Senior Design Operations Program Manager

Blink is the user experience firm for the world’s leading companies. We use evidence-driven design to create products that people use, love and remember. With studios in Boston, New York, San Diego, San Francisco, and Seattle, Blink brings two decades of experience to research, design, and strategy for clients such as Amazon, Facebook, Microsoft, NASA, Starbucks, and USAA.

This opportunity is a part of Blink's Embedded practice which supports long-term opportunities with some of Blink’s largest client partners.

Duration: On-going

Location: Remote from Atlanta, GA

Overview

• We are looking for a Senior Design Program Manager with extensive knowledge in design operations program management and a strong background driving operational process enhancements within a product design organization.
• Position is responsible for the strategy, planning and delivery of operational programs and processes to grow team culture and efficiency of the team.
• The ideal candidate possesses excellent organizational and interpersonal skills, is proactive in mitigating risks and removing roadblocks, and drives progress towards goals and objectives through strong program management and influence.
• Lead and execute on the vision and strategy of design operational programs, in collaboration with leadership and cross-functional partners.
• Manage complexity and navigate ambiguity across cross-functional teams.

Expectations

• Proactively examine, experiment, and measure improvements to design operational model, processes, and ways of working (e.g. automating tasks, improving workflows, developing repeatable methodologies), working closely with the Design Operations team and leadership to balance competing priorities to effectively and efficiently deliver impact.
• Possess a proven track record of collaborating with and influencing product design leadership and cross-functional partners.
• Strong capacity for leading change, dealing with ambiguity and proactively recommending, driving, and measuring operational process improvements, from inception of solution to delivery.
• Require minimal to no supervision.
• Develops and implements structured communications plan for programs.
• Oversee and manage program status and health, mitigating risks, removing barriers efficiently and effectively to support team, and escalating when necessary.
• Assess changes in scope and impact to budget and timeline, communicating effectively with both internal and external partners.
• Provide status reports and timelines to cross-functional leadership teams and drive clear action towards goals and objectives.
• Define and measure impact of program both quantitively and qualitatively— sharing best practices to strengthen design operations.
• Facilitate collaboration and continuous improvement of processes and methodologies to strengthen ways of working across cross-functional teamsEvaluate & implement the industry’s best tools with other design program managers, researchers, designers and cross-functional partners to solve our growing need to collaborate globally.
• Highly organized with strong writing, influencing skills and impeccable attention to detail.

Your background

• 8+ years of design project or program management experience within a product design organization, with experience working across accessibility, content design, engineering, product design, product management, and user experience research disciplines.
• Bachelor’s degree preferred.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Experience collaborating with and developing and presenting materials to stakeholders—including Director and VP-level senior leadership.
• A proven track record of partnering across a wide array of internal business groups, external marketing agencies, executive stakeholders and execution partners.
• Ability to delegate tasks across multiple projects and work streams (resource management, capacity tracking, resource planning, risk mitigation, etc.)
• Experience with communication, workflow and creative asset management systems – such as Jira, Figma, Teams and similar tools.
• Experience managing program and scrum teams in Agile environments.

Blink is an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, religion, gender, age, veteran status, political affiliation, sexual orientation, marital status or disability.