We are hiring a Design Operations Manager for our client JetBrains. The Design Operations Manager is the operational backbone of the client`s design organization. Reporting to the Head of Design, this role builds the systems, tools, and processes that make design faster, smarter, and more scalable – empowering designers to focus on creativity and quality. They optimize demand, improve throughput, and implement automation, tooling, and outsourcing to balance speed with excellence.

Key KPIs

Speed: Reduction of average request-to-delivery time while maintaining design quality and creativity.

Quality: Increase in internal stakeholder satisfaction (NPS), with measurable gains in perceived design quality, reliability, and responsiveness.

Creativity: Increase in the percentage of projects rated “high creativity” in post-reviews, indicating that operational systems enable, not limit, creative excellence.

Team workload balance: Reduction in the percentage of designers reporting sustained overload.

Automation impact: Increase in the percentage of recurring or repetitive tasks automated.

Smart outsourcing impact: Increase in the percentage of tasks effectively outsourced to optimize team focus, cost, and stakeholder satisfaction, with a focus on improving overall quality rather than driving volume.

Key responsibilities

• Process and workflow optimization

○ Document and standardize end-to-end workflows across all design sub-teams.
○ Redesign the intake and prioritization system for design requests to ensure clarity, transparency, and realistic timelines.
○ Implement tiered service levels (“quick-turn” vs. “strategic”) to balance responsiveness with deep creative work.
○ Automate repetitive tasks using templates, libraries, and AI-based tools.

• Capacity and resource management

○ Maintain a live overview of team capacity, workload, and utilization.
○ Forecast upcoming demand and proactively adjust resources or outsourcing plans.
○ Lead vendor and outsourcing relationships for overflow or production design work.
○ Ensure sustainable team pacing and minimize overload

• Tooling and systems

○ Own the design-tool ecosystem (Figma, DAM, YouTrack, Coverbaker, etc.).
○ Benchmark and pilot new technologies that improve efficiency and transparency.

• Measurement and continuous improvement

○ Define and track key Design Ops KPIs (turnaround time, internal satisfaction, revision rates, automation coverage, etc.).
○ Create dashboards for leadership visibility and quarterly reviews.
○ Gather feedback from designers and stakeholders to iterate on processes.

• Collaboration and communication

○ Act as the operational liaison between the Design team and internal “clients”.
○ Train teams on operational best practices and tool usage.
○ Support cultural initiatives that promote collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Initial priorities for the first six months

Audit current workflows – map all request paths, pain points, and hidden bottlenecks.

Design a new intake and prioritization model, tested with 1–2 pilot teams.

Launch a transparency dashboard (monitoring requests, queue, and turnaround) for internal visibility.

Establish quick-win automations (such as templated assets, intake forms, and AI support).

Define and run an outsourcing pilot scheme with a clear quality and review process.

Roll out a dashboard for tracking capacity and demand, presenting insights quarterly.