Head of Design Operations

Cisco Meraki is the industry leader in simple, secure, intelligent networking and IoT platforms. We empower organizations everywhere – from local libraries to global hotels – to focus on their mission and have technology that simply works.

Cisco has been named #1 Best Company to Work For in the U.S. by Fortune in 2021!

We’re looking for a Head of Design Operations to join our team in simplifying the experience for networking and IT products and professionals. In this role, you will:

1. Build world-class UX team operational practices and culture
2. Orchestrate design ops activities leveraging superpowers across the team
3. Ensure the team has the tools, processes, clarity, and time needed to drive toward quality and efficiency
4. Work with the senior leadership team to plan for the growth, impact, and visibility of the UX team within Cisco Meraki and broader Cisco
5. Help make our team experience fun, meaningful, and personally fulfilling for each team member - the best team ever

Our UX team is helping drive innovation throughout our portfolio. We balance discovery with delivery to establish north stars while delivering incremental value to our customers.

You Will:

• Build and maintain an operational roadmap to support the growth and maturity of our team
• Manage a small but mighty ops team (design ops, research ops, design program management)
• Orchestrate delivery on the design ops vision through effective utilization of our design ops staff, managers, and ICs.
• Shepard our team through quarterly OKR and design sprint planning
• Establish toolkits, templates, guidelines, and processes that enable the team to be highly effective and enable us to measure and report our impact
• Establish tools and processes that help evaluate the team's relative priorities, resource accordingly, and measure team capacity
• Develop programs that focus on individual growth, recognition, and retention
• Craft and run key UX programs including our intern program, new hire onboarding experience, and team training initiatives
• Plan and coordinate UX team meetings and rituals, company-wide presentations, and team-building events
• Build strong working relationships by collaborating with engineering, product, and business teams to understand and help the team deliver against business needs and priorities
• Evangelize the impact of design with engineering and product partners by advocating for a user-centered design approach (cross-functional design sprints, dual-track agile, user feedback, rapid prototyping)
• Support UX engagement models with cross-functional teams across business units accordingly
• Provide mentoring and coaching support in a variety of ways including socializing work, project planning, resolving obstacles
• Support the business side: Budgets, hiring forecasts, tool selection and procurement, vendor management

You are an ideal candidate if you:

• Have relevant experience leading in a design operations, design producer, program manager, or other design operations-focused role
• Have a strong grasp of the design process, design thinking, user-centered design approaches, and the importance of cross-functional partnerships
• Are familiar with agile principles, project management methodologies, and tools
• Are an extremely organized systems thinker who can bring order and calm from chaos
• Love planning, process, and playing a role building out and driving solutions
• Are skilled at balancing longer-term strategy with short-notice demands from the business
• Are a strong communicator and diplomat, and can quickly develop rapport with team members and company-wide partners
• Have the ability to adapt and thrive in a constantly evolving organization, showing eagerness to take on new challenges as they arise
• Care deeply about the people you work with

Does this sound like you? We’d love to hear from you!

Why Cisco Meraki?

Meraki is based in the Mission Bay area of San Francisco, with beautiful views of the Oracle Ballpark and the Bay beyond. This position can be 100% remote work from home. However, if you prefer to work onsite at the San Francisco office, you will have access to an onsite gym, multiple kitchens stocked with high-quality snacks, a coffee bar, and catered lunches every day. We offer a generous benefits package to all our Merakians - remote, hybrid, and onsite.

At Cisco Meraki, we’re challenging the status quo with the power of diversity, inclusion, and collaboration. When we connect different perspectives, we can imagine new possibilities, inspire innovation, and release the full potential of our people. We’re building an employee experience that includes appreciation, belonging, growth, and purpose for everyone.

Cisco is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, genetic information, age, disability, veteran status, or any other legally protected basis. Cisco will consider for employment, on a case by case basis, qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records.

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