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Design Community Lead

Adobe

Adobe

Design
San Francisco, CA, USA · San Jose, CA, USA · Los Angeles, CA, USA · New York, NY, USA
Posted on Mar 11, 2025

Our Company

Changing the world through digital experiences is what Adobe’s all about. We give everyone—from emerging artists to global brands—everything they need to design and deliver exceptional digital experiences! We’re passionate about empowering people to create beautiful and powerful images, videos, and apps, and transform how companies interact with customers across every screen.

We’re on a mission to hire the very best and are committed to creating exceptional employee experiences where everyone is respected and has access to equal opportunity. We realize that new ideas can come from everywhere in the organization, and we know the next big idea could be yours!


The Opportunity
We are seeking a strategic, design industry-savvy Design Community Lead to shape and elevate our community engagement across Adobe’s Design products, specifically Photoshop, Illustrator, and InDesign. This role is a unique opportunity to influence the future of design by building a thriving, impactful community around Adobe’s tools and fostering substantial connections with creative professionals worldwide.

The ideal candidate is a confident leader with a deep understanding of the design ecosystem, a strategic mentality, and the ability to drive high-impact community programs that align with broader business goals. You’ll be adept at addressing senior leaders, advocating for the voice of the community, and establishing relationships that amplify Adobe’s presence in the design industry.

What You’ll Do

  • Develop and Lead Community Strategy: Define and implement a forward-thinking community strategy that directly supports Adobe’s design category goals, balancing long-term vision with tactical impact. This would be across product launches and in the day-to-day.

  • Shape Community Programs: Lead the Design VIP program, helping scale and drive impact with our community leaders as a way to grow advocacy.

  • Strategic Cross-Functional Partnership: Collaborate closely with Community Content, Community Engagement, Evangelism, Events, Product Marketing, Social, Brand, Partnerships, and other essential teams to ensure community motions are strategically aligned with product launches and key business objectives.

  • Thought Leadership & Advocacy: Serve as a visible advocate for the community, deeply understanding the community’s perspective and representing that internally, crafting policies, products, communications, and strategy.

  • Relationship Building: Cultivate and maintain deep relationships with design community leaders, educators, and event organizers, positioning Adobe as a trusted partner in the creative space.

  • Measure & Optimize Impact: Establish clear metrics to track the impact of community programs, using data to continuously refine and improve engagement strategies.

What You Need to Succeed

  • Deep Passion for Design & Creativity: A genuine love for design, with a nuanced understanding of the global design landscape — including platforms, events, trends, and creative professionals' evolving needs. Familiarity with Adobe Creative Cloud tools is a plus, but true connection to the design world is key.

  • Strategic & Analytical Acumen: 7+ years of experience in strategy, consulting, product marketing, product management, brand strategy, operations, or innovation, with a track record of turning complex insights into action. Experience with market research, competitive analysis, and data-driven decision-making is a big plus.

  • Critical Thinking & Problem Solving: Exceptional ability to assess the broader landscape, find opportunities, and architect scalable strategies that drive significant business impact.

  • Curiosity & Persistence: A problem solver who digs deep to understand root causes — especially with product and customer difficulties. Proactively seeks insights, asks thoughtful questions, and persistently advocates for the best solutions.

  • Executive Presence: A persuasive communicator with the confidence to advocate for community needs in high-stakes conversations with senior leadership. Skilled at navigating complex discussions and building alignment across teams.

  • Leadership & Collaboration: Experience leading complex, multi-stakeholder initiatives. Skilled at driving consensus, balancing conflicting priorities, and fostering collaboration across marketing, product, and external partners.

  • Data and Results Driven: Sets clear metrics, analyzes program performance, and continuously refines strategies. Comfortable synthesizing qualitative and quantitative data to drive decisions and measure success.

  • Adaptability: Thrives in ambiguity, balancing strategy with hands-on execution when needed.

  • Presence & Flexibility: Willing to travel up to 25% as needed by the business.

  • BA/BS degree preferred OR 7+ years of experience in Community Engagement OR equivalent practical experience.

Application Window Notice

If this role is open to hiring in Colorado (as listed on the job posting), the application window will remain open until at least 12:01 AM Pacific Time, in compliance with Colorado pay transparency regulations. If this role does not have Colorado listed as a hiring location, no specific application window applies, and the posting may close at any time based on hiring needs.

Our compensation reflects the cost of labor across several U.S. geographic markets, and we pay differently based on those defined markets. The U.S. pay range for this position is $110,800 -- $209,500 annually. Pay within this range varies by work location and may also depend on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. Your recruiter can share more about the specific salary range for the job location during the hiring process.

At Adobe, for sales roles starting salaries are expressed as total target compensation (TTC = base + commission), and short-term incentives are in the form of sales commission plans. Non-sales roles starting salaries are expressed as base salary and short-term incentives are in the form of the Annual Incentive Plan (AIP).

In addition, certain roles may be eligible for long-term incentives in the form of a new hire equity award.

Adobe will consider qualified applicants with arrest or conviction records for employment in accordance with state and local laws and “fair chance” ordinances.

Adobe is proud to be an Equal Employment Opportunity and affirmative action employer. We do not discriminate based on gender, race or color, ethnicity or national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, or any other applicable characteristics protected by law. Learn more.

Adobe aims to make Adobe.com accessible to any and all users. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation to navigate our website or complete the application process, email accommodations@adobe.com or call (408) 536-3015.

Adobe values a free and open marketplace for all employees and has policies in place to ensure that we do not enter into illegal agreements with other companies to not recruit or hire each other’s employees.