Head of Design Operations

Zoomcar; San Francisco (CA); Hybrid; USD 180,000 - 300,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Health benefits

401(k) matching

Parental leave

Paid time off

Home office stipend

Professional development budget

Job summary

Superhuman is redefining how the world works, and we're seeking a Director of Design & Research Operations to lead that transformation. You will shape strategy, drive operational excellence, and build the culture that ensures research insights inform design and product decisions.

As a leader, you will partner with design, research, product, and engineering, removing friction and building scalable systems that enable researchers to generate insights and designers to focus on craft.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in design operations, research operations, design program management, or a related operational role within a design- and/or research-driven organization
• Proven ability to embed structure and process within creative teams without stifling the work
• A track record of building systems that scale with adoptable frameworks and tools
• Experience running operations for mid-to-large design/research teams in fast-moving tech environments
• You lead with data and land change through relationships, tailoring your approach to stakeholders
• Energized by ambiguity and able to move from alignment to action without losing momentum

Responsibilities

• Serve as the connective tissue between Design, Research, Product, and Engineering, ensuring teams stay aligned and unblocked
• Define the vision for design and research excellence and build scalable systems and culture
• Act as a strategic liaison across Finance, Legal, and Marketing to resource and prioritize Design goals
• Align strategy, business goals, execution, and customer needs into a coherent operational view
• Shape culture and practices so insights inform product decisions

Skills

Leadership

Design operations

Research operations

Cross-functional collaboration

Data-driven decision making

Ambiguity management

Program management

Job description

Superhuman offers a dynamic hybrid working model for this role. This flexible approach gives team members the best of both worlds: plenty of focus time along with in-person collaboration that helps foster trust, innovation, and a strong team culture.

About Superhuman

Grammarly is now part of Superhuman, the AI productivity platform on a mission to unlock the superhuman potential in everyone. The Superhuman suite of apps and agents brings AI wherever people work, integrating with over 1 million applications and websites. The company’s products include Grammarly’s writing assistance, Superhuman Docs's collaborative workspaces, Mail’s inbox management, and Go, the proactive AI assistant that understands context and delivers help automatically. Founded in 2009, Superhuman empowers over 40 million people, 50,000 organizations, and 3,000 educational institutions worldwide to eliminate busywork and focus on what matters. Learn more at superhuman.com and about our values here.

The Opportunity

Superhuman is redefining how the world works, and we're looking for a Director of Design & Research Operations to help lead that transformation.

Design & Research Operations sets the operational foundation for how our design and research teams function — ensuring designers can focus on craft and researchers can generate insights that meaningfully shape product decisions. We're looking for a strong leader to elevate what we've built and push it further.

As the leader of Design & Research Operations, you'll work closely with Design and Research leadership to shape strategy, drive operational excellence, and build the culture and practices that ensure research insights meaningfully inform design and product decisions. You'll serve as a key cross-functional partner to design, research, product, and engineering—removing friction, building scalable systems, and creating the conditions for designers to focus on craft and researchers to focus on generating the insights that shape what we build.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the connective tissue between Design, Research, Product, and Engineering, ensuring teams stay aligned, unblocked, and set up to deliver high-quality work.

• Partner with Design & Research leadership to define the vision for craft and research excellence, and build the systems, programs, and culture that elevate both—raising the bar on design quality while making insight-driven decision-making the default across the team.

• Act as a strategic liaison across departments, from Finance to Legal to Marketing, ensuring Design goals are understood, resourced, and prioritized.

• Connect strategy, business goals, execution, and customer needs into a coherent operational picture that keeps the design team focused and moving forward.

• Shape the team's culture and practices around how research informs design and product work, ensuring we have the right rituals, norms, and systems that allow insights to inform product decision-making.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in design operations, research operations, design program management, or a related operational role within a design- and/or research-driven organization

• Proven ability to embed structure and process within creative teams without stifling the work — you know how to make rigor feel enabling, not restrictive

• A track record of building systems that scale. Frameworks, processes, and tools that teams actually adopt and that help organizations move faster without losing quality.

• Experience running operations for a mid-to-large design and/or research team, ideally in a fast-moving product or tech environment

• You lead with data and land change through relationships — bringing evidence to every conversation while tailoring your approach to what each stakeholder needs to move forward

• You're energized by ambiguity and default to action — but you know when to slow down, build alignment, and make sure the team is moving in the right direction

Compensation and Benefits

Superhuman offers all team members competitive pay along with a benefits package encompassing the following and more:

• Excellent health care (including a wide range of medical, dental, vision, mental health, and fertility benefits)

• Disability and life insurance options

• 401(k) and RRSP matching

• Paid parental leave

• 20 days of paid time off per year, 12 days of paid holidays per year, two floating holidays per year, and flexible sick time

• Generous stipends (including those for caregiving, pet care, wellness, your home office, and more)

• Annual professional development budget and opportunities

Superhuman takes a market-based approach to compensation, so base pay may vary by location. Our US locations are categorized into two compensation zones based on proximity to our hub locations.

Base pay may vary considerably depending on job-related knowledge, skills, and experience. The expected salary ranges for this position are outlined by compensation zone and may be modified in the future.

At Superhuman, we value our differences, and we encourage all to apply—especially those whose identities are traditionally underrepresented in tech organizations. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, gender expression or identity, sexual orientation, ancestry, national origin, citizenship, age, marital status, veteran status, disability status, political belief, or any other characteristic protected by law. Superhuman is an equal opportunity employer and a participant in the US federal E-Verify program (US). We also abide by the Employment Equity Act (Canada).