Manager Design Operations

Hi there!

We're looking for a Manager, Design Operations to join the Insights & Design team at Zapier. You will play an integral role in designing, implementing, and scaling our design practices and processes that will take our organization to the next level. 

Reporting to the VP, Insights & Design, this role spans both team operations and program management. You’ll oversee a team of Design Program Managers and Producers that continue to evolve our practice by developing and implementing processes to support the day-to-day operations of our team of designers. You will help drive strategic, cross-functional initiatives, and foster an inclusive design community. You will partner with Zapier’s Insights & Design Leadership team and other Operations Leads, to innovate and build new solutions that allow us to scale and mature effectively.

We know applying for and taking on a new job at any company requires a leap of faith. We want you to feel comfortable and excited to apply at Zapier. To help share a bit more about life at Zapier, here are a few resources in addition to the job description that can give you an inside look at what life is like at Zapier. Hopefully, you'll take the leap and apply.

• Our Commitment to Applicants

• Culture and Values at Zapier

• Zapier Guide to Remote Work

• Zapier Code of Conduct

• Diversity and Inclusivity at Zapier

Zapier is proud to be an equal opportunity workplace dedicated to pursuing and hiring a diverse workforce.

About you

• You see yourself as the conductor of the team You identify opportunities to improve the way we work, and foster an inclusive design and research community. You’re observant, an active listener, and you constantly ask “why” again and again. You love thinking broadly in systems, with the ability to easily understand how all the interrelated pieces work together, and have a knack for identifying the most critical areas for improvement. You are outcome oriented and know that a project is only complete when the problem is solved.

• You have helped guide an organization of our size through to the next level of maturity. Importantly, you’ve done the Design Operations job before (ideally at multiple companies of varying sizes). You have the ability and know-how to deeply understand our org and use your experience to guide us towards better practices and more streamlined processes. You are familiar with best practices in Design orgs,  and your superpower is knowing when and how to implement the right tool or process in your toolkit. Failure state for this role would be implementing new processes or procedures that don’t solve our specific problems or are too bureaucratic for our size to gain traction.

• You know when to execute, when to collaborate, and when to delegate. You should be comfortable diving in proactively to solve high-impact problems. This is especially true for problems in which you can take administrative work off of Design teams’ plates. When you are out of your depth, you are able to identify the right people to bring in to help move forward. While we don’t expect you to be able to solve every problem yourself, we do expect you to own the outcome and pursue alternative solves, such as collaborating with internal subject matter experts, identifying an external training program you’ve vetted, or even advocating for a new hire, for example.

• You believe relationships are critical to success. You are able to quickly build relationships and trust with folks across not only Engineering, Product, and Design - but with cross-functional partners as well such as Marketing. You quickly build credibility and trust with your direct reports, and see your role as a mentor, coach, advocate and sponsor.  

• You’re an excellent written and visual storyteller. We’re also a 100% remote team, and documenting is our primary means of communication at Zapier, so this bullet appears in most jobs. It’s even more critical here. This role will be responsible for creating operations-related documentation and governing Design-related Playbooks. Developing easily consumable communications and documents will be a key way that you will influence and maintain change in the Design org.

• You’re solid at time management. You’ll juggle a variety of projects, and as a part of a distributed team, you’ll be trusted to work with minimal supervision. As a part of a growing company, you have an opportunity to make a big impact, and you’re keen to build processes that’ll make your job more efficient over time.

Things You’ll Do

• Develop and build systems, frameworks, and processes, to optimize the creative process, help drive context and visibility across the team, break down silos, and help centralized teams scale their impact across the organization.

• Support cross-functional strategic projects that span Product Design, Brand, and User Research: helping scope resources, track and communicate progress, ensure teams are on track, facilitate decision-making, resolve blockers and surfacing challenges.

• Develop the necessary rituals, rhythms, and programs to foster a high-performing and inclusive team culture

• Help onboard new team members and seek innovative ways to ensure all new employees have a great experience joining the Zapier Insights & Design team

• Elevate the team’s presence in the organization by identifying opportunities to advocate, educate, and evangelize on behalf of the Design and Insights organization

• Manage tooling and other logistics for the team, such as relationships with external parties (contractors, vendors)

• Continuously monitor and improve cross-functional partnerships by optimizing for increased information flow, communication, and collaboration. Act as a bridge between DesignOps and other Operational Teams (ProductOps, EngineeringOps).

• Travel of 5% - 10% for company retreats that rotate to various cities throughout North America.

• As a part of our All Hands Support initiative, help customers have the best possible experience with Zapier

About Zapier

For the past ten years, Zapier has been helping people across the world automate the boring and tedious parts of their job. We do that by helping everyone connect the web applications they already use and love.

We believe that there are jobs a computer is best at doing and that there are jobs a human is best at doing. We want to empower businesses to create processes and systems that let computers do what they are best at doing and let humans do what they are best at doing.

We believe that with the right tools, you can have big impact with less hassle.

We believe in small teams. Small teams are fast and nimble. Small teams mean less bureaucracy and less management and more getting things done.

We believe in a safe, welcoming, and inclusive environment. All teammates at Zapier agree to a code of conduct.

The Whole Package

Location: United States or Canada

Compensation:

• Competitive salary (we don't use remote as an excuse to pay less)

• Great healthcare + dental + vision coverage*

• Retirement plan with 4% company match*

• Profit sharing

• 2 annual company retreats to awesome places

• 14 weeks paid leave for new parents of biological or adopted children

• Pick your own equipment. We'll set you up with whatever Apple laptop + monitor combo you want plus any software you need.

• Unlimited vacation policy. Plus we require you to take at least 2 weeks off each year. We see most employees take 4-5 weeks off per year. This isn't a vague policy where unlimited vacation means no vacation.

• Work with awesome companies around the world. We partner with great software companies all over the world and you'll constantly get to interact with people from these great companies

*While we take care of our international folks as best we can, currently, healthcare and retirement plans are only available to US-based employees.

How to Apply

We have a non-standard application process. To jump-start the process we ask a few questions we normally would ask at the start of an interview. This helps speed up the process and lets us get to know you a bit better right out of the gate. Please make sure to answer each question.

After you apply, you are going to hear back from us, even if we don't seem like a good fit. In fact, throughout the process, we strive to make sure you never go more than seven days without hearing from us.

Zapier is an equal opportunity employer. We're excited to work with talented and empathetic people no matter their race, color, gender, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, physical or mental disability, or age. Our code of conduct provides a beacon for the kind of company we strive to be, and we celebrate our differences because those differences are what allow us to make a product that serves a global user base.