Manager of Design Operations & Training

Sarah O. Jewelry•Wheat Ridge, CO

1d•$80,000 - $95,000

About The Position

This role is for a technically minded jewelry expert who can bridge the gap between creative vision and production reality. The ideal candidate understands how construction, stone proportions, CAD feasibility, and manufacturing considerations shape a successful custom piece and can translate these details clearly for both customer-facing and production teams. The role involves educating others, owning details, training teams on custom intake and technical fundamentals, troubleshooting designs, and communicating effectively with CAD and manufacturing partners. The position is at the intersection of craftsmanship and technology, serving as a key partner to the design team and helping integrate tools like Instant Atelier into a seamless custom jewelry process. The most important aspect of this role is bringing consistency and clarity to a complex process, knowing when to make a call, ask the right technical question, and keep a custom piece moving from initial idea through CAD, production, and final execution.

Requirements

5+ years of hands-on experience with jewelry CAD workflows and custom production, whether from a design, bench, or account-management background.
Experience training or mentoring a team, ideally in a retail or production environment.
Working knowledge of stone proportions, settings, and jewelry construction.
Strong communication skills, with the ability to translate technical detail for a non-technical audience.
Ability to translate business requirements into technical specifications and drive training and education to achieve business goals for custom design.

Nice To Haves

Experience at a comparable jewelry retailer, designer, or manufacturer.
Familiarity with AI-assisted design or virtual consultation tools.

Responsibilities

Own the technical execution of the custom process from intake through CAD and production, and serve as the company's final escalation point for technical design issues that cannot be solved in store.
Develop and lead the custom training program, coaching Design Leads and Sales Associates and onboarding for new customer-facing design staff on custom intake, jewelry construction, wearability, stone proportions, settings, and terminology.
Review store-team and Instant Atelier (IA) concepts after Design Lead approval, confirming they are technically complete, production-ready, and fully specified before they move to CAD.
Serve as the liaison between design teams and the CAD and manufacturing partner(s), communicating revisions and technical feedback clearly to both sides.
Own and maintain the Custom Playbook, SOPs, AI prompts, intake forms, CAD standards and reference database, measurements, nomenclature, training resources, and technical documentation to ensure consistency across the custom workflow, Instant Atelier, website, and all stores.
Act as the company-wide technical resource for questions on construction, durability, and stone setting, reducing interruptions to the bench jeweler by fielding technical questions first.
Create custom repair intake standards and train store and production teams on repair evaluation, documentation, photography, and handoff.
Uphold QC standards in partnership with the bench jeweler and Creative team, and train store, production, and bench teams on them.
Improve and scale the custom process, building both in-store and online custom consultation systems, and support stone and inventory sourcing for custom design.
Consistently report on custom design performance to leadership.