Today’s Design Ops and Programs Landscape & Career Paths
Summary
Over the past year, Abbey Smalley, former Head of Design Programs at Amazon has taken a deep dive into the types of Design Ops roles and levels that exist in the market. She’s collected the themes of her findings as well as synthesized insights from interviewing several Design Ops professionals and hiring managers into a newly developed framework that will help you better understand the types of opportunities that exist in the field. She'll also share recommendations on core skills to learn and present in your portfolio to help you land your next dream role.
Key Insights
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Design ops and design program manager job titles are highly inconsistent across companies, often not reflecting the actual scope or tasks.
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Job seekers should widen their search beyond traditional titles and focus on job descriptions to find suitable roles.
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Prior experience requirements split roughly among design experience (30%), project management (40%), design ops experience (20%), and product lifecycle (14%).
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Teams benefit from diverse backgrounds as Roxanne highlights, mixing previous design, project management, and communications experience.
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Most open roles do not specialize but, when they do, focus areas include design systems, research, growth, and culture/community roles.
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There is a significant shortage of entry-level design ops roles, creating a barrier for new entrants into the field.
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Salary ranges for design ops roles vary widely from around $80,000 to $350,000, often correlating with seniority, company size, and location.
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59% of roles require onsite work, 13% hybrid, and 28% remote, with many remote positions still having geographic restrictions.
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Design ops and design program management roles often blend operational and program management duties, with little clear separation currently in the market.
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UX maturity of companies strongly correlates with the presence and scale of design ops roles; half of UX professionals are in emergent, inconsistent stages.
Notable Quotes
"What is in a name in a title is not much. It’s more of a mad libs plug and play where every title and role word can be swapped out."
"You really have to use a broader net of the titles and levels you’re looking for because you’re not gonna find the perfect fit just within the title."
"A really strong design ops team is having a mix of previous experiences. It helps the team complement with different perspectives and skills – Roxanne."
"Almost no current roles in 2023 are looking for someone with zero years experience, highlighting an entry-level gap."
"The most salary ranges fell between $140,000 to $270,000 a year, with larger companies paying more, but there’s wide variability."
"59% of roles were onsite focused in 2023, showing a shift back post-pandemic, but remote roles still exist with some location preferences."
"The term program manager in this field is used in two very different ways – managing a portfolio of products or managing a program initiative."
"The majority of design ops and program roles are still at a team leveling of one while companies try to build out other levels."
"The future is already here, it’s just not evenly distributed – Dave Maloof, highlighting uneven UX maturity and design ops adoption."
"There are more design ops practitioners than current roles, so don’t lose hope if you’re struggling to find your next opportunity."
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