Design Operations Lead - NatWest Group

Join us as a Design Operations Lead

• Gain exposure to high-impact initiatives by leading the delivery of mid-size, increasingly complex design operations projects and programmes and managing core operational processes
• Drive long-term improvements across the function by contributing to the development of design operations and experience design strategies and leading the delivery of associated strategic initiatives
• Drive the adoption of enterprise-approved AI capabilities across the design organisation, creating scalable guidance, governance, documentation, and best practices that help teams work more effectively and consistently

What you'll do

As a Design Operations Lead, you'll manage design operations activity across the business area, balancing team needs, business goals, and operational constraints to enable successful project and programme delivery. Acting as an escalation point, you'll also remove blockers to maintain momentum and quality, as well as approve design operations deliverables in line with defined authority. You'll ensure effective execution of design operations activities and alignment with the bank's objectives, while driving consistency and efficiency across ways of working. You will partner with Design Leadership to integrate AI-enabled workflows into design operations, building capability, supporting cultural change, and enabling teams to realise value from emerging technologies.

Moreover, you'll enable collaboration across design disciplines and functions, engaging stakeholders to ensure alignment and successful delivery of strategic initiatives. You'll also create, evolve, and promote design operations guidelines and standards to drive consistency and scalability, while contributing to the growth and maturity of the practice through ongoing knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

In addition, you'll be:

• Making process, project, and programme-level design operations decisions informed by data, ensuring outputs are user-centred, inclusive, and aligned with business and project objectives
• Acting as a key contact for stakeholders managing expectations, supporting understanding, and influencing decisions, as well as managing risks, conflicts, and alignment issues, escalating as necessary
• Clearly communicating the value and impact of design operations decisions for projects and programmes to a wide range of audiences
• Using structured thinking, empathy, and a systems-level perspective to improve team culture, design processes, and tooling, while maintaining clarity, consistency, and value across operations workflows
• Supporting design operations capability through coaching, mentoring, knowledge sharing, and community engagement, while continuously improving your own design operations expertise
• Translating AI experimentation, pilot programmes, and emerging capabilities into scalable guidance, standards, and best practices, leveraging enterprise-approved AI platforms to enhance efficiency, consistency, and effectiveness across the design function
• Identifying opportunities to improve design operations through the responsible use of AI, ensuring teams are equipped with the tools, knowledge, and governance needed to realise value at scale
• Honing your leadership skills and capabilities in a collaborative environment by overseeing teams to achieve project goals

The skills you'll need

We're looking for someone with experience defining and leading design operations processes, projects and programmes at pace using agile delivery methods, and delivering mid-sized, increasingly complex initiatives that support design teams at scale. You should also have a track record of driving structured, scalable, and collaborative operational improvements, informed by both team and business needs.

To succeed in this role, you must bring experience working with multidisciplinary design teams and collaborating effectively with cross-functional partners, alongside demonstrated leadership capabilities. Strong stakeholder management skills are essential, as well as the ability to communicate clearly, manage expectations, articulate the rationale behind your work, and advocate for the value and impact of design.

In addition, you'll need:

• A deep understanding of user-centred design and comprehensive knowledge of how design operations supports high-performing, inclusive, and strategically aligned design practices
• Good knowledge of embedding accessibility and inclusion into design practices
• Strong design thinking, operations and process management, planning and delivery, and data analysis skills
• Experience supporting design operations capability development through coaching, mentoring, knowledge sharing, and constructive feedback
• Experience leading capability development and organisational change initiatives, supporting teams to adopt new tools, processes, and technologies through coaching, enablement, and continuous improvement