Associate Manager, Design Operations

Associate Manager, Design Operations

A day in the life of the Associate Manager, Design Operations role at Icebreaker and Smartwool looks a little like this:

The role is responsible for partnering with the Design Director and Senior Design Leads to ensure calendar adherence and create conditions where Design and Contract Designers can be most successful and to work efficiently and effectively. This person will manage timeline and deliverables with in the seasonal creative process outline and work as a support role to the Creative Council as needed, with the goal to improve how we work and operate across creative silos. In addition, this role manages all off season design projects (such as Regional SMU's and Collaborations) as part of the special make up process. Let's break down that day-in-the-life a bit more.

• Manage Seasonal Creative process in partnership with Design Director
• Project Management and Tracking
• Contractor and outside design contract management and brief writing
• Initiated and managing all design legal contracts
• Facilitate contractor and new hire onboarding process to ensure all team members understand our design process and deliverables.
• Manage all invoicing and PO creation for all outsourced design projects through Coupa system
• Partner with Design Leads to proactively lead the product design pipeline including workflow, prioritization and resource planning.
• Create and maintain a project tracker; help mitigate roadblocks as necessary in design deliverables
• Establish and maintain a systematic framework for workflow across all special requests
• Partner with calendar creation team as design lead
• Schedule design reviews, design handoff meetings, color deliverables with key partners
• Provide coordination and support for large/master calendar meetings.
• Identify and champion process improvement opportunities for design to drive efficiency and quality in our workflow.
• Take lead to evaluate and update server organization including folder structure and file nomenclature across design team.
• Provide mentoring and coaching to the colorist role to continual refine the lab dip process to provide efficiency as needed.

What do you need to succeed?

• We all have unique skills that we bring to work and celebrate every day. For this role, there are foundation skills you'll need to succeed and excel. Additionally, while formal education in a related field is great to have, we are most interested in your 5+ years of experience and professional achievements.

The foundation skills you will need in this position are:

• Strong Project Management skills/ experience
• Preferred Qualifications:
• Extensive experience in design and development processes, PLM systems, and workflows.
• Microsoft application, Adobe CC, PLM system.
• Strong background in design and development, calendar management and project management.
• Possess excellent interpersonal, written and verbal communication skills.
• Has the ability to write a clear well thought through brief for contract designers.
• Demonstrate acute problem-solving skills, anticipate roadblocks and adjust plans accordingly and communicate quickly and directly.
• Is a self-starter, and organized.
• Possess the ability to collaboratively and effectively work with a diverse group of people to achieve desired on time results.
• Be an effective listener.
• Demonstrate curiosity and desire to learn and guide.
• Be empathic

Location requirement: Denver, Colorado