Design & Research Operations Lead

Role Overview

Design & Research Operations Lead at ADIB, located in Abu Dhabi.

Role Purpose

The Design & Research Operations Lead is responsible for improving the effectiveness, visibility, and scalability of the Design & Experience function by managing design operations, research operations, tools, capacity, workflows, reporting, and governance. The role acts as the central operational lead for the design organization, working closely with the Head of Design & Experience, designers, researchers, product teams, vendors, and delivery partners to ensure work is planned, distributed, tracked, and delivered efficiently.

Key Responsibilities

Capacity Planning & Work Distribution

• Own design team capacity planning and work distribution, ensuring workload is visible, balanced, and aligned to business priorities.
• Provide capacity, utilization, and delivery dashboards that give leadership clear visibility of team workload, priorities, risks, and resource needs.
• Support resource forecasting and workload planning, with the ability to translate capacity data into clear recommendations.

Operations & Workflow Management

• Manage Jira workflows and operational boards, including sprint planning, intake management, status tracking, workflow administration, and reporting.
• Maintain operational documentation in Confluence, including ways of working, workflow guidance, templates, governance standards, and process updates.
• Identify opportunities for operational improvement and recommend practical ways to improve team efficiency, utilization, reporting, and governance.

Tool Administration & Governance

• Coordinate design and research tool administration, including Jira, Figma, Confluence, Microsoft 365 access, license management, renewals, and payment coordination.
• Support asset and design system governance, ensuring shared files, templates, libraries, and operational standards remain organized and accessible.

Budget, Vendor & Procurement Management

• Support budget tracking and vendor management for tools, agencies, research partners, procurement activities, contracts, and renewals.
• Coordinate with vendors and agencies to support smooth execution of design and research activities, including timelines, access, delivery tracking, and budget control.

Research Operations

• Lead research operations support, including participant recruitment, research scheduling, logistics, governance, consent management, repository management, and customer panel maintenance.

People Operations

• Manage design team onboarding and offboarding, ensuring employees, contractors, interns, and coordinators have the right access, documentation, tools, and process guidance.
• Guide interns or junior coordinators, helping them follow team processes and maintain high standards of operational execution.

Qualifications & Experience

• Proven experience in Design Operations and Research Operations within a product, design, digital, or enterprise environment.
• Experience in resource forecasting and workload planning.
• Understanding of Agile delivery practices and how design, research, product, and technology teams collaborate across sprints.
• Experience with procurement, renewals, vendors, and budgets for tools, software, agencies, and research partners.
• Knowledge of research operations processes, including participant recruitment, scheduling, logistics, governance, consent management, repository maintenance, and customer panels.

Skills & Competencies

• Advanced knowledge of Jira, including workflow administration, sprint planning, capacity management, intake tracking, and dashboards.
• Strong working knowledge of Figma, including workspace administration, team access, license management, file organization, and design asset governance.
• Proficiency in Confluence for documentation, knowledge management, process governance, and team ways of working.
• Strong knowledge of Microsoft 365, including Teams, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and SharePoint for operational coordination and reporting.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to coordinate across design, product, technology, procurement, finance, and vendor teams.