Higher Education Community & Partnerships Manager

Figma is growing our team of passionate creatives and builders on a mission to make design accessible to all.Figma’s platform helps teams bring ideas to life—whether you're brainstorming, creating a prototype, translating designs into code, or iterating with AI.

From idea to product, Figma empowers teams to streamline workflows, move faster, and work together in real time from anywhere in the world.If you're excited to shape the future of design and collaboration, join us!

As we continue to invest in education, we're looking for a Higher Education Community & Partnerships Manager to own our institutional growth strategy across universities and bootcamps in the US and beyond.

Figma already has millions of students using the product every day, but we're just getting started on building the institutional layer to match.

This is a new role with a real opportunity to build from the ground up—developing relationships with professors, instructors, technology centers, and program leadership at the world's top design schools, HCI programs, and bootcamps, and writing the playbook for how Figma shows up at the institutional level.

 

What you'll do:

at Figma:

• Build and grow an educator community: identify, engage, and cultivate a network of educators at top university and bootcamp programs who are bringing Figma into their classrooms and giving them the resources and recognition to go deeper
• Drive curriculum integration: identify high-impact courses and partner with educators on teaching resources, assignments, and course packs that make Figma the easiest tool to teach with
• Partner with university technology centers: work with campus tech centers to make sure every incoming student knows about Figma's free education program from day one
• Cultivate institutional relationships: build close ties with program deans, department chairs, and leadership at the world's leading design schools programs
• Lay the foundation for institutional growth: do early work that positions Figma to partner with universities at an institutional level and help define what that path looks like
• Create compelling professor programming: design and launch events, resources, and community activations that give professors genuine reasons to champion Figma in their courses and recommend it to colleagues
• Partner with the broader Figma EDU team: work closely across the team to make sure our institutional work and our student programs are pulling in the same direction
• Measure success through data: track adoption, engagement, and relationship depth across institutional partnerships to understand what's working and iterate accordingly

We'd love to hear from you if you have:

• 5+ years of experience in academic partnerships, faculty engagement, higher ed community programs, or institutional relationship management
• Demonstrated success engaging and influencing university leadership — including deans, department chairs, and technology center directors — to drive institutional outcomes
• Experience building programs or communities from scratch with limited resources and without a defined playbook
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills, with demonstrated ability to tailor messaging for academic and institutional audiences
• A scrappy, entrepreneurial approach, comfortable operating in an ambiguous and resource-constrained environment

While it's not required, it's an added plus if you also have:

• Experience as an educator or working directly within a university setting
• Familiarity with design education, HCI programs, or creative disciplines
• Experience working at a high-growth tech company or startup
• Background in community building and education marketing
• Familiarity with sales or business development in an institutional or academic context

At Figma, one of our values is Grow as you go.

We believe in hiring smart, curious people who are excited to learn and develop their skills.If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with the points outlined in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways.You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

    

Job level and actual compensation will be decided based on factors including, but not limited to, individual qualifications objectively assessed during the interview process (including skills and prior relevant experience, potential impact, and scope of role), market demands, and specific work location.

The listed range is a guideline, and the range for this role may be modified.For roles that are available to be filled remotely, the pay range is localized according to employee work location by a factor of between 80% and 100% of range.

  Figma also offers sales incentive pay for most sales roles and an annual bonus plan for eligible non-sales roles.Figma’s compensation and benefits are subject to change and may be modified in the future.Annual Base Salary Range:

$105,000 — $221,000 USD

At Figma we celebrate and support our differences.

We know employing a team rich in diverse thoughts, experiences, and opinions allows our employees, our product and our community to flourish.

Figma is an equal opportunity workplace - we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity/expression, veteran status , or any other characteristic protected by law.

We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.

We will work to ensure individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to apply for a role, participate in the interview process, perform essential job functions, and receive other benefits and privileges of employment.com .

 

Examples of accommodations include but are not limited to: 

• Holding interviews in an accessible location
• Enabling closed captioning on video conferencing
• Ensuring all written communication be compatible with screen readers
• Changing the mode or format of interviews 

To ensure the integrity of our hiring process and facilitate a more personal connection, we require all candidates keep their cameras on during video interviews.

Additionally, if hired you will be required to attend in person onboarding.By applying for this job, the candidate acknowledges and agrees that any personal data contained in their application or supporting materials will be processed in accordance with Figma's Candidate Privacy Notice .