Manager - Design Operations - Studio Manager (LY-OP01)

Role Overview

We're looking for someone who can own everything inside the Design team, the people, processes, and rhythms that keep a 50+ member creative team healthy, utilized, and continuously growing. This is the operational backbone of the team: someone who always knows who's working on what, who's overloaded, who's available, who's due for a review, and who's joining or leaving—and ensures nothing falls through the cracks. If you enjoy bringing structure to creative environments and enabling teams to do their best work, this role is for you.

Key Responsibilities

Bandwidth & Resource Allocation

• Maintain a live view of every designer's allocation, utilization, and availability across all active client projects.
• Work with the Director of UX and the Project Management team to staff projects with the right people at the right time, balancing skills, growth needs, and workload.
• Flag over-allocation, under-utilization, and burnout risks early; propose rebalancing before they become problems.
• Plan capacity ahead of incoming work and support hiring forecasts with utilization data.

People Operations & HR Coordination

• Own the team's HR-admin rhythm in coordination with central HR: leaves, attendance, approvals, and documentation for the design team.
• Run smooth onboarding for new designers (accounts, tools, buddy assignment, 30-60-90 day plans) and structured, respectful offboarding with knowledge handover.
• Schedule and track one-on-ones between leads and team members; make sure they actually happen and follow-ups are closed.

Performance & Growth

• Drive the performance review cycle end-to-end: timelines, templates, reminders, calibration logistics, and documentation.
• Track goals, feedback, and development plans so nothing waits for the next review cycle to be noticed.
• Support leads with data and structure for promotion cases, improvement plans, and skill-gap mapping.

Process, Tools & Team Health

• Build and continuously improve internal processes: allocation trackers, leave workflows, review templates, onboarding checklists.
• Manage design-team tooling and licenses (Figma seats, plugins, research tools) and coordinate procurement.
• Organize team rituals- reviews, retros, knowledge-sharing sessions, team events and keep internal documentation current.
• Be the first point of contact for designers' operational questions, handled with empathy and discretion.

Requirements

Must-have

• 2–4 years in design operations, studio/team operations, program coordination, people operations, or a similar role, ideally in an agency, studio, or services environment.
• Demonstrated experience with resource/bandwidth planning or team coordination at 20+ people scale.
• Strong organizational skills, follow-through, and comfort owning recurring processes end-to-end.
• Excellent written and verbal communication; able to work with senior leadership, leads, and junior designers alike.
• Proficiency with productivity and resourcing tools (e.g., ClickUp, Sheets or similar resource planners, HRMS tools).
• High empathy, discretion, and sound judgment, you'll handle sensitive people matters.

Strongly preferred

• A formal education or working background in design (B.Des or hands-on design experience). We're looking for someone who understands the dynamics of creative teams. While a design background isn't mandatory, a strong appreciation of how designers work, what creative problem-solving demands, and why a designer's calendar shouldn't be managed like an accountant's is essential.
• Familiarity with design tools and workflows (Figma, design systems, research processes).
• Experience in a design agency or creative services firm.

What This Role Is Not

• Not a client-facing — client servicing and project coordination sit with our PM team.
• Not a hands-on design role — though design literacy is a real advantage.
• Not an HR — you'll work closely with the HR team, but your home is inside the design team.
• Not Project Management-. Our Project Management team owns client servicing, client communication, and project coordination.

Why This Role Matters

We're a 50+ member Design team that's growing fast, and we believe great operations are what transform a good design team into a great one. This role will shape the day-to-day experience of our designers by ensuring work is distributed fairly, growth remains visible, and administrative friction stays out of the way of great design.