Design Operations Associate

Kyndryl•Dallas, TX

1d•Hybrid

About The Position

Kyndryl is seeking a Design Operations Associate to join their team. This role focuses on creating the structure, tools, and processes that enable design teams to perform at their best. Instead of creating design deliverables, the associate will improve how design work is planned, coordinated, tracked, and delivered across projects and teams. The position involves balancing operational planning with daily execution to help designers focus more on problem-solving and less on process challenges. The associate will collaborate with designers, product teams, engineers, and delivery partners to support design initiatives, ensuring visibility into priorities, timelines, dependencies, and outcomes for effective collaboration and informed decision-making. This role is ideal for individuals interested in design operations, program coordination, process improvement, and understanding how design teams function within large organizations. It offers exposure to design systems, digital product development, experience design practices, and portfolio management, while developing operational and consulting skills.

Requirements

Demonstrated experience coordinating projects, programs, workflows, or operational activities in a design, product, project management, or business operations environment.
Understanding of how design work moves from planning through delivery within a multidisciplinary team.
Experience managing multiple workstreams, priorities, or initiatives simultaneously.
Ability to create, document, and maintain processes, templates, or operational frameworks.
Experience collaborating with teams that have different priorities, responsibilities, and areas of expertise.
Ability to identify operational challenges and recommend practical improvements.
Experience using project management, planning, tracking, or collaboration tools.
Strong organizational skills with the ability to maintain accuracy across multiple activities and deadlines.

Nice To Haves

Experience supporting design, UX, service design, customer experience, or digital product teams.
Familiarity with portfolio management, resource planning, or capacity tracking practices.
Experience contributing to process improvement or operational transformation initiatives.
Exposure to design systems, design governance, or quality review processes.
Familiarity with AI-enabled productivity, workflow, or collaboration tools.

Responsibilities

Support planning activities for design projects, including intake, prioritization, scheduling, and resource coordination.
Help maintain processes that enable consistent and high-quality delivery across design initiatives.
Track milestones, dependencies, and deliverables to help teams stay aligned and informed.
Prepare reports and updates that provide visibility into project status, priorities, and risks.
Facilitate collaboration between design, product, engineering, and delivery teams.
Support briefing, planning, and review activities for design work.
Ensure stakeholders have access to accurate and timely information about design initiatives.
Help manage communication flows related to project timelines, dependencies, and key decisions.
Identify gaps, bottlenecks, or inefficiencies in the design workflow.
Document and maintain processes, templates, tools, and operational guidelines.
Support continuous improvement initiatives that simplify how design work is managed and delivered.
Contribute ideas that improve team effectiveness, consistency, and visibility.
Track work across multiple projects, programs, or design initiatives.
Maintain information that helps teams understand workload, capacity, and priorities.
Assist with forecasting, planning, and operational reporting activities.
Monitor progress against agreed objectives and highlight potential risks or constraints.
Build knowledge of DesignOps, experience design, and digital product development practices.
Learn how design teams collaborate within large-scale customer environments.
Develop skills in program coordination, process improvement, stakeholder management, and operational planning.
Gain hands-on experience using planning, collaboration, and workflow management tools.