Aquent is hiring: Sr Design Program Manager, Design Research Operations in Bento

Job Title: SR DESIGN PROGRAM MANAGER, DESIGN RESEARCH OPERATIONS

Client Location: Bentonville, AR (onsite - relocation provided)

Starting: Dec 2024

Salary/Pay Rate: $120-140K (DOE)

Firm, non-negotiable: Yes

Hours: Full-time

Job Description:

As a member of the Design Ops team, you’ll wear a number of hats and will craft new processes that will enable the Design Research team at a large company to run more smoothly. We are looking for a resourceful self-starter with an operational mindset and experience in design research. If this sounds like you and you’re excited about enabling an award-winning design team at the forefront of retail to develop it’s experimentation muscle, you could be a great fit for our first Sr. Research Ops Manager. As a Sr. Research Ops Manager, you will report into the Head of Design Operations and work closely with the Head of Research and other partners across design and research.

This role is onsite in Bentonville, AR (onsite 5x week). Relocation is required and fully covered by company along with unlimited PTO, full benefits, competitive pay, 15% annual bonus, and annual RSUs of $50K (paid out over the course of 3 years).

REQUIREMENTS

• Minimum of 5 years of work experience in Design Operations, Research and/or as an experienced design program manager.
• You have a deep understanding and love for design research
• You have experience supporting a Design Research practice in a large organization
• You are an Airtable expert
• You’re a process nerd who is energized by addressing friction in the research process and enjoys jumping into the weeds of day-to-day research activity
• You are driven by empathy and motivated by the opportunity to impact the day-to-day experience of designers and researchers
• You collaborate naturally, operate independently, and are comfortable giving and receiving feedback
• You produce great work with quick turnarounds and multitask effectively across different activities
• You are highly organized and have great attention to detail
• You enjoy working in a fast-paced and ever-changing environment
• You’re excited by the prospect of supporting the teams that are directly shaping the future of retail

RESPONSIBILITIES

Managing backlogs and caring for design priorities

Working with design leadership to plan for upcoming work and future studies

Managing contract renewals for all research tools

Support recruiting and participant experience for research studies

Oversee multiple in-person experiments each quarter

Building out protocol for how to run effect tests and overseeing a program designed to train designers how to run their own studies

Tracking research studies across the portfolio

Coordinating the setup of an in-person research lab space for designers to rapid prototype and test new concepts

Creating playbooks and documenting best practices

Onboarding new team members to the Design Research team

Client Description:

Major enterprise retailer