Design Operations Lead

Shopify’s mission is to make commerce better for everyone. From building a new product feature for our commerce platform, to helping a merchant troubleshoot an issue over the phone, we want to empower our ecosystem through our work.

Having a unified vision, a north star, is vitally important to ensure that we are all headed in the same direction. No matter the size or experience, we want to power every merchant’s experience. This is why we’re all here.

Shopify is now permanently remote, and we’re working towards a future that is digital by design. That location you see above? Consider it merely an example of hundreds of potential locations across the Americas where Shopify is hiring. Learn more here: https://www.shopify.com/careers/work-anywhere

Shopify’s Growth team is focused on bringing Shopify to the world and helping entrepreneurs succeed. The Operations team within the Growth Org builds the operating system that advances Growth’s vision. Our role is to make sure that Growth operates aligned and at scale to achieve the impact of giants and the speed of a startup. 

As a Creative Operations Lead, you will oversee operations for the Design Team in Growth. You will build and run the systems and processes that keep the team moving fast and producing at scale. This includes leading things like project intake, capacity planning, and the development of rituals that foster collaboration and community across the disciplines that make up our Design team. Your superpower will be to create order out of chaos and simplify the complex. 

We care about growing creative, collaborative people, and strong, capable teams. Your peers in Shopify's Growth team have diverse backgrounds, skill sets, and experiences but share an established track record of driving significant business growth. This role will require you to build strong relationships and partnerships with teams of different disciplines, in many regions and at all levels. 

If you’re a hands-on leader that thrives in a fast-paced environment and enjoys designing thoughtful processes to help teams thrive, this is the role for you.  

You'll get to do things like:

• Develop a deep understanding of how all the Design disciplines work, what’s in their way and how to help them succeed. 
• Build robust systems and rituals that enable the Design discipline to operate efficiently and scale for the future
• Contribute to the Operations discipline by coaching and mentoring a team of operators 
• Stand up an intake process that surfaces opportunities to the Creative team in an organized, timely manner
• Manage capacity planning and resourcing, ensuring the right team members are assigned to the right work at the right time 
• Partner with Design leadership in project prioritization and opportunity sizing
• Keep a pulse on the health of the team and surface these insights to our leadership team.
• Partner with Design Leadership in developing and maintaining a program of rituals designed to foster collaboration and learning opportunities for the team
• Collaborate closely with stakeholders and other operations functions to solve for roadblocks and ensure that Design is having the highest impact possible
   

You'll need to have:

• Experience working with a variety of design disciplines specialized in product and marketing design including UX, video, photography, and creative design
• The ability to create order out of chaos by asking tough questions, producing actionable insights, and making recommendations to senior leadership that are appropriate for a given context.
• An ability to develop and iterate on minimum viable processes, and influence team behaviors to facilitate collaboration at scale without compromising on speed, trust, and flexibility. A proven track record of building and managing operational systems both  large and small
• Experience influencing and leading teams - e.g. building empathy and high trust relationships across teams; working actively to identify and solve potential problems; removing obstacles to keep teams and leadership focused and effective.
• Strong communication skills and an ability to drive change at scale via indirect leadership. This includes experience coaching and mentoring others.
• Extraordinary attention to detail. If you don’t self-identify as hyper-organized, this isn’t the role for you.
• An ability to thrive in chaos, think quickly on your feet, and be resourceful to get shit done - must have a willingness to learn.
• A strong focus on outcomes, not just action. You understand what drives the business and how design contributes to its success.
• Knowledge of creative project management best practices 
• The ability to adapt in a rapidly changing environment. You’ll need a can-do attitude; no task will be too small or big for you.

It'd be great if you also had:

• Knowledge of a variety of tools including Google Sheets, Excel, Asana, and Notion
• Experience with analysis and comfort with data is a plus. 
• Experience in operations in a Growth organization 
• Strong knowledge of project management methodologies.
   

Shopify is now permanently remote, and working towards a future that is digital by default. Learn more  about what this can mean for you.

Our belief is that a strong commitment to diversity & inclusion enables us to truly make commerce better for everyone. We encourage applications from Indigenous peoples, racialized people, people with disabilities, people from gender and sexually diverse communities, and/or people with intersectional identities. Please take a look at our Sustainability Reports to learn more about Shopify’s commitments to our communities, and our planet.

At Shopify, we understand that experience comes in many forms. We’re dedicated to adding new perspectives to the team - so if your experience is this close to what we’re looking for, please consider applying.

The last date to apply for this position is the 20th of October.