly impacts the usability, efficiency, and adoption of Ubuntu in cloud environments, for developers, and enterprise clients. Effective design leadership here is crucial for maintaining Canonical's competitive edge, fostering developer loyalty, and driving revenue through product adoption.

Growth Opportunities:

• Strategic Leadership: Potential to move into broader design leadership roles, overseeing larger teams or multiple product areas, contributing more significantly to company-wide design strategy.
• Domain Specialization: Deepen expertise in cloud infrastructure design, security design for software distribution, or other highly technical UX domains.
• Cross-Functional Influence: Expand influence beyond design into product strategy, engineering process improvement, or even community advocacy within the open-source space.
• Mentorship & Training: Develop leadership skills further by mentoring junior managers or leading internal training initiatives for design best practices.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Senior" title and focus on infrastructure indicate a role with significant strategic input. Growth opportunities are likely tied to expanding leadership scope, deepening technical domain expertise, or influencing broader company initiatives. Canonical's remote-first nature may offer unique opportunities for global collaboration and leadership development.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Canonical is a "remote-first" company, meaning there are very few traditional office-based roles. The primary "work environment" is a distributed, home-based setup. Office Location(s): While the role is based remotely in the EMEA region (specifically Rome noted), Canonical has colleagues in over 75 countries. The company organizes in-person team meetings ("sprints") two to four times per year in various international locations.

Workspace Context:

• The work environment is highly collaborative digitally, relying on communication tools like Slack, video conferencing, and project management platforms.
• Designers have access to a range of digital tools and technologies necessary for their work, supported by the company's IT and infrastructure.
• Opportunities for team interaction occur through scheduled remote meetings, virtual co-working sessions, and the planned in-person sprints.

Work Schedule: As a remote-first company, Canonical generally offers flexibility in working hours, allowing employees to structure their day around core collaboration times. The focus is on meeting deadlines and achieving objectives, aligning with the approximately 40-hour work week expectation.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "Home based - Europe, Rome" designation implies the candidate should be located within or have strong ties to the European time zones for effective collaboration with other EMEA-based colleagues and potentially North American teams. The emphasis on remote work means strong self-discipline, communication skills, and comfort with digital collaboration tools are paramount.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A review of your resume and portfolio by a recruiter to assess basic qualifications and alignment with the role's core requirements. Be prepared to articulate your relevant experience and leadership style.
• Hiring Manager Interview: A deeper dive into your experience, management philosophy, and technical understanding. This may include behavioral questions about team leadership, conflict resolution, and stakeholder management. Focus on demonstrating your ability to coach and grow a design team.
• Portfolio Presentation & Case Study: A dedicated session where you present a selection of your work, focusing on projects that showcase your leadership, technical design skills, and process optimization capabilities for infrastructure or complex systems. Be prepared to discuss challenges, decisions, and outcomes with specific metrics.
• Stakeholder Interviews: Meetings with key product and engineering leaders you would collaborate with. These interviews will assess your ability to understand technical challenges, communicate effectively, and build strong working relationships.
• Team Meet & Greet (Optional/Final): A chance to informally meet potential team members to assess cultural fit and team dynamics.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate Strategically: Select 3-4 projects that best represent your leadership, technical design acumen, and process improvement successes. Prioritize projects related to infrastructure, cloud, or complex software systems if possible.
• Structure Your Narrative: For each project, clearly outline the problem statement, your role and team's contribution, the design process followed (emphasizing user research, technical considerations, and optimization), the solutions, and most importantly, the measurable outcomes and impact.
• Emphasize Leadership: For a management role, showcase how you guided your team, resolved design challenges, managed stakeholders, and drove efficiency. Use "we" when discussing team accomplishments and "I" when detailing your specific management actions.
• Show, Don't Just Tell: Use visuals (wireframes, mockups, prototypes) but also present data, user feedback, and metrics that demonstrate the impact of your team's work. Highlight any quantitative optimization efforts.
• Technical Depth: Be ready to discuss the technical constraints and considerations that influenced your design decisions. Show you understand the domain.

Challenge Preparation:

• Be prepared for a potential design exercise or case study, possibly involving a hypothetical infrastructure design problem or a process improvement scenario.
• Practice articulating your thought process clearly and concisely. Focus on how you would approach the problem, identify user needs, consider technical constraints, and iterate towards a solution.
• Prepare to discuss how you would manage the project, collaborate with engineering, and measure success.

📝 Enhancement Note: Given the technical nature of the role and Canonical's focus on open source, expect questions that probe your understanding of developer experience, system design, and community engagement. The portfolio review is critical; it needs to demonstrate not just design skill but leadership and strategic thinking applied to complex technical domains.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator), InVision, Axure RP (or similar advanced prototyping tools).
• Collaboration & Communication: Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, Google Workspace (Docs, Sheets, Slides).
• Project Management: Jira, Confluence, Asana, Trello (or similar tools for tracking workflows and roadmaps).

Analytics & Reporting:

• Familiarity with analytics platforms for user behavior tracking (e.g., Google Analytics, Mixpanel, Amplitude) to understand how users interact with infrastructure products.
• Experience with data visualization tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, Looker) or dashboarding within Jira/Confluence for reporting on design project status and impact.

CRM & Automation:

• While not a direct CRM role, understanding how design impacts user journeys within platforms that might involve CRM-like functionalities or customer portals is beneficial.
• Familiarity with workflow automation concepts and tools, potentially within design pipelines or integration with development workflows.

📝 Enhancement Note: Proficiency in industry-standard UX design and prototyping tools is a given. The emphasis on "quantitative optimisation" suggests familiarity with tools that can track user behavior and performance metrics is highly valued. Experience with Jira and Confluence is common in software development environments for tracking tasks and documentation.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Excellence: Canonical expects its employees to be the best at what they do. This translates to a high standard for design quality, technical understanding, and professional conduct.
• Collaboration: A strong emphasis on working together, especially across distributed teams and disciplines (design, engineering, product). Open communication and mutual support are key.
• Autonomy & Ownership: Given the remote-first model, employees are expected to be self-motivated, take ownership of their work, and manage their time effectively.
• Innovation: A culture that encourages new ideas and approaches, particularly in the fast-evolving fields of open source, cloud, and AI.
• Community Focus: For a company like Canonical, engaging with and serving the open-source community is a core value that influences product decisions and design.

Collaboration Style:

• Remote-First: Primarily digital collaboration, requiring proactive and clear communication.
• Cross-Disciplinary: Close working relationships with engineering and product management, involving regular feedback loops and joint problem-solving.
• Transparent: Open sharing of work, progress, and challenges through tools like Slack, Confluence, and regular team meetings.
• Iterative: A culture that embraces feedback and continuous improvement, with designs being refined based on input from stakeholders and the community.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company culture at Canonical is heavily shaped by its open-source roots and long-standing remote-first operational model. Candidates should be prepared for a highly collaborative, yet autonomous, work environment that values technical depth, continuous learning, and a commitment to delivering high-quality, impactful software.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Technical Complexity: Designing for infrastructure and developer tools requires a deep understanding of complex technical concepts, which can be challenging to master and translate into intuitive user experiences.
• Distributed Team Dynamics: Effectively managing and motivating a remote design team requires strong communication, empathy, and strategic use of collaboration tools.
• Balancing Consistency and Innovation: Maintaining a cohesive design system across diverse infrastructure products while encouraging innovative solutions requires careful strategic planning and execution.
• Open Source Community Engagement: Effectively gathering feedback and incorporating it from a diverse and often technically demanding open-source community requires nuanced communication and engagement strategies.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Deepen Technical Domain Expertise: Opportunities to gain profound knowledge in cloud computing, software distribution, security, and related infrastructure technologies.
• Advanced Design Leadership: Develop skills in strategic design planning, cross-functional leadership, and managing complex product portfolios.
• Industry Exposure: Participate in industry conferences and engage with the broader open-source and cloud-native communities.
• Mentorship Pathways: Benefit from mentorship opportunities with senior leaders within Canonical and potentially external experts.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges are inherent to leading design in a highly technical, remote-first, open-source environment. Growth opportunities are substantial for individuals looking to combine design leadership with deep technical expertise and influence in the critical area of cloud infrastructure.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "How would you approach building a design system for a complex infrastructure product suite, considering both consistency and the needs of diverse technical users?" (Focus on process, stakeholder alignment, and metrics)
• "Describe a time you had to manage conflicting priorities between product, engineering, and design goals. How did you resolve it?" (Behavioral question on stakeholder management and negotiation)
• "How do you foster growth and development within a remote design team, especially when dealing with highly technical subject matter?" (Focus on coaching, mentorship, and remote team management strategies)
• "What is your process for ensuring the usability and effectiveness of designs targeted at developers and cloud engineers?" (Focus on user research, validation, and technical empathy)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What attracts you to Canonical and our mission in the open-source space?" (Demonstrate research and genuine interest)
• "How do you see your leadership style fitting into a remote-first, globally distributed company culture?" (Highlight adaptability, communication, and autonomy)
• "How do you measure the success and impact of design initiatives within a technical product organization?" (Focus on KPIs, metrics, and ROI)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Focus on Impact: For each project presented, quantify the results (e.g., improved task completion rates, reduced support tickets, increased adoption, efficiency gains).
• Showcase Leadership in Action: Highlight how you guided your team, managed stakeholders, and navigated technical challenges. Use specific examples of your management interventions.
• Technical Acumen: Be prepared to discuss the technical constraints and implications of your design decisions. Demonstrate you understand the underlying technology.
• Process Rigor: Clearly articulate your design process, emphasizing user research, iterative design, and validation, particularly for technical audiences.
• Conciseness: Respect the time allocated. Be thorough but avoid unnecessary details.

📝 Enhancement Note: Interview preparation should center on demonstrating leadership, technical understanding, and a strategic approach to design within a remote, open-source context. Quantifiable results and a clear understanding of developer/infrastructure user needs will be key.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior Design Manager position:

• Submit your application through Canonical's Greenhouse portal.
• Curate a targeted resume that highlights your experience in design management, UX leadership, technical product design, and process optimization. Use keywords from the job description such as "UX Design," "Team Management," "Infrastructure," "Cloud," "Stakeholder Management," and "Quantitative Optimization."
• Prepare a compelling portfolio that showcases 3-4 key projects demonstrating your leadership, technical design expertise, and ability to drive measurable outcomes. Ensure it includes case studies with clear problem statements, methodologies, solutions, and quantifiable results.
• Familiarize yourself with Canonical's products (Ubuntu, cloud offerings, etc.) and its open-source contributions. Understand their mission and values to articulate your alignment during interviews.
• Practice articulating your leadership philosophy and design process using the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) for behavioral questions. Be ready to present your portfolio with confidence and answer detailed questions about your work and management approach.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

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