Design Operations Program Manager

Job Posting End Date

04-30-2024

Please note the job posting will close on the day before the posting end date.

Job Summary

The DesignOps role integrates extensive knowledge of the design and UX process with strong project management skills to enhance the impact, productivity, scalability, and culture of user-centered design. As the Design Operations Program Manager, you will be meticulously detail-oriented and strategically inclined, leveraging design process frameworks and tools to manage the various facets of projects. Demonstrating proficiency in the end-to-end iterative design and UX process and agile delivery, you will champion user experience across our business units while seeking opportunities to optimize the Design & UX team's workflows. You will collaborate closely with departmental leadership, portfolio leads, product owners, and development teams to ensure the seamless integration, delivery, and evaluation of UX research, design, and usability processes. Additionally, you will play a pivotal role in resource planning, project estimation, annual departmental forecasting, and ongoing tracking of capital and O&M budgets.

Our Team

As the Design Operations Program Manager, you will become an integral member of AEP’s Technology organization within the Design & User Experience Center of Excellence. Our goal is to help improve experiences for our 5.5 million customers and 17,000 employees across AEP’s entire product offering. Our team plays an integral part in gathering insights about user needs, attitudes, emotions, and behaviors to inspire and inform design. Our emphasis lies in the strategic phases of user research, UI design and wireframing, and usability testing.

Job Description

Responsibilities

Project Planning and Management

Help create UX plans, define milestones, track UX deliverables, and manage UX resources on projects.Collaborate with portfolio leads and UX manager to ensure appropriate UX resources are planned and budgeted for key projects.Facilitate work intake for new projects, determining prioritization, roadmapping, and forecasting.Track the team’s capital and O&M spend across projects.

Communication and Reporting

Communicate the Design & UX team’s value through quarterly and annual presentations and reports to internal stakeholders.

Resource Management and Workflow

Maintain our shared file system for our team’s resources, including our Sharepoint site and MS Teams channels.Coordinate and facilitate our regular stand-ups, feedback sessions, and playbacks.Evolve and support our end-to-end UX workflow, collaborating with project teams to ensure standards of practice.Build processes to regularly source and leverage various “Voice of the Customer” listening channels that exist throughout the organization.Collaborate with our team of co-sourcing resources to effectively blend a team of employees and contractors.

Process Improvement and Tools Management

Apply UX best practices and project management methods (Scrum, Waterfall, Lean UX, Design Thinking) to daily work.Continuously look at ways to improve our process and tools to make the team’s work more efficient.Use Teamwork, Miro, or other tools to document our projects, create tasks, and monitor milestones.Manage the licensing and contracts for our tools and software.

Community Support

Support a strong UX community through events, routines, and practices that amplify the voice of UX & design.

Finally, although this is a remote position with most day-to-day work accomplished in your home, the nature of our work requires occasional in-person collaboration with our Columbus-based team. We will give preference to candidates who live within an hour’s drive of our Columbus, Ohio, headquarters.

Minimum Requirements

Tech Project Manager (SG7):

Education: Bachelor's degree in project management, computer science, or related technical field is required.

Experience: 3 years of relevant work experience is required.

An equivalent combination of education and related experience may be considered.

Tech Project Manager Sr (SG8):

Education: Bachelor's degree in project management, computer science, or related technical field is required.

Experience: 5 years of relevant work experience is required.

An equivalent combination of education and related experience may be considered.

Preferred Requirements

Experience

Proven ability to work cross-team with product owners, scrum masters, UX designers, and developers.Familiarity and working knowledge of current design or management tools (Figma, Sketch, Invision, Adobe suite, Jira, Azure DevOps, and others).Excellent written and verbal communication skills.Ability to effectively present complex information clearly.Thorough knowledge of the user-centered design process and iterative development process.Experience working within technical and engineering organizations.Experience keeping technical teams updated on design progress.Experience building a process from the ground up is valuable.Financial acumen with forecasting and tracking team spend on projects.

Education: Bachelors or Master’s Degree in User Experience, Industrial Design, Experience Design, Visual Design, Web Development, Psychology, Computer Science, or related field.

Compensation

Tech Project Manager (SG7): $83,413-$104,268

Tech Project Manager Sr.(SG8): $94,225- $122,491

Compensation Data

Compensation Grade

SP20-008

Compensation Range

$94,225.00-122,490.00 USD

Candidates will be considered based on their qualifications and the candidate’s ability to work from an approved work location. Although the location is flexible, AEP does not have a presence in all states and localities. The following locations are NOT currently approved for this position: AK, CA, CO, CT, DE, HI, IA, ID, KS, MA, ME, MS, MT, ND, NH, NJ, NM, NV, NY, OR, RI, SD, UT, VT, WY, US Territories or international work locations. AEP will consider qualified candidates who are willing to relocate to an approved work location, at the candidate’s expense, provided the relocation can be completed within a timeframe that meets AEP’s staffing needs. NOTE: All remote work locations require vetting and final approval prior to offer and/or start date. Any work locations listed as preferred or unapproved relate specifically to the requirements for this position and are not necessarily applicable to other posted positions.

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It is hereby reaffirmed that it is the policy of American Electric Power (AEP) to provide Equal Employment Opportunity in all aspects of the employer‐employee relationship including recruiting, hiring, upgrading and promotion, conditions and privileges of employment, company sponsored training programs, educational assistance, social and recreational programs, compensation, benefits, transfers, discipline, layoffs and termination of employment to all employees and applicants without discrimination because of race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, ethnicity, ancestry, veteran or military status, disability, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other basis prohibited by applicable law. When required by law, we must record certain information to be made part of an Affirmative Action Plan. Applicants for employment may also be invited to participate in the Affirmative Action Program by self-identifying their Race or Ethnic Identity.