Lead Product Designer

Lead Product Designer |
Lithia & Driveway

Location: Remote (PNW ideal, not required)

Compensation: The full salary range for this position is $115,000-$165,000 annually. The anticipated starting pay is $,000, determined by factors such as skills, experience, and organizational considerations. Final compensation will be established through the interview process in accordance with applicable pay equity and transparency laws.

Lithia Motors is one of the largest automotive retailers in North America, operating a nationwide digital platform () alongside a broad ecosystem of dealership and enterprise systems. Our work spans customer-facing experiences, internal operational tools, and platform-level systems that support teams at scale.

The Product Design team at Driveway is a senior, systems‑oriented group focused on solving complex business problems and building reusable design infrastructure. We value clarity, judgment, and strong points of view—we are not a UI factory. We’re seeking a Lead Product Designer to lead design across complex, cross‑functional initiatives.

As a Lead Product Designer, you are the strategic design voice for major initiatives that span multiple teams, products, or functional areas. You own design direction at the project level, guide other designers, and partner closely with Product and Engineering leadership to drive outcomes—not just deliverables.

This role is ideal for someone who:

• Leads through judgment and clarity
• Brings opinions, not just options
• Thinks in systems and long‑term implications
• Can stabilize ambiguity and move teams forward

• Own design direction for high‑impact, cross‑functional initiatives, managing scope, priorities, and outcomes.
• Partner closely with Product and Engineering leaders to shape strategy, tradeoffs, and delivery plans.
• Serve as the primary design voice in planning, leadership forums, and stakeholder reviews.
• Identify and unblock struggling initiatives through decisive design leadership and scope refinement.

• Coordinate and align design work across multiple teams to ensure consistency, quality, and timely delivery.
• Delegate work to designers while maintaining accountability for cohesion, standards, and timelines.
• Establish project‑level design processes and working agreements that support successful delivery.
• Provide clear, actionable critique and make final design decisions when needed.

• Actively work within and uphold the design system, ensuring alignment with established patterns and standards.
• Partner with the Design System team to identify gaps and contribute new patterns or components.
• Balance system adherence with thoughtful extension—knowing when to reuse vs. evolve.
• Advocate for design system usage with Product and Engineering partners.

• Review design work for completeness, strategic alignment, and execution quality before it reaches stakeholders.
• Identify gaps in problem framing, system alignment, or thinking early to avoid downstream rework.
• Uphold a high quality bar through direct feedback, strong opinions, and ownership of outcomes.

• Prioritize problem framing over screens
• Expect strong understanding of business context and technical constraints
• Value systems, playbooks, and reusable patterns over one‑off solutions
• Believe great design reduces organizational friction and dependency

• Bachelor’s degree in Design or related field, or equivalent professional experience
• 5–7+ years of product design experience, including leadership on complex, cross‑functional initiatives
• Proven ability to lead through ambiguity and make clear, defensible decisions
• Strong collaboration skills with Product, Engineering, and operational partners
• Experience coordinating multiple designers or parallel work streams
• Hands‑on experience working within and contributing to a production design system
• Comfort owning outcomes—not just deliverables—with a portfolio demonstrating high‑quality work delivered at scale

• Competitive pay
• Medical, Dental and Vision Plans
• Paid Holidays & PTO
• Short and Long‑Term Disability
• Paid Life Insurance
• 401(k) Retirement Plan
• Employee Stock Purchase Plan
• Lithia Learning Center
• Vehicle Purchase Discounts
• Wellness Programs

High School graduate or equivalent, 18 years or older required. We are a drug free workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity (regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity or Veteran status). We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.