Director, UX Operations

The Director, UX Operations & Design Program Management leads the operating systems, portfolio practices, workforce strategies, and enablement capabilities that allow UX to scale effectively across value streams. The role elevates design program management from project coordination to enterprise portfolio leadership, combining people leadership with accountability for UX demand and capacity, cross-team dependencies, studio and ResearchOps services, tooling, governance, budgets, executive reporting, and strategic partners. The Director establishes clear operating rhythms, anticipates delivery risk, enables rapid pod formation, and ensures design and research work aligns to business priorities and delivers measurable quality and value.

Lead UX talent, culture & workforce enablement

Develop workforce strategies balancing employee talent, external partners, capability needs, funding, and changing demand.

Maintain enterprise visibility into UX demand, capacity, utilization, skills, staffing risks, and deployment across value streams.

Lead pod formation, staffing, onboarding, and deployment; resolve resource conflicts and recommend hiring or sourcing actions.

Maintain capability inventories, skills matrices, succession insights, and resource-planning models.

Provide direct leadership, coaching, performance management, and career development for UX professionals.

Build an inclusive culture grounded in accountability, customer focus, knowledge sharing, and continuous learning.

Direct the UX portfolio & design program management practice

Own portfolio planning and operating rhythms for UX initiatives across multiple teams, value streams, and senior stakeholders.

Translate business priorities into integrated roadmaps, program plans, milestones, decision points, and measurable outcomes.

Lead dependency management across design, research, product, engineering, finance, change, and delivery; remove barriers and resolve escalated issues.

Establish standards for intake, prioritization, status reporting, risk and issue management, change control, and executive decision support.

Direct resource-planning ceremonies and align UX capacity with product and delivery plans in Agile and scaled delivery environments.

Oversee portfolio dashboards and executive communications that surface progress, tradeoffs, risks, financial implications, and required decisions.

Mentor program managers and design leads in planning, stakeholder management, facilitation, and outcome-based delivery.

Operate and evolve the scalable UX Pod Model

Define and continuously improve the UX operating model for a distributed, pod-based delivery organization.

Establish scalable engagement models, governance, quality controls, and ways of working across design, research, content, accessibility, product, and engineering.

Oversee UX roadmaps, priorities, workflows, operational services, budgets, and tooling investments.

Govern design systems, pattern libraries, component inventories, and experience standards with Design and Engineering leaders.

Strengthen design-to-development alignment and consistent implementation quality.

Develop KPIs and dashboards for capacity, efficiency, quality, throughput, adoption, delivery health, and business impact.

Scale research operations & knowledge systems

Establish ResearchOps capabilities supporting dedicated researchers and governed practitioner-led research.

Oversee repositories, insight libraries, taxonomies, templates, participant management, and knowledge practices.

Create standards making research consistent, compliant, discoverable, reusable, and connected to portfolio decisions.

Coordinate research governance, privacy, compliance, and operational support.

Apply AI and automation responsibly to improve synthesis, findability, reuse, and efficiency.

Manage financials, vendors, & commercial performance

Own UX operational budgets, forecasts, resource assumptions, and portfolio financial reporting.

Lead the partner operating model, including selection, onboarding, integration, performance management, contracting support, and renewals.

Monitor partner quality, utilization, outcomes, risks, and return on investment through scorecards and governance reviews.

Partner with Procurement, Finance, Technology, and UX leadership on sourcing, commercial outcomes, and capacity flexibility.

Ensure external teams integrate with internal standards, tools, governance, and ways of working.

Improve scale, speed, quality, and cost effectiveness through strategic partner use.

Bachelor's degree or equivalent practical experience in UX, design operations, program management, research operations, business operations, organizational development, or a related field.

10+ years of progressive leadership experience in UX, DesignOps, program or portfolio management, ResearchOps, studio operations, workforce planning, or a comparable multidisciplinary environment.

Experience leading employees and developing UX talent through coaching, performance management, and career development.

Ability to direct complex, multi-team portfolios and scalable delivery models across design, research, content, accessibility, product, and engineering.

Experience with portfolio planning, dependency management, risk resolution, resource allocation, capacity planning, onboarding, and executive reporting.

Working knowledge of Agile and scaled delivery, the product design lifecycle, design systems, research repositories, UX tooling, governance, and design-to-development workflows.

Experience managing budgets, vendors, contracts, service performance, and relationships with Procurement, Finance, Change, and Technology.

Ability to translate operational and program data into decisions, KPIs, investment recommendations, and executive communications.

Strong change leadership, facilitation, negotiation, and stakeholder-management skills in a complex matrix.