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Sr. Manager, Design Operations
VFC
Alameda, CA, United States
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The North Face: Sr. Manager, Design Operations
POSITION SUMMARY
Across VF brands the role of product and brand design is set to increase in importance. The ability of our creative talent to spend their time in high-value add creative work (“letting designers design”) depends on the ability of their departments to have well-structured and smooth internal operations.
The Sr. Manager, Design Operations will assume responsibility for structuring and managing key internal processes ensuring that they are efficiently and effectively executed.
This role requires a balance of operations and management. They will focus on building the right environments, processes and tools to ensuring that departments have a cross-discipline vision by managing key internal processes for the creative departments in each territory. This role will be instrumental in guiding Design Teams to run efficiently and effectively to execute their goals. This role supports the Vice President, Global Creative to follow the CORE calendar from Concept through the actualization of Product. They will also act as a first point of contact for other departments, ensuring their requests are addressed promptly to the right person.
This role will manage the design budget for the department, including samples and T&E. They will also manage consultant requests and approvals from HR and finance as well as contracts with legal.
Beyond Operations, this role will include ownership of the Creative Visions process, as well as ensuring design participation in GTM process. Also assist in the OGSTM implementation and process.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
• Manage internal creative team processes
◦ Evaluate the total creative team workload (current and projected) and have a perspective on individual utilization
◦ Track project work streams ranging from small to complex projects
◦ Create the hard and soft structures required for the community to become a cohesive and effective unit
◦ Establish internal systems of dividing and tracking work, and the infrastructure to do so
◦ Identify KPIs and success metrics for the internal team
• Concept Design support
◦ Work with Vice President, Global Creative on seasonal Concept directions facilitation for Color, Print, Design & Graphic teams to help kick-off initial ideas through finalizing seasonal Concept Presentations.
◦ Partner with Creative Design Directors, Global GMs and Design Directors to ensure that Creative Vison is on track with Brand and future Initiatives
◦ Manage all production of Seasonal Concept kick-offs deliverables with in-house and outside contracted teams.
• Ownership of the Creative Vision process
◦ Maintain the latest version of the Creative Vision and its expression
◦ Own the process of refreshing the Creative Vision at suitable intervals
• Liaise with other departments
◦ Act as the first point of contact when design input is needed for other departments (business as usual as well as special projects) or corporate activities
◦ Act as a primary liaison between the community and the GBT and HR partners, helping run annual talent and technology reviews.
◦ Manage consultant requests and approvals from HR and finance as well as contracts with legal.
◦ Assist the Elevating Design team in managing the expanded creative community across VF
• Manage Seasonal GTM process
◦ Engage with the GTM owners to structure the cadence of events and their objectives, agendas, materials and logistics for key meetings, including maintaining the master calendar for the creative community
◦ Drive the project management required to identify and execute the inputs required for the GTM processes
• Manage Creative Budget
◦ Manage the design budget for the department, including samples and T&E
◦ Work with CFO to adhere to budget
SKILLS & REQUIREMENTS
• Excellent project management skills: efficient, organized and collaborative, able to keep track of multiple streams of work and accomplish work through others
• Design acumen: ability to understand how creative professionals work, their needs and mindset but also to think creatively with high foresight – experience working with such individuals will be a plus
• Event management: facility with the logistics and agenda setting for large events and the ability to gracefully execute and own their implementation
• 8+ years in a fast-paced matrix environment or a consulting/agency environment
• Design understanding and experience is a must
• Excellent organizational skills in a fast paced environment
• Ability to multi-task
• Strong interpersonal skills as well as cross-functional team leadership, strategic planning, vendor management, design thinking