Design Operations Manager, Brand Design

Grammarly team members in this role are required to live within a daily commutable distance to San Francisco. Grammarly may provide relocation assistance.

The opportunity 

Grammarly empowers people to thrive and connect, whenever and wherever they communicate. Every day, over 30 million people and 50,000 teams around the world rely on our AI-powered communication assistance technology. All of this begins with our team collaborating in a values-driven and learning-oriented environment. 

To achieve our ambitious goals, we’re looking for a seasoned Design Operations Manager to partner with our Head of Brand Design and the rest of our Design Operations team. The Brand Design team at Grammarly is responsible for delivering creative excellence everywhere our brand shows up—such as in our product and campaigns. The Design Operations Manager will work with team members across the entire company, particularly with leaders on the Product and Marketing teams. This opportunity is for a design leader who can adapt to our current processes and be creative in developing, recommending, and experimenting with new ones. This leader will also introduce or reinforce practices that support a people-first culture. 

Grammarly’s Brand Design team is made up of Brand Visual Designers, Motion Designers, Experience Designers, Content Designers, Brand Writers, Editors, and Design Operations—including Creative Producers. In the Product organization, the Design team (Brand Design, Product Design, and Human Insights Research) has the unique opportunity to define how people interact with our product and how our brand comes to life in every interaction and iteration. We are passionate and nerdy about all things design—including typography, branding, and motion. 

Your impact

As Design Operations Manager, you will anticipate challenges and opportunities to mitigate risk—risk for project or initiative delivery, quality, and design burnout. You will apply your breadth of experience to models and prototypes, as well as iterate on the ways our team works. You will focus on all the tools and platforms that we use (Jira, Asana, Figma, Adobe, Frontify, and Google Drive) and find ways to optimize how and when we use them. You will also align cross-functional partners and build trust across teams. You will work primarily with the Brand Design team and will collaborate with the Product Design and Human Insight Research teams within the Design organization. 

In this high-impact role, you will:

• Be responsible for the development and implementation of the foundational documentation and process for the entire Brand Design team by assessing current tools and gaps and quickly iterating on improvements toward a longer-term vision for more seamless workstreams. 
• Lead the strategy and work hands-on to experiment on what is possible to foster collaboration, best-in-class work, and a strong design culture.
• Partner with Design leadership on any initiative that affects all of Brand Design—including learning and development, resourcing strategies, tool education, brand and asset management, and process improvement that will help us scale and operate effectively.
• Collaborate with Design Operations from the Product Design, Research, and Marketing teams on best practices for the Design organization.
• Develop project plans and timelines as the individual directly responsible for ensuring that everyone fully understands what they need to do to accomplish shared goals. This includes tracking progress and pulling in leadership when needed to guarantee efficiency. 
• Lead operations for the Design org quarterly—including monthly Design all-hands meetings and other larger priorities. 
• Be responsible for internal administrative tasks, such as reminders for scrum and crits, milestone celebrations, and planning for team on-sites.
• Co-own contractor and new-hire onboarding tasks with Creative Producers.
• Interface with our Legal, Security, and Procurement teams to onboard and pay vendors, including facilitating statements of work and supporting leadership in negotiating business terms and budgets.

We’re looking for someone who

• Embodies our EAGER values—is ethical, adaptable, gritty, empathetic, and remarkable.
• Is able to collaborate in person 3 weeks per quarter, traveling if necessary to the hub where the team is based.
• Has 7+ years of experience managing design operations at scale and—as a plus—experience working at a product company or design agency.
• Is exceptionally organized, cares about the details, and navigates ambiguity to bring clarity to multiple initiatives. 
• Leads as an action-oriented problem solver who can multitask to support the team but knows when to step back.
• Harnesses excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• Can present complex processes to stakeholders, roll them out to all of our cross-functional partners, and encourage alignment across functions and departments.
• Has strong analytical skills to establish and configure project and program tools—such as Jira, Asana, Frontify, Google Workspace, and Figma—based on the specific needs of the team, as well as a deep understanding of how and when to use each.
• Consistently focuses themselves and the team on the highest-impact activities to foster growth, collaboration, culture, and positive business outcomes.
• Can build an inclusive and diverse operations model for our Brand Design team.

Support for you, professionally and personally

• Professional growth: We hire people we trustgive team members autonomy to do their best work. We also support professional development with training, coaching, and regular feedback.
• A connected team: Grammarly builds a product that helps people connect, and we apply this mindset to our own team. We have a highly collaborative culture supported by our EAGER values. We also take time to celebrate our colleagues and accomplishments with global, local, and team-specific events and programs.
• Comprehensive benefits: Grammarly offers all team members competitive pay along with a benefits package encompassing superior health care (including mental health benefits). We also offer support to set up a home office, ample and defined time off, gym and recreation stipends, 401(k) matching, and more.

We encourage you to apply

At Grammarly, we value our differences, and we encourage all—especially those whose identities are traditionally underrepresented in tech organizations—to apply. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, national origin, citizenship, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, or any other characteristic protected by law. Grammarly will consider qualified applicants with criminal histories in a manner consistent with the San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance. Grammarly is an equal opportunity employer and participant in the US Federal E-Verify program.