Manager - Operations - Studio Manager ( LY -OP02)

Role Overview We're looking for someone who can own everything inside the Design team—the people, processes, and rhythms that keep a 50+ member creative team healthy, utilized, and continuously growing. This is the operational backbone of the team: someone who always knows who's working on what, who's overloaded, who's available, who's due for a review, and who's joining or leaving—and ensures nothing falls through the cracks. If you enjoy bringing structure to creative environments and enabling teams to do their best work, this role is for you. Key Responsibilities Bandwidth & Resource Allocation Maintain a live view of every designer's allocation, utilization, and availability across all active client projects. Work with the Director of UX and the Project Management team to staff projects with the right people at the right time, balancing skills, growth needs, and workload. Flag over-allocation, under-utilization, and burnout risks early; propose rebalancing before they become problems. Plan capacity ahead of incoming work and support hiring forecasts with utilization data. People Operations & HR Coordination Own the team's HR-admin rhythm in coordination with central HR: leaves, attendance, approvals, and documentation for the design team. Run smooth onboarding for new designers (accounts, tools, buddy assignment, 30-60-90 day plans) and structured, respectful offboarding with knowledge handover. Schedule and track one-on-ones between leads and team members; make sure they actually happen and follow-ups are closed. Performance & Growth Drive the performance review cycle end-to-end: timelines, templates, reminders, calibration logistics, and documentation. Track goals, feedback, and development plans so nothing waits for the next review cycle to be noticed. Support leads with data and structure for promotion cases, improvement plans, and skill-gap mapping. Process, Tools & Team Health Build and continuously improve internal processes: allocation trackers, leave workflows, review templates, onboarding checklists. Manage design-team tooling and licenses (Figma seats, plugins, research tools) and coordinate procurement. Organize team rituals—reviews, retros, knowledge-sharing sessions, team events—and keep internal documentation current. Be the first point of contact for designers' operational questions, handled with empathy and discretion. Requirements Must-have 2–4 years in design operations, studio/team operations, program coordination, people operations, or a similar role, ideally in an agency, studio, or services environment. Demonstrated experience with resource/bandwidth planning or team coordination at 20+ people scale. Strong organizational skills, follow-through, and comfort owning recurring processes end-to-end. Excellent written and verbal communication; able to work with senior leadership, leads, and junior designers alike. Proficiency with productivity and resourcing tools (e.g., ClickUp, Sheets or…