Design Operations Manager, Systems and AI Enablement

We’re looking for a Design Operations Manager to lead systems operations and AI tooling operations strategy across Yahoo Design. This role sits at the intersection of program management, design systems governance, tooling operations, and AI enablement.

You will partner closely with Yahoo’s Design Systems team and Central Design Leadership to drive planning, governance, tooling, and AI enablement across the organization. This is an individual contributor role for someone who combines strong program management expertise with design fluency, a genuine curiosity for AI and emerging technologies, and a track record of building scalable systems.

As a Design Operations Manager you will be responsible for:

Design Systems Program Operations

You will lead operational planning, program management, and governance for Yahoo’s design system (Yahoo OS) and related systems initiatives:

• Drive roadmap planning, prioritization, resource allocation, milestone tracking, dependency management, risk mitigation, and adoption reporting across Yahoo OS design initiatives.
• Leverage approved AI project management features (such as Asana AI and Atlassian AI) to automate program tracking, milestone reporting, and workflow efficiencies across major initiatives.
• Own strategic program and project management for major Yahoo OS initiatives, including systems consolidation, component creation and adoption, AI enablement framework efforts, expressive workstream adoption and testing, patterns libraries, tokens, and governance.
• Track milestones, risks, dependencies, adoption and test plans with business units and contingency plans across all active Yahoo OS workstreams.
• Facilitate alignment and decision-making across Design, Engineering, Product, Inclusive Design, UXR, Content Design, Legal, and Compliance partners; manage intake, contribution workflows, design system reviews, migrations, and governance processes.
• Manage recurring cadences, roadmap reviews, planning sessions, governance meetings, workshops, offsites, executive reporting, and organizational communications.
• Support launch readiness, stakeholder communications, onboarding resources, knowledge management, documentation strategy, and adoption enablement.
• Coordinate rollout, adoption, communications, and operational support for Yahoo OS AI workflows, MCPs, starter kits, AI Pilot Program initiatives, and emerging AI-driven design processes.
• Coordinate launch support, executive requests, governance escalations, and other high-priority cross-functional initiatives.
• Identify opportunities to streamline workflows, improve operational efficiency, and proactively introduce AI-driven automation across systems operations.
• Establish clear pathways for completed visual design work to move into Yahoo OS.

AI Tooling + Enablement

You will own the operational strategy and rollout of AI tooling across Design:

• Define and manage the AI tooling roadmap, including rollout planning, onboarding, adoption tracking, and ongoing optimization.
• Translate AI experimentation, pilot programs, and emerging capabilities into scalable guidance, documentation, and best practices, leveraging enterprise-approved platforms (e.g. Anthropic Claude) to accelerate work where it adds value.
• Partner with Design leadership to operationalize AI-enabled workflows and drive adoption across teams.
• Manage AI vendor onboarding and operations, including licensing, provisioning, renewals, and access management.
• Coordinate closely with Privacy, Legal, Security, IT, and Procurement to ensure compliant, secure, and responsible implementation of AI tools.
• Establish measurement frameworks to track adoption, effectiveness, and business impact of AI initiatives.
• Serve as a strategic partner to Learning + Development programs, helping shape AI onboarding, enablement resources, and capability-building initiatives.

Cross-Design Tool Governance

• Own org-wide governance for shared design platforms (Asana, Monotype, Mobbin, and other future tools), including adoption standards, account administration, licensing, renewals, and compliance.
• Track budgets, seat allocations, and utilization across the tooling ecosystem; identify opportunities to consolidate, optimize, or sunset tools.
• Partner with Central Design leadership on tooling forecasts, budget planning, and investment decisions.

• 7+ years of experience in Design Operations, Program Management or Strategic Operations within a design-led organization.
• Demonstrated experience leading complex cross-functional programs involving Design, Engineering, Product, and executive stakeholders.
• Strong understanding of design systems, governance models, and adoption strategies within large-scale product organizations.
• Experience building operational frameworks for roadmap planning, prioritization, resource management, and organizational change.
• Proven experience evaluating, implementing, and scaling tooling strategies, including AI-powered tools and AI-augmented workflows.
• Strong vendor management and procurement experience, including licensing, budgeting, contract renewals, and platform administration.
• Experience partnering with Legal, Privacy, Security, Compliance, IT, Finance, and Procurement stakeholders on AI policy and software evaluations.
• Excellent program management and communication skills, with the ability to independently drive initiatives from strategy through execution and produce clear, executive-ready updates.
• Systems-oriented mindset with a track record of identifying operational gaps, creating scalable processes, and driving measurable organizational impact.

The material job duties and responsibilities of this role include those listed above as well as adhering to Yahoo policies; exercising sound judgment; working effectively, safely and inclusively with others; exhibiting trustworthiness and meeting expectations; and safeguarding business operations and brand integrity.

The compensation for this position ranges from $90,750.00 - $188,750.00/yr and will vary depending on factors such as your location, skills and experience.The compensation package may also include incentive compensation opportunities in the form of discretionary annual bonus or commissions. Our comprehensive benefits include healthcare, a great 401k, backup childcare, education stipends and much (much) more.