Senior Design Operations Manager

At Vanta, our mission is to help businesses earn and prove trust. We believe that security should be monitored and verified continuously, and we empower companies to practice better security and prove it with ease. Vanta has a kind and talented team, and while some have prior security experience, many have been successful at Vanta without it. 

We’re growing quickly and committed to building a culture of learning, curiosity, and excellence. Joining Vanta means joining a team that believes in growing together, learning continuously, and making an impact that matters.

About the Role

We are looking for a Senior Design Operations Manager to own the operating system for Vanta’s Design organization — how we plan, review, and collaborate across EPD. This role will build and evolve the systems, rituals, and tooling that help designers work efficiently, scale quality, and operate with clarity.

You’ll partner closely with Design leadership to establish consistent design rhythms, streamline processes, and introduce systems that support capacity planning, quality reviews, and team enablement. You’ll also own design tooling, onboarding, and key initiatives that improve the health, performance, and culture of the Design team.

This is a high-impact role designed for someone who thrives at the intersection of operations, systems design, and creative collaboration.

What You’ll Do:

• Own the design operating system: Build, maintain, and evolve how the Design team plans, reviews, and collaborates across EPD.

• Drive design rhythms: Establish consistent, high-quality team rituals such as critiques, shareouts, and reviews that drive alignment and elevate craft.

• Manage and facilitate leadership meetings: Run agendas for Design LT and all-hands meetings, ensuring focus, follow-through, and clarity.

• Capacity planning: Partner with Design leadership to model and track team bandwidth, helping inform prioritization and tradeoffs across initiatives.

• Own tooling and workflow: Manage design tooling (e.g., Figma, Mobbin, HeyMarvin) and partner with Procurement to secure new tools that improve efficiency, collaboration, and AI fluency.

• Drive onboarding and enablement: Maintain and update onboarding programming in partnership with EPD Onboarding and Learning teams to ensure new designers ramp quickly and effectively.

• Program manage cross-functional design initiatives: Lead horizontal projects like rebrands or design system rollouts in partnership with cross-functional teams.

• Enable design leadership: Free up Design leaders’ time by managing coordination, communication, and planning logistics.

• Support culture and growth: Lead follow-ups from culture research, coordinate design offsites, and help facilitate initiatives that strengthen community and collaboration.

How to be successful in this role:

• 4+ years of experience in design operations, program management, or creative operations, ideally within a design or EPD organization at a fast-paced software company.

• Proven experience building scalable systems and workflows that enable creative teams to focus on high-impact work.

• Strong project management and stakeholder communication skills; able to manage multiple programs and align diverse teams.

• Demonstrated ability to use data and feedback to continuously improve programs and processes.

• Proficient in design tools and systems (e.g., Figma, Notion, Asana, Guru), with an interest in emerging AI design tools.

• Adept at building clarity and structure within ambiguity, driving alignment across multiple leaders and teams.

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