Advertising is being remade. The brands that win the next decade will be the ones that figure out how to deliver creative that is personal, performant, and produced at a scale no human team can match alone. Generative AI is the unlock. But generation alone is not the advantage. The advantage belongs to the system that connects creation to delivery to learning, and gets better with every impression.
Amazon Ads is building that system. We are investing in the models, the infrastructure, and the product intelligence to make personalized, brand-aligned creative a default capability for every advertiser, not a luxury reserved for the largest budgets. The work is early, the stakes are high, and the opportunity to define how this category develops is real.
We are building that system. And we need a Design Tech Manager to build and lead the team that makes it real.

Key job responsibilities
As Design Tech Manager for POD's Design Technology team, you will build and lead a frontline team of Design Technologists and AI prototypers — the block-shaped generalists who span design, engineering, and data. Your team sits at the intersection of design vision and production reality. You don't just prototype concepts; you ship functional experiments with real model behavior, graduate winners into engineering roadmaps, and set the technical bar for how design and AI interact across the creative stack.
This is a player-coach role. You will manage, develop, and grow a team of 4–8 DTs while remaining a credible technical and design voice in cross-functional conversations with engineering, science, and product leadership. You will own the team's execution, define its standards, and drive the process improvements that let POD ship at the velocity the best AI organizations demand.

A day in the life

• Team Leadership & People Development
• Hire, develop, and retain a high-performing team of Design Technologists and AI prototypers; own their growth, performance, and career trajectories
• Set clear expectations, provide direct and actionable feedback, and conduct rigorous performance assessments in partnership with other design technology leaders
• Build a team culture grounded in craft, speed, and learning, where shipping a working prototype beats presenting a polished deck
• Actively recruit and grow design technology talent across the organization; mentor individual contributors at multiple levels
• Technical & Design Leadership
• Lead the team in building large-scale, production-quality prototypes for POD's highest-priority AI and creative initiatives
• Establish and enforce technical standards across prototype and reference code, including security, maintainability, scalability, and extensibility
• Drive adoption of shared prototyping tools, frameworks, and platforms across the design org; create infrastructure that multiplies team output
• Serve as a trusted technical voice for engineering partners; earn credibility through demonstrated quality and architectural thinking
• Execution & Delivery
• Own the team's delivery against POD's roadmap; break complex, ambiguous problems into parallel workstreams and drive execution with limited guidance
• Operate at the intersection of design and engineering, embedding directly with product and science teams to pair on implementation and polish in production
• Compress the cycle from design concept to live production test; move fast on standardized formats and faster on novel ones
• Identify and resolve root causes of endemic workflow problems; build tools and services that increase team throughput
• Cross-Functional Influence
• Influence UX strategy and technical direction across POD and its partner organizations
• Build consensus across discordant views; represent the design technology perspective in planning, roadmap, and architecture conversations
• Partner with creative, product, and science leadership to ensure prototype work is grounded in real advertiser and shopper problems, and that winning experiments have a clear path to scale

Basic Qualifications

• • 7+ years of experience as a Design Technologist, Creative Technologist, or equivalent role building production-quality prototypes at the intersection of design and engineering
• • 3+ years of people management experience, including hiring, performance management, and team development
• • Proficiency across web, mobile, and emerging AI/generative interfaces; ability to build functional prototypes using real model APIs and production data
• • Strong understanding of software design patterns, component architecture, and the ability to extend and debug third-party libraries and frameworks
• • Demonstrated ability to work on large, ambiguous problems with limited guidance and deliver results

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience designing and prototyping with tools such as Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud, or similar
• • Familiarity with generative AI systems — image generation, video generation, LLM-powered interfaces, or agentic workflows
• • Experience driving process improvements and building shared tooling that scales team output
• • Track record of influencing technical and design decisions across multiple teams
• • Familiarity with accessibility standards, design systems, and UX research integration

Amazon is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of protected veteran status, disability, or other legally protected status.

Our inclusive culture empowers Amazonians to deliver the best results for our customers. If you have a disability and need a workplace accommodation or adjustment during the application and hiring process, including support for the interview or onboarding process, please visit https://amazon.jobs/content/en/how-we-hire/accommodations for more information. If the country/region you’re applying in isn’t listed, please contact your Recruiting Partner.

The base salary range for this position is listed below. Your Amazon package will include sign-on payments and restricted stock units (RSUs). Final compensation will be determined based on factors including experience, qualifications, and location. Amazon also offers comprehensive benefits including health insurance (medical, dental, vision, prescription, Basic Life & AD&D insurance and option for Supplemental life plans, EAP, Mental Health Support, Medical Advice Line, Flexible Spending Accounts, Adoption and Surrogacy Reimbursement coverage), 401(k) matching, paid time off, and parental leave. Learn more about our benefits at https://amazon.jobs/en/benefits.

USA, NY, New York - 186,600.00 - 252,400.00 USD annually
USA, WA, Seattle - 169,600.00 - 229,500.00 USD annually