Principal Associate, Design Operations

161 Bay Street (93021), Canada, Toronto,Toronto, Ontario,Principal Associate, Design Operations
About Capital One Canada.
For 30 years, we've been on a mission to change banking for good and build relationships by making credit accessible, simple, intuitive and rewarding. We want to help Canadians succeed with credit, because we believe in people - in our customers, in our associates, and in talent like you!
About the Team
Our Experience Design (XD) team is at the forefront of enriching our customers' digital experiences. If you thrive in understanding how things work, making them better and solving complex problems by focusing first and foremost on the customer, then this role is for you!
About the Role
We are seeking an exceptional Principal Associate (PA), Design Operations with a core strength in design process, tooling optimization, AI integration, and automation to join our XD team and help codify how our team and partners define, design, and deliver digital customer experiences through our ways of working.
Your Responsibilities:
General Design Operations

• Lead the definition and execution of standardized XD workflows and Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) to advance team efficiency across XD research, CX insights, product design, content design, and design systems.
• Configure, maintain, and automate XD software and tooling ecosystem to ensure the team has the resources needed for efficient, high-quality delivery while adhering to enterprise security best practices.
• Partner with XD leadership to support the delivery of product launches, technology adoption, and continuous improvement initiatives through strong cross functional alignment and stakeholder influence.
• Regularly evaluate the efficiency of existing XD team procedures and proactively propose improvements to achieve better business outcomes and enhance customer experience.
• Leverage qualitative and quantitative data to evaluate operational performance, creating improvement strategies and reporting on XD team OKRs and KPIs to stakeholders.
• Work as a primary point of contact for cross-functional partners (Product, Engineering, Brand, Operations) to ensure alignment on delivery standards and shared operational roadmaps.

AI-Focused Team Evolution

• Serve as the XD AI curator, responsible for mapping the design lifecycle to identify friction points and partnering with teams to rollout and implement AI solutions to solve for these opportunities.
• Identify opportunities for AI-native integration within the design process, focusing on automating repetitive tasks to free up team capacity for strategic creative work.
• Establish AI-driven governance models to audit design systems for compliance and ensure that AI-generated outputs meet Capital One's quality, experience, and security standards.
• Explore and implement synthetic data strategies to streamline CX insights, user research and user testing workflows, significantly reducing the time required to gather actionable insights.
• Curate a centralized prompt/skills/agentic "library" and manage the evaluation and implementation of emerging AI-native XD design tools to ensure the team remains at the forefront of the industry.
• Drive AI literacy by leading upskilling workshops and developing "Gold Standard" playbooks that define how the team and cross-functional partners leverage AI tools for the XD process and govern AI-generated XD artifacts.

Basic Qualifications:

• At least 5 years of experience in Design Operations or Program Management related to Product Design teams.
• At least 5 years experience working in a cross-functional environment, ensuring stakeholder expectations are managed effectively
• At least 5 years of experience in a fast-paced, dynamic environment with proven ability to adapt to changing priorities, independent problem-solving, and exercising a high degree of autonomy.
• Deep expertise working with industry standard XD tools (Figma, UserZoom, UserTesting, dScout, CX Insight platforms, design system tools, content design tools, accessibility tools).
• Familiarity with the latest XD related AI tools and ability to implement them for maximum operational efficiency across the Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC).
• Experience in "Service Design" for internal teams-viewing the design team itself as the "user" of the tools.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Design, Business, Commerce, Engineering, or Science or related fields.
• Experience of using Lean & Six Sigma tools & methodology.
• Experience working in regulated environments (Financial industry etc.) with an understanding of legal and compliance workflows.
• Proven track record of managing a design technology portfolio for mid-sized teams.
• Experience applying Agile/SAFe methodologies within a product design context.

Working at Capital One.
Enjoy a hybrid work environment, with 3 days in the office. Build a comfortable workspace with our one-time, Work From Home allowance and enjoy our head office located conveniently across the street from Union Station.
Live well-physically, financially and emotionally. Receive support for you and those who are most important to you, with full coverage for spouses, domestic partners, and dependents. With up to $3000 in mental health coverage and up to $5000 in tuition subsidies per year-and much more-you'll discover that Capital One is committed to helping you live your best life.
This posting is for an existing vacancy.
The expected annual salary range for this position is $108,900-$124,300. This role is also eligible to earn performance based incentive compensation, which may include cash bonus(es). Incentives could be discretionary or non discretionary depending on the plan.
We embrace the responsible use of artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance the candidate experience and streamline our recruitment processes. However, no hiring decisions are made using AI as every hiring decision is made by our hiring managers, business interviewers, and recruitment professionals. Our teams are equipped with training that empowers them to use AI responsibly.
We may use your information for automated decision making. We may, for certain purposes, render a decision based exclusively on automated processing of your personal information as a part of the candidate screening process.
Capital One Canada is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. We consider all qualified applicants and will meet the needs of those requiring reasonable accommodations.
If you have visited our website in search of information on employment opportunities or to apply for a position, and you require an accommodation, please contact Capital One Recruiting at 1-800-304-9102 or via email at [email protected] . All information you provide will be kept confidential and will be used only to the extent required to provide needed reasonable accommodations.
For technical support or questions about Capital One's recruiting process, please send an email to [email protected]
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Capital One Financial is made up of several different entities. Please note that any position posted in Canada is for Capital One Canada, any position posted in the United Kingdom is for Capital One Europe and any position posted in the Philippines is for Capital One Philippines Service Corp. (COPSSC).