Design Operations Lead

Foundation Medicine, Inc.; Morrisville (NC); On-site; USD 152,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

Foundation Medicine, Inc. seeks a Design Operations Lead to establish and operate a scalable design capability for Technology Enablement.

This role owns the design toolchain, governance, and workflows across FMI’s reports, portals, and digital experiences. You will lead internal and external design resources, drive quality and consistency, and partner with Product Management to translate business needs into effective design outcomes while advancing collaboration, standards, and delivery across

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in design or related field and 8+ years in product/UX design or design ops.
• Hands-on senior designer with strong visual and interaction design craft.
• Proficiency in Figma and InDesign; ability to create reusable templates and assets.
• Experience establishing workflows from design through engineering handoff.

Responsibilities

• Lead the overall design operations capability, establishing the operating model, standards and governance for how design work is delivered.
• Oversee the design portfolio, including intake, prioritization, resource allocation, quality and delivery.
• Coordinate internal and external design resources; ensure consistent execution against standards.
• Serve as hands-on practitioner for baseline design across FMI reports, portals, and related experiences.
• Own and improve the design toolchain and working environment, including Figma governance and templates.
• Partner with Product Management to translate needs into design outcomes and align with strategy.
• Establish design-to-development handoff practices and support QA of delivered experiences.
• Forecast design demand and capacity; identify upcoming resource needs.

Skills

Figma proficiency

Handoff & collaboration

Stakeholder management

Design systems

Education

Bachelor's degree in design or related field

Tools

Figma

Adobe InDesign

Job description

Foundation Medicine, Inc.

Design Operations Lead

• 400 Summer Street, Boston, Massachusetts, United States

• Full Time

About the Job:

The Design Operations Lead establishes and operates a scalable design capability for Technology Enablement. This role serves as the operational owner of the design capability, with accountability for design quality, tooling, workflows, standards, intake, resource planning, and delivery across reports, portals, and other digital experiences.

The Design Operations Lead owns the permanent design capability required to support and evolve FMI's products and experiences while enabling specialized design capacity to scale with initiative demand. The role directs and coordinates internal and external design resources to deliver the majority of design work, while providing targeted hands-on support for baseline design needs, maintaining critical design assets and standards, and determining when additional UX, UI, research, accessibility, service design, or other expertise is required.

A key responsibility is continually improving how design work gets done. The Lead owns the design toolchain and working environment, including Figma organization and governance, Adobe InDesign report-design and production workflows, reusable templates and libraries, project and asset organization, documentation, versioning, and design-to-development handoff practices. The Lead identifies gaps in existing tooling and processes and implements more effective approaches that improve design quality, efficiency, maintainability, and collaboration.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead the overall design operations capability, establishing the operating model, priorities, standards and governance for how design work is delivered
• Provide oversight of the design portfolio, including intake, prioritization, resource allocation, quality and delivery across digital experiences
• Lead and coordinate internal and external design resources, providing direction and ensuring consistent execution against established design standards
• Serve as hands-on practitioner for Technology Enablement, directly executing baseline design and production work across FMI reports, portals, and related digital experiences while engaging specialized expertise when demand or complexity requires it
• Own and continuously improve the design toolchain, standards, and working environment, including Figma governance, fit-for-purpose report and PDF design tooling, reusable components and templates, and clear project, file, asset, and documentation practices
• Partner with Product Management and cross-functional stakeholders to translate product and business needs into effective design outcomes, define the appropriate design approach, and ensure work is aligned to product strategy, priorities, and delivery plans
• Establish clear design-to-development handoff practices so work is organized, documented, technically actionable, and maintainable; partner with Engineering during implementation as needed and support design quality assurance of delivered experiences
• Forecast design demand and capacity, identifying upcoming resource needs and when initiative-funding or specialized resources are required
• Ensure work delivered by internal specialists, consultants, agencies and other partners transitions cleanly into ongoing stewardship, including reusable assets, documentation, and key design decisions
• Facilitate design reviews and decision forums; uphold consistent, human-centered, accessible, and high-quality design practices across reports, portals, and other digital experiences
• Define meaningful measures for the design capability and continuously improve its tools, workflows, quality, capacity, and delivery effectiveness
• Other duties as assigned
• Comply with FMI's attendance policies

Qualifications:

Basic Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in design, human-computer interaction, human factors, information design, product design, graphic design, a related discipline, or equivalent relevant professional experience
• 8+ years of professional experience in product design, experience design, UI/UX design, design operations, or a related discipline
• Demonstrated experience as a hands-on senior designer, with a portfolio or equivalent work examples showing strong visual and interaction design craft, systems thinking, and production-quality digital experiences
• Advanced proficiency with Figma and strong experience with professional report and document design tooling, including Adobe InDesign; experience establishing reusable templates, libraries, and well-organized design assets
• Demonstrated experience working cross-functionally in a product environment and establishing effective workflows from design through engineering handoff, implementation, and quality review
• Demonstrated ability to independently frame ambiguous design needs, establish practical standards and workflows, organize complex work, and balance hands-on execution with orchestration of additional design expertise
• 3+ years of direct experience in the life science, biomedical, biopharma, and/or health care industries designing data-driven applications, systems, and services

Preferred Qualifications:

• Experience operating or contributing to a Design Operations, DesignOps, design services, or similarly centralized design capability
• Experience with reports, data-rich applications, customer or provider portals, enterprise software, or other information-dense experiences, including strong typography, information hierarchy, and document/report design skills
• Experience with design systems, reusable component libraries, accessibility standards, project and asset organization, and design quality governance
• Experience with design intake, demand forecasting, capacity planning, and work delivered through a mix of internal contributors, consultants, agencies, or other external partners
• Working knowledge of modern product development and component-based front-end environments, including tools or practices that support design-to-development collaboration and handoff
• Strong facilitation, communication, and stakeholder-management skills, with an understanding of HIPAA and patient data privacy
• Understanding of HIPAA and the importance of patient data privacy
• Commitment to reflect FMIs values: Integrity, Courage, and Passion

The expected salary range for this position based on the primary location of Boston, MA is $152,160 - $190,200 per year. The salary range is commensurate with Foundation Medicines compensation practice and considers factors including, but not limited to, education, training, experience, external market conditions, criticality of role, and internal equity. A discretionary annual bonus may be available based on individual and Company performance. This position also qualifies for Foundation Medicine's benefits.

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Equal employment opportunity, including veterans and individuals with disabilities.

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