Product Design Manager

Office Location
Sweden – Malmö

Employment Type
Permanent

Full Time/Part Time
Full Time

Who we are
At Ikano Bank, we believe work should feel meaningful and inspiring. Together, we create a great place to work where people are inspired to be the best they can be while contributing to a better life for our customers and the long-term success of the Bank. Guided by our Swedish heritage and values: common sense and simplicity, working together and daring to be different, we keep things straightforward and down-to-earth. If you like the idea of being part of a team that works hard, enjoys solving challenges together and dares to do things a little differently, you will feel right at home here.

Working in the Commercial B2C Function means creating and shaping the banking products and services our customers rely on. You’ll drive innovation by developing new solutions, enhancing existing ones, and ensuring they stay competitive, compliant, and profitable. Every day, you’ll make an impact by delivering value to customers, guiding the bank’s growth, and keeping our offerings relevant and attractive in a fast-changing market.

Purpose of the Job
Great design teams don't happen by accident — someone builds them. That's this role. As Product Design Manager at Ikano Bank, you'll lead and grow our team of Product Designers, making sure the experiences they ship across our product areas are high-quality, consistent, and genuinely accessible to everyone. You'll own the day-to-day life of the team — the people, the craft, the careers, the way designers are spread across squads — which gives our Head of Design the room to focus on strategy and the bigger picture. Put simply: you're the person who makes sure the team is healthy, growing, and doing its best work.

Responsibilities of the Job
-Lead your designers as people first — regular 1-to-1s, career development, coaching, performance conversations, and looking after their wellbeing.
- Own design quality across our embedded product teams, so what ships meets our bar for craft and accessibility.
- Run the team's critique rhythm: facilitate weekly cross-domain critiques, model what good feedback looks like, and keep critique a tool that makes the work better.
- Balance design resource across product squads, working closely with the Head of Design and Product leadership to put the right people on the right problems.
- Coach designers on craft, stakeholder relationships, and cross-functional collaboration — helping them move from "executing the brief" to "owning the outcome."
- Onboard new designers thoughtfully, so their first weeks get them productive and connected fast.
- Keep an eye on team health and workload
- Partner with our Principal Design Strategist to keep the team's work aligned with the wider design strategy and experience vision.
- Be the team's voice to the Head of Design and cross-functional leadership — representing its needs, capacity, and progress.

Education Level
Bachelor's Degree

Experience/Demonstrated Competencies
- You've worked as a design lead, design manager, or senior designer with people-management responsibility in a digital product organisation.
- You can point to designers who've grown in craft, responsibility, or career level on your watch.
- You've worked in embedded, cross-functional models where designers sit inside product squads.
- You've hired designers and helped build teams.
- You bring a strong portfolio of your own — because this role needs the credibility to evaluate and elevate other people's work.

Language Competencies
Fluency in English

Knowledge required
- A solid grasp of end-to-end product design and what "good" looks like across discovery, definition, and delivery.
- People management know-how: 1-to-1 frameworks, performance calibration, career conversations, and handling conflict.
- An understanding of how embedded design teams work inside cross-functional squads — including the tensions that come with it.
- Familiarity with design critique methods, and how to give feedback that lifts the work without knocking someone's confidence.
- A feel for resource planning and capacity management across multiple product areas.
- Knowledge of what good design hiring looks like: assessing portfolios, designing interviews, and crafting a great candidate experience.
- Enough fluency in accessibility standards and design systems to judge quality across everything the team produces.
- Awareness of how AI tools are reshaping design workflows — and how to help the team adopt them well.

Capabilities for this job
- You've led, coached, and developed designers at different stages of their careers, and you've got the receipts.
- You can look at a wide range of product work and give feedback that's specific and actually useful.
- You are comfortable being hands-on when the moment calls for it — picking up design work yourself, unblocking a squad, or filling a gap — without losing sight of the bigger leadership picture.
- You run critique sessions that raise the bar without making anyone dread them.
- You juggle competing resource demands across squads with diplomacy intact.
- You spot and tackle team-health issues — burnout, disengagement, skills gaps — before they spread.
- You partner comfortably with Product and Engineering leadership on resourcing and delivery.
- You can run a hiring process end to end, from job description to portfolio review to offer.
- You hold the balance between long-term team development and the tactical day-to-day.

What motivates you?
- You get a real kick out of helping other people grow — a team member levelling up means as much to you as your own best work.
- You believe great design comes from great teams, not lone geniuses.
- You love building a culture where honest feedback, high standards, and psychological safety actually live side by side.
- You're happy working behind the scenes to make other people shine.
- You're drawn to the puzzle of scaling quality across lots of squads — without pulling all the control into the centre.
- You're not precious about the org chart. In a small, growing team you'll happily roll up your sleeves, jump into the work where it's needed, and lead by example rather than from a distance.

Ready to apply?
If this sounds like your kind of workplace, we would love to hear from you. You do not have to tick every single box. What matters most is your drive, your ideas and your willingness to grow with us. Our application process is simple. Just click on the Apply Button and we will get in touch with you soon. Apply today and let us build something different together. You want to know more about Ikano Bank? Check out our videos about culture, social/corporate responsibility and everyday working at the bank. For any questions, feel free to contact us at Se e-mailadresse på jobbank.dk .

Salary (per annum)
According to the market

Ikano Bank Benefits
Annual Social Day for all Employees
Favorable Conditions for Ikano Bank Products

Applications Close Date
21 Aug 2026