Job description
The Design Operations Manager role drives the project management oversight and ensures effective processes are in place to support the development and execution of creative strategies that will drive new innovation and accelerated growth within the Design Department. This role collaborates with leads across operational and business-related activities for the Creative teams encompassing Design, Concept, Production, Operations and Merchandising. “To work in Design Ops, you need to care about all the little details.”
PRINCIPLE RESPONSIBILITIES:
•Collaborate with cross-functional leaders of Design, Merchandising and Product Development as needed to identify, design and implement tools and resourcing to understand current calendars, deliverables, deadline, processes and systems.
•Streamline processes in design and business categories to drive efficiency from initial concept through to pass off to Technical Design, Product Development, Raw Materials and Color teams.
•Track and monitor all creative projects, set project schedules and timelines, create and update project calendars and ensure established milestones and deliverables are accurate and completed on time.
•Actively participate in creative project planning process and make recommendations to improve process efficiencies to maximize workflow.
•Benchmark best practices to develop and implement business processes and procedures which will increase productivity and enhance coordination of projects.
•Develop reports and visual documents to effectively track and communicate status of ongoing projects.
•Provide regular updates on the status of projects, etc., for the key leaders in Creative and Merchandising
•Partner with and maintain relationships with functional leaders across the organization to obtain updates and solve problems on projects and programs impacting the business.
•Respond to quickly changing creative direction and business priorities, remaining flexible and seeking creative solutions to conflicting design and timing challenges
•Lead, teach, onboard and evaluate all new hires upon first day of employment.
•Critically examine new hires during onboarding process, communicating department processes and procedures, run/evaluate training sessions, maintain training record of progress and achievements and handling any questions from new hires upon initial months of hiring.
•Collaborate and design per vmlp requests pre-post business meetings to effectively pass designs from multiple categories when needed
•Create business process flows for new and existing categories where needed to streamline processes, create organization and bring cross-functional teams together collaboratively
•Creation of collaboration documentation that includes but not limited to, Line sheets, power point presentation documents, special project line coloring for wholesale accounts, designing or veneer of styles for said collaboration collections and creation of visual tools for any requested special projects that may arise.
•Supporting Design Team in all facets that include (but are not limited to), BW/Color Cad buildouts, BW tech pack creation, seasonal line coloring, attendance during technical design fittings, any and all updates to styles, PLM BOM buildouts, design collection overview pages, Design Review Deck buildout and any other requests that may arise during the design seasons.
•Other duties, as required, in support of overall business initiatives and requests from Vice President of Design, Creative Director of Product, Design Director and Merchandising Teams *Manage and look at calendar, have weekly meetings with design to roll out deadlines and keep those deadlines met. *Work closely with creative director to build out presentations and design decks.
QUALIFICATIONS:
• 8+ years of Project Management/Operations experience in Design or related field
• 6+ years of strong knowledge of PLM systems
• Strong organizational, planning, problem identification and decision making skills
• Strong project management skills and proven ability to work on multiple projects simultaneously
• Highly analytical with strong finance and business orientation
• Excellent interpersonal and communications skills, ability to effectively interact, communicate, influence and negotiate at all levels of the organization
• Maintains tact and diplomacy in high-stake situations
• Proven success driving change within an organization including some experience in business systems and process re-engineering
• Proficiency in team leadership, time management and process improvement
• Flexible and creative problem solver
• Familiarity with, and passion for, product lifecycle/development process
• Creative sensibility and understanding of print processes, color and design
REQUIRED SKILLS:
• Expert proficiency with Adobe Suite (Illustrator, Acrobat Reader, Photoshop)
• Good knowledge of Adobe In Design
• Proficiency with Microsoft Office (Outlook, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, Teams)
• Knowledge of Concur and ADP
• Knowledge of PLM Systems (NGC Andromeda a plus)