Design Operations Manager at VuoriInc

Vuori is seeking a highly organized, collaborative, and influential Design Operations Manager to support our fast-growing Apparel Design team. In this strategic and cross-functional role, you will help drive operational excellence across our seasonal calendar, creative workflows, and special projects—including high-visibility collaborations. You will leverage strong communication and influencing skills to align stakeholders, guide decision-making, and foster accountability across teams. Your leadership will bring structure to the creative process, enabling Design to deliver innovative product with clarity, speed, and cohesion.  What you'll get to do: Design Operations  • Own and manage the seasonal Design calendar, partnering with cross-functional stakeholders (Design, Merchandising, Product Development, Marketing) to ensure key milestones are visible, achievable, and aligned.  • Act as a central hub of communication for the Design team, ensuring clarity on seasonal goals, priorities, timelines, and deliverables.  • Lead the planning, logistics, and execution of key creative milestone meetings, ensuring teams are prepared with product rooms, presentation decks, and samples.  • Identify and implement workflow improvements, tools, and templates that streamline the design process and enhance team productivity.  • Establish and maintain best practices for cross-team collaboration, documentation, and decision-making.  • Monitor and evaluate the efficiency of design operations processes; recommend and implement improvements that drive scale and increase speed to market.  • Partner with Product Ops to ensure seamless handoffs and consistent documentation between Design and downstream teams.  • Manage the operational relationship between internal design functions to ensure consistency and shared standards.  • Build strong relationships across teams to support and maintain process discipline.  • Act as the documentation owner for Design Ops—maintaining operational playbooks, updated workflows, and best-practice resources. Collaboration & Project Management  • Lead cross-functional planning for partnership and capsule projects, ensuring timelines, responsibilities, and deliverables are clearly defined and met.  • Serve as the key operational partner for collaboration projects with the Marketing team to ensure that programs alignment with product launches and business objectives.  • Work closely with internal Design partners to manage timelines and deliverables for capsule collections.  • Collaborate with Merchandising to align capsule assortments with business needs, including key item strategy and volume-driving styles.  • Coordinate project milestones, manage partnership touchpoints, and ensure alignment from concept through launch.  • Own tracking tools, timelines, and workflow documentation for all special projects; escalate risks and roadblocks proactively.  • Drive clarity and alignment through communication across product and partnership teams. Tools, Systems & Reporting  • Evaluate current tools and identify gaps or inefficiencies in how the Design team manages projects and tracks work.  • Develop reporting dashboards and tracking systems to provide visibility into seasonal progress, project status, and team bandwidth.  • Champion the adoption of new tools and systems; lead training sessions and create supporting documentation to ensure successful implementation.  • Partner with technology and business systems teams to explore integrations that support creative operations. Team Culture & Leadership Support  • Organize Design team events, offsites, and collaborative sessions that strengthen culture and connection.  • Coordinate travel logistics for Design leaders and team needs when relevant.  • Foster a culture of operational excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement within the Design organization.  • Act as a thought partner to the Associate Director of Design Operations in shaping the long-term vision and maturity of the Design Ops function.  • Support team onboarding and knowledge sharing by developing documentation and playbooks that promote consistency and clarity.  • Drive inclusive collaboration practices across creative and technical teams, ensuring diverse perspectives are integrated into decision-making.