Director, UX Operations & Design Programs

Unum; Chattanooga (TN); On-site; USD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Unum, a Fortune 500 company, is transforming its digital experience by accelerating UX operations and design program management at scale. We seek a leader who can elevate portfolio governance, demand & capacity planning, and cross-team delivery across value streams to deliver measurable outcomes.

The Director, UX Operations & Design Program Management will establish operating rhythms, mentor teams, and partner with product, engineering, finance, and leadership to align priorities with business

Responsibilities

• Lead UX talent, culture & workforce enablement
• Develop workforce strategies balancing employee talent, external partners, capability needs, funding, and changing demand
• Maintain enterprise visibility into UX demand, capacity, utilization, skills, staffing risks, and deployment across value streams
• Lead pod formation, staffing, onboarding, and deployment; resolve resource conflicts and recommend hiring or sourcing actions
• Maintain capability inventories, skills matrices, succession insights, and resource-planning models
• Provide direct leadership, coaching, performance management, and career development for UX professionals
• Build an inclusive culture grounded in accountability, customer focus, knowledge sharing, and continuous learning
• Direct the UX portfolio & design program management practice
• Own portfolio planning and operating rhythms for UX initiatives across multiple teams, value streams, and senior stakeholders
• Translate business priorities into integrated roadmaps, program plans, milestones, decision points, and measurable outcomes
• Lead dependency management across design, research, product, engineering, finance, change, and delivery; remove barriers and resolve escalated issues
• Establish standards for intake, prioritization, status reporting, risk and issue management, change control, and executive decision support
• Direct resource-planning ceremonies and align UX capacity with product and delivery plans in Agile and scaled delivery environments
• Oversee portfolio dashboards and executive communications that surface progress, tradeoffs, risks, financial implications, and required decisions
• Mentor program managers and design leads in planning, stakeholder management, facilitation, and outcome-based delivery
• Operate and evolve the scalable UX Pod Model
• Define and continuously improve the UX operating model for a distributed, pod-based delivery organization
• Establish scalable engagement models, governance, quality controls, and ways of working across design, research, content, accessibility, product, and engineering
• Oversee UX roadmaps, priorities, workflows, operational services, budgets, and tooling investments
• Govern design systems, pattern libraries, component inventories, and experience standards with Design and Engineering leaders
• Strengthen design-to-development alignment and consistent implementation quality
• Develop KPIs and dashboards for capacity, efficiency, quality, throughput, adoption, delivery health, and business impact
• Scale research operations & knowledge systems
• Establish ResearchOps capabilities supporting dedicated researchers and governed practitioner-led research
• Oversee repositories, insight libraries, taxonomies, templates, participant management, and knowledge practices
• Create standards making research consistent, compliant, discoverable, reusable, and connected to portfolio decisions
• Coordinate research governance, privacy, compliance, and operational support
• Apply AI and automation responsibly to improve synthesis, findability, reuse, and efficiency
• Manage financials, vendors, & commercial performance
• Own UX operational budgets, for

Job description

Unum, a Fortune 500 company, is transforming its digital experience by accelerating UX operations and design program management at scale. We seek a leader who can elevate portfolio governance, demand & capacity planning, and cross-team delivery across value streams to deliver measurable outcomes.

The Director, UX Operations & Design Program Management will establish operating rhythms, mentor teams, and partner with product, engineering, finance, and leadership to align priorities with business