Design Operations Manager

Vuori is seeking a highly organized, collaborative, and influential Design Operations Manager to support our fast-growing Apparel Design team. In this strategic and cross-functional role, you will help drive operational excellence across our seasonal calendar, creative workflows, and special projects—including high-visibility collaborations. You will leverage strong communication and influencing skills to align stakeholders, guide decision-making, and foster accountability across teams. Your leadership will bring structure to the creative process, enabling Design to deliver innovative product with clarity, speed, and cohesion. 

What you'll get to do:

Design Operations 

• Own and manage the seasonal Design calendar, partnering with cross-functional stakeholders (Design, Merchandising, Product Development, Marketing) to ensure key milestones are visible, achievable, and aligned. 
• Act as a central hub of communication for the Design team, ensuring clarity on seasonal goals, priorities, timelines, and deliverables. 
• Lead the planning, logistics, and execution of key creative milestone meetings, ensuring teams are prepared with product rooms, presentation decks, and samples. 
• Identify and implement workflow improvements, tools, and templates that streamline the design process and enhance team productivity. 
• Establish and maintain best practices for cross-team collaboration, documentation, and decision-making. 
• Monitor and evaluate the efficiency of design operations processes; recommend and implement improvements that drive scale and increase speed to market. 
• Partner with Product Ops to ensure seamless handoffs and consistent documentation between Design and downstream teams. 
• Manage the operational relationship between internal design functions to ensure consistency and shared standards. 
• Build strong relationships across teams to support and maintain process discipline. 
• Act as the documentation owner for Design Ops—maintaining operational playbooks, updated workflows, and best-practice resources. 

Collaboration & Project Management 

• Lead cross-functional planning for partnership and capsule projects, ensuring timelines, responsibilities, and deliverables are clearly defined and met. 
• Serve as the key operational partner for collaboration projects with the Marketing team to ensure that programs alignment with product launches and business objectives. 
• Work closely with internal Design partners to manage timelines and deliverables for capsule collections. 
• Collaborate with Merchandising to align capsule assortments with business needs, including key item strategy and volume-driving styles. 
• Coordinate project milestones, manage partnership touchpoints, and ensure alignment from concept through launch. 
• Own tracking tools, timelines, and workflow documentation for all special projects; escalate risks and roadblocks proactively. 
• Drive clarity and alignment through communication across product and partnership teams. 

Tools, Systems & Reporting 

• Evaluate current tools and identify gaps or inefficiencies in how the Design team manages projects and tracks work. 
• Develop reporting dashboards and tracking systems to provide visibility into seasonal progress, project status, and team bandwidth. 
• Champion the adoption of new tools and systems; lead training sessions and create supporting documentation to ensure successful implementation. 
• Partner with technology and business systems teams to explore integrations that support creative operations. 

Team Culture & Leadership Support 

• Organize Design team events, offsites, and collaborative sessions that strengthen culture and connection. 
• Coordinate travel logistics for Design leaders and team needs when relevant. 
• Foster a culture of operational excellence, accountability, and continuous improvement within the Design organization. 
• Act as a thought partner to the Associate Director of Design Operations in shaping the long-term vision and maturity of the Design Ops function. 
• Support team onboarding and knowledge sharing by developing documentation and playbooks that promote consistency and clarity. 
• Drive inclusive collaboration practices across creative and technical teams, ensuring diverse perspectives are integrated into decision-making.