Lead of Design Strategy & Operations, Vice President - Employee Experience

Join our Employee Experience Design team as the Lead of Design Strategy & Operations, where you’ll be the strategic and operational partner to the Head of Design—turning design vision into an operating model that scales across a global workforce. You’ll build the “design operating system” (intake, prioritization, funding, governance, metrics, and delivery rhythms) that improves predictability, strengthens craft, and ties design outcomes directly to the firm’s highest-value priorities. This is a high-impact leadership role for someone who thrives in complex, regulated environments and can elevate UX through operational rigor, talent strategy, and data-driven execution.

As the Lead of Design Strategy & Operations in Employee Experience, you are the operational and strategic partner to the Head of Design, accountable for translating design vision into an executable operating model that scales across the Design team delivering employee experiences for a global population. Sitting at the intersection of strategy and operations, this role strengthens how design plans, prioritizes, funds, measures, and delivers outcomes—improving the leverage of design teams and ensuring work aligns to the firm’s highest-value business priorities. 

This role combines portfolio strategy, operational rigor, and design leadership to build durable systems for execution, talent, governance, and measurement—while protecting the integrity of employee experience and design quality.

Job Responsibilities 

• Define and run the design operating system that enables consistent delivery across a multi-team, multi-stakeholder environment. Establish clear mechanisms for intake, prioritization, resourcing, and delivery planning, ensuring design capacity is allocated to the most material employee and business outcomes and that commitments are predictable and transparent. 
• Drive portfolio and performance management for the design organization by defining success metrics, reporting cadences, and executive readouts that connect design activity to business outcomes and risk considerations. Build discipline around OKRs (or equivalent), roadmap alignment, and value realization, enabling leadership to make informed trade-offs across competing priorities. 
• Operationalize governance across design standards, decision rights, and review forums, creating lightweight but effective structures that accelerate decisions and reduce rework. Ensure cross-functional alignment with product and engineering operating rhythms, clarifying handoffs, dependencies, and escalation paths while preserving design craft and user-centricity. 
• Lead the design organization’s workforce and financial management, including headcount planning, role architecture, budget management, and vendor strategy. Implement controls and processes for external partners that ensure quality, continuity, and compliance with enterprise procurement, risk, and security expectations. 
• Partner with Design Leadership and People/Talent stakeholders to strengthen onboarding, career pathways, performance management, and capability development. Identify systemic skill gaps, build programs to address them, and improve manager enablement so teams can scale without dilution of quality. 
• Build and evolve the team’s tooling and operational infrastructure, including design system adoption support, research operations partnership, workflow tooling, and documentation practices. Drive automation and simplification where appropriate to reduce administrative burden and improve cycle time. 
• Own and scale design-org culture and craft excellence by running a monthly design all-hands and establishing regular communities of practice and learning forums, including showcases and critique, onboarding enablement, and knowledge-sharing rituals that drive alignment, engagement, shared standards, and connection across distributed teams. 
• Proactively identify operating frictions and drive adoption of new ways of working across design and adjacent functions. Communicate with clarity and credibility at executive levels, ensuring stakeholders understand priorities, constraints, risks, and expected outcomes. 
• Accountable for cultivating a strong design culture by establishing communities of practice and driving design operations rhythms—including monthly all-hands and recurring forums—to align teams, share best practices, and scale design excellence. 
   

Required Qualifications, Capabilities, and Skills 

• 7+ years’ experience operating at a leadership level in design operations, design program management, product operations, strategy and operations, or a comparable function within a complex enterprise environment. 
• Ability to communicate effectively with senior leadership, elevating UX as a critical business driver. 
• Experience in Design Program Management, User Experience Design, Design Operations, Product Delivery, or Operations in a cross-functional, agile environment. 
• Experience navigating complex matrix organizations, anticipating and resolving blockers, and influencing at all levels. 
• Knowledge of end-to-end product design process, design systems, tools (Figma, Claude, Jira, Confluence), and agile delivery methods. 
• Growth mindset with enthusiasm for scaling design delivery and enabling data-driven decision-making through innovation and experimentation. 

Preferred Qualifications, Capabilities, and Skills 

• Knowledge of design and product development processes, workflows, and tools 
• Understanding of design principles, accessibility, design systems, research methods, systems thinking, and experimentation practices. 
• Professional qualification in Lean Project Management, Agile/Scrum Certification, or Product Management. 
• Experience supporting or operating within a large financial services, fintech, or regulated industry environment, with familiarity navigating governance, third-party risk considerations, and security/compliance constraints while maintaining delivery velocity. 
• Experience establishing or scaling enterprise design practices, including design system enablement, research operations, content design partnerships, and design quality assurance mechanisms. 
• Experience applying AI directly to your strategy and operations practice. 

JPMorganChase, one of the oldest financial institutions, offers innovative financial solutions to millions of consumers, small businesses and many of the world’s most prominent corporate, institutional and government clients under the J.P. Morgan and Chase brands. Our history spans over 200 years and today we are a leader in investment banking, consumer and small business banking, commercial banking, financial transaction processing and asset management.

We offer a competitive total rewards package including base salary determined based on the role, experience, skill set and location. Those in eligible roles may receive commission-based pay and/or discretionary incentive compensation, paid in the form of cash and/or forfeitable equity, awarded in recognition of individual achievements and contributions. We also offer a range of benefits and programs to meet employee needs, based on eligibility. These benefits include comprehensive health care coverage, on-site health and wellness centers, a retirement savings plan, backup childcare, tuition reimbursement, mental health support, financial coaching and more. Additional details about total compensation and benefits will be provided during the hiring process. 

We recognize that our people are our strength and the diverse talents they bring to our global workforce are directly linked to our success. We are an equal opportunity employer and place a high value on diversity and inclusion at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of any protected attribute, including race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital or veteran status, pregnancy or disability, or any other basis protected under applicable law. We also make reasonable accommodations for applicants’ and employees’ religious practices and beliefs, as well as mental health or physical disability needs. Visit our FAQs for more information about requesting an accommodation.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. is an Equal Opportunity Employer, including Disability/Veterans

Our professionals in our Corporate Functions cover a diverse range of areas from finance and risk to human resources and marketing. Our corporate teams are an essential part of our company, ensuring that we’re setting our businesses, clients, customers and employees up for success.

Human Resources plays a critical role in driving the employee experience, shaping the firm’s culture and building a diverse and inclusive workforce. We are a strategic partner to the business — working with leaders across the firm to hire, develop and retain the best people and help meet business goals. Together, we foster a work environment in which our people are supported, feel like they belong and are able to make an impact through their work. We develop and deliver a suite of products and services that help make JPMorgan Chase an employer of choice and drive our business forward.