Staff Design Operations Program Manager

Mercury is a fintech company looking for a Staff Design Operations Program Manager to optimize their design team's workflow. This role involves defining and executing strategies for Design Ops, managing AI integration, and fostering cross-functional collaboration to enhance overall design quality and efficiency.

Responsibilities:

• Set and run Design Ops' strategy: Own the strategic direction for Design Ops (where the function needs to go, why, and what we're deliberately not doing), and drive it through execution yourself, from roadmap to delivery
• Own Design's AI-first point of view: Set the strategy and decision framework for how Design adopts AI tooling and reshapes its process, in partnership with Design Leaders and Product Ops. Be ready to build yourself: the skills, agents, and workflows designers will use day to day. Partner with Procurement to secure access to new tools
• Architect systems that scale: Design, build, and run the operating system that lets the design org keep scaling year over year without adding overhead. Keep processes lightweight: introduce only what's needed to advance quality and give the team visibility
• Set and execute the design culture strategy: Define what culture and quality rituals should exist (all-hands, onsites, team rituals) and the outcomes they need to drive, then own the execution, looping in design managers or cross-functional partners for support
• Build and run Design's external presence strategy: Own the strategy for how Mercury Design shows up externally to support hiring and brand, and drive execution, from content to events to award submissions in partnership with the Comms team
• Define and run onboarding & enablement: Set the strategy and quality bar for how new designers ramp, in partnership with EPD Ops, and own the programming
• Be the cross-functional connective tissue: Build relationships across Product Ops, Research Ops, Eng Ops, and design leadership that make you a first call on ambiguous, cross-functional problems. Break down silos, navigate competing priorities, and move multi-stakeholder programs to a conclusion, including with executive partners
• Be a strategic thought partner to the VP of Design and design managers: Bring an independent point of view to conversations on team health, quality, and priorities, and translate design leadership's goals into Design Ops' strategy and roadmap
• Define what gets measured: Set the success metrics and reporting cadence for design programs across the org, and use them to make the case for where to invest next, including additional Design Ops headcount as the function's remit grows

Requirements:

• A track record of independently setting strategy for a horizontal function: defining the thesis, not just executing a project list handed to you
• Excellent interpersonal, presentation, and communication skills, including a demonstrated ability to build trust with and influence senior and executive stakeholders
• Demonstrated high bar for quality that others point to as the standard, and a track record of fostering accountability beyond your own work
• Proven ability to break down silos and influence without authority across teams, product areas, and platforms, including navigating complex or conflicting stakeholder interests
• Comfort making the call and driving decisions to a conclusion without full consensus, while still managing stakeholder expectations
• A builder's mindset: comfortable owning strategy and execution alone, from concept to delivery
• History of representing a function's point of view externally: community engagement, employer branding, or industry presence
• Skill in anticipating and mitigating risk across people, process, and tools at a department level, and adapting quickly as priorities shift