Design & Research Operations Lead

Role: Design & Research Operations Lead

Location: Abu Dhabi

Role Purpose:

• The Senior Design & Research Operations Coordinator is responsible for improving the effectiveness visibility and scalability of the Design & Experience function by managing design operations research operations tools capacity workflows reporting and governance.

• The role acts as the central operational lead for the design organization working closely with the Head of Design & Experience designers researchers product teams vendors and delivery partners to ensure work is planned distributed tracked and delivered efficiently.

Key Accountabilities of the role:

• Own design team capacity planning and work distribution ensuring workload is visible balanced and aligned to business priorities.

• Manage Jira workflows and operational boards including sprint planning intake management status tracking workflow administration and reporting.

• Provide capacity utilization and delivery dashboards that give leadership clear visibility of team workload priorities risks and resource needs.

• Coordinate design and research tool administration including Jira Figma Confluence Microsoft 365 access license management renewals and payment coordination.

• Support budget tracking and vendor management for tools agencies research partners procurement activities contracts and renewals.

• Lead research operations support including participant recruitment research scheduling logistics governance consent management repository management and customer panel maintenance.

• Manage design team onboarding and offboarding ensuring employees contractors interns and coordinators have the right access documentation tools and process guidance.

• Maintain operational documentation in Confluence including ways of working workflow guidance templates governance standards and process updates.

• Support asset and design system governance ensuring shared files templates libraries and operational standards remain organized and accessible.

• Coordinate with vendors and agencies to support smooth execution of design and research activities including timelines access delivery tracking and budget control.

• Identify opportunities for operational improvement and recommend practical ways to improve team efficiency utilization reporting and governance.

• Guide interns or junior coordinators helping them follow team processes and maintain high standards of operational execution.

Specialist Skills / Technical Knowledge Technical Competencies Required for this role:

• Proven experience in Design Operations and Research Operations within a product design digital or enterprise environment.

• Advanced knowledge of Jira including workflow administration sprint planning capacity management intake tracking and dashboards.

• Strong working knowledge of Figma including workspace administration team access license management file organization and design asset governance.

• Proficiency in Confluence for documentation knowledge management process governance and team ways of working.

• Strong knowledge of Microsoft 365 including Teams Excel PowerPoint Outlook and SharePoint for operational coordination and reporting.

• Experience in resource forecasting and workload planning with the ability to translate capacity data into clear recommendations.

• Understanding of Agile delivery practices and how design research product and technology teams collaborate across sprints.

• Experience with procurement renewals vendors and budgets for tools software agencies and research partners.

• Knowledge of research operations processes including participant recruitment scheduling logistics governance consent management repository maintenance and customer panels.

• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills with the ability to coordinate across design product technology procurement finance and vendor teams.