Director, Design Operations

About the role

We're hiring a Head of Design Operations to lead and strengthen the operational foundation of Etsy's Design and Research organization.

Responsibilities

• Lead and grow the DesignOps team.
  • Manage a small team of DesignOps practitioners, coaching them to grow their craft and impact.
  • Help shape the future of the function, including hiring as the team evolves.
• Set the operating rhythm.
  • Establish the planning, prioritization, and review cadences that help our Design and Research organization stay aligned and effective.
  • Evolve the operating model that supports both the buyer and seller sides of the marketplace.
• Own high-leverage programs personally.
  • Lead one or two strategic programs at any given time.
• Partner with design leadership.
  • Serve as a thought partner to the Design and Research leadership team.
  • Consult on team health, help make decisions, and co-create new initiatives.
  • Bring clarity and focus to ambiguous problems and help leaders make sharper bets.
• Steward the design tool stack and budget.
  • Own our design tooling strategy and partner with Procurement to select and adopt tools that improve collaboration, craft, and AI fluency.
  • Manage vendor relationships and ensure we're getting strong return on our investments.
• Build bridges across Operations.
  • Partner with Research Ops, Brand Ops, Product Ops, and Eng Ops to align practices and create consistency in how teams work together.
  • Be a generous citizen of the broader Ops community at Etsy.
• Make the team's impact visible.
  • Develop audience-appropriate communications — newsletters, dashboards, executive summaries — that make Design and Research's work observable and credible to partners and leadership.

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in design operations, program management, or chief-of-staff roles within a design, product, or creative organization.
• Experience leading a DesignOps function and managing a small team, with a track record of growing your people and shaping the discipline.
• A builder's mindset, with direct experience launching or evolving operational systems in a design or product organization — not just maintaining established ones.
• Comfort moving fluidly between strategic leadership and hands-on execution, and the judgment to know which mode the moment requires.
• Strong communication and influence skills, including a track record of partnering with senior leaders and earning trust without formal authority.
• Experience designing and managing operating models at scale — including planning rhythms, intake and prioritization, capacity systems, and team rituals.
• Experience partnering with Procurement, Finance, and Legal on tool selection, vendor management, and budget planning for creative teams.
• Curiosity about AI and a point of view on how it can enable design teams to work more effectively.
• Fluency with the tools modern design teams rely on, including Figma, Jira, Notion, Cursor, Claude, and Google Workspace.

Qualifications

• Fluency with the tools modern design teams rely on, including Figma, Jira, Notion, Cursor, Claude, and Google Workspace.

Skills

• 10+ years of experience in design operations, program management, or chief-of-staff roles within a design, product, or creative organization.
• Experience leading a DesignOps function and managing a small team, with a track record of growing your people and shaping the discipline.
• A builder's mindset, with direct experience launching or evolving operational systems in a design or product organization — not just maintaining established ones.
• Comfort moving fluidly between strategic leadership and hands-on execution, and the judgment to know which mode the moment requires.
• Strong communication and influence skills, including a track record of partnering with senior leaders and earning trust without formal authority.
• Experience designing and managing operating models at scale — including planning rhythms, intake and prioritization, capacity systems, and team rituals.
• Experience partnering with Procurement, Finance, and Legal on tool selection, vendor management, and budget planning for creative teams.
• Curiosity about AI and a point of view on how it can enable design teams to work more effectively.

Benefits

Annual performance bonus, competitive benefits, and an equity package.

Pay

$235,000.00 - $305,000.00

Schedule

Full-time position reporting to the VP of Design and Research.