Sr. Manager, Design Operations

As the Senior Manager of Design Operations at Yum Digital & Technology, you’ll be a key operational leader ensuring the Design, Research, and Strategy teams are empowered to operate with clarity, consistency, and focus. You’ll oversee the tools, systems, and practices that support scaled, high-performing collaboration across the Byte ecosystem—while also cultivating the rhythms and structures that keep the team connected, informed, and aligned.

This role is ideal for a systems thinker and strategic operator who can translate ambiguity into action, build trusted cross-functional relationships, and drive sustained operational maturity. You will manage complex tooling ecosystems, lead Figma consolidation across brands, standardize core processes, and bring cohesion to the day-to-day and strategic operating model of the design organization.

Key Responsibilities:

Team Enablement & Organizational Operations

• Establish and lead the team operating cadence, including regular ceremonies such as design reviews, critiques, all-hands, milestone showcases, and retrospectives.
• Partner with design leadership to manage team-wide communications, meeting structures, planning cadences, and operational documentation.
• Drive visibility and accountability across strategic initiatives, design goals, and cross-functional engagements by managing progress tracking and alignment checkpoints.
• Help foster a cohesive and inclusive team culture through operational rituals, team engagement strategies, and internal storytelling.

Tooling & Platform Governance

• Lead the consolidation and governance of Figma across the organization, including shared libraries, permission models, taxonomy, and maintenance practices.
• Own the strategy, configuration, and administration of core design and research tools (e.g., Figma, UserTesting, Miro, Dovetail, Jira, Confluence), ensuring reliability, scalability, and adoption.
• Define access protocols, system roles, and training resources for tool usage across multi-disciplinary teams.

Vendor Management, Procurement & Licensing

• Manage vendor relationships for design and research platforms, including contracting, license procurement, renewals, and cost forecasting.
• Partner with Legal, Finance, Procurement, and IT to ensure tool compliance, streamline onboarding/offboarding processes, and optimize spend.
• Audit existing tool usage to reduce redundancy, improve ROI, and guide long-term platform strategy.

Process Optimization & Operational Design

• Build and scale intake, prioritization, and workflow systems to support how design work is requested, resourced, tracked, and delivered across product spaces.
• Standardize project management practices across design pods and functions, tailoring them to meet the needs of discovery, delivery, and strategy teams.
• Maintain clear and current process documentation, change logs, and learning resources that support team onboarding and evolution.

Cross-Functional Alignment

• Serve as a key operational partner to leaders in Product, Engineering, Brand, Franchise Ops, and Research—connecting design workflows to broader planning cycles and delivery milestones.
• Anticipate and coordinate cross-functional dependencies and roadblocks to keep execution on track and aligned with business goals.
• Help shape how the design team interfaces with the broader organization through repeatable engagement models and shared accountability frameworks.

Required Qualifications:

• 10+ years of relevant experience in design operations, program management, product ops, or operational leadership within creative or digital organizations.
• Experience driving enterprise-wide tooling consolidation (especially Figma) and managing the administration and governance of creative and research tools.
• Demonstrated success managing vendor relationships, procurement workflows, contracts, and licensing budgets.
• Strong operational planning and facilitation skills—able to lead team cadences, coordinate across functions, and translate vision into action.
• Deep understanding of design methodologies, product development life cycles, and how to scale human-centered design practices.
• Known for creating clarity, instilling structure, and enabling others to execute with excellence and autonomy.
• Bachelor’s degree required; advanced degree or equivalent experience preferred.

Salary Range: $153,000 to $198,000 annually + bonus eligibility. This is the expected salary range for this position. Ultimately, in determining pay, we'll consider the successful candidate’s location, experience, and other job-related factors.

Yum! Brands, Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, and its subsidiaries franchise or operate a system of over 59,000 restaurants in more than 155 countries and territories under the company’s concepts – KFC, Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Habit Burger & Grill. The Company's KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut brands are global leaders of the chicken, Mexican-style food, and pizza categories, respectively. Habit Burger & Grill is a fast casual restaurant concept specializing in made-to-order chargrilled burgers, sandwiches and more. In 2024, Yum! was named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index North America, and the company was recognized among TIME Magazine’s list of Best Companies for Future Leaders, Newsweek’s list of America’s Most Responsible Companies and USA Today’s America’s Climate Leaders. Yum! also received widespread recognition in 2023, including being listed on the Bloomberg Gender-Equality Index; and Forbes’ list of America’s Best Employers for Diversity. In addition, KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut brands were ranked in the top five of Entrepreneur’s Top Global Franchises Ranking for 2023.