Director, Design Systems & Operations

The Experience Design and Research (XDR) team at Aledade helps practices be more effective at value-based care through the use of thoughtfully crafted technology. We ensure that the design of Aledade products & services consider the needs of the people that use them, and fit within their existing work environments and workflows. We are looking for a Director to oversee a portfolio of work for the team where they will lead and influence, build trusted relationships with other disciplines, stakeholders, and customers, and contribute to the hiring and development of team members.

The Director, Design Systems & Operations is a key member of the Experience Design and Research (XDR) team at Aledade. Our multidisciplinary XDR team accelerates the ability of primary care practices to improve health outcomes for their patients by equipping them with thoughtfully crafted technology. We ensure that the design of Aledade products & services consider the needs of clinicians, practice staff, internal Aledade teams, and patients, fitting within their existing environments and workflows. As a Director, you will play a critical role in driving system and process evolution that will accelerate the work of our talented experience designers, service designers, and researchers, as well as our product and engineering partners. Your work will be guided by our core values of community, joy, evidence-based experiences, inclusive design, sustainability, and exploration.

As a Director of Design Systems & Operations, you will lead a team focused on enhancing XDR team effectiveness and design quality by optimizing team-wide processes and toolsets, including championing and scaling the Aledade design system. You strategize resource allocation, risk assessment, and team development. You partner closely with Product, Business, and Engineering to ensure your portfolio is aligned and having maximum impact. You take calculated risk on how to deploy resources, are transparent about outcomes, and hold yourself accountable for decisions. You develop senior team members to build a strong leadership bench. Your IC work - if any is done - is purely strategic in nature.

Primary Duties:

• Balance projects across a portfolio of work and a matrixed organization, guiding your team’s priorities based on your assessment of potential impact and alignment with company priorities and user needs. Coordinate with peer leaders to align time, people, and projects on a yearly and quarterly time horizon.
• Ensure your team’s execution is consistently high quality and aligned with business, user, technology, and market needs. Develop and maintain processes that support the team and allow them to focus.
• Skillfully leverage multiple types of data to prioritize operational and design needs, and share your knowledge with cross functional teams to aid in decision making that focuses on user and business impact. Develop and regularly share operational metrics that measure success of the work and reveal opportunity areas for continued growth.
• Develop and articulate strategy at multiple levels both to inspire and align teams involved in executing on the day to day work. Craft tailored narratives and compelling stories for different audiences that help them adopt and benefit from key systems and operational tools that deliver value for their unique needs.
• Play an active role in developing the skills of your team members, supporting them in achieving their desired growth, and securing additional resourcing with inclusive hiring practices when team growth is needed.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 10+ years of professional experience in UX-related disciplines (e.g. product design, research, content strategy, design engineering, front-end development) working on end-to-end digital experiences with cross-functional teams in iterative environments.
• Prior experience leading design systems for a team of designers and their associated product, design, and engineering teams
• People management experience, including management of designers and/or engineers.
• Experience with hiring individual contributors in any of the following UX-related disciplines (design, research, content strategy, front-end engineering, program management)
• Demonstrated experience and skill in leading, facilitating, & executing complex, iterative design workstreams that span digital and non-digital touchpoints with diverse stakeholders of varying degrees of familiarity with design.
• Proven experience planning work capacity for user experience disciplines, and crafting and managing a roadmap of design projects across multiple, related domains, managing multiple projects simultaneously and meeting deadlines effectively.
• Experience facilitating design critiques and design review forums for your and other designers’ work.
• Superb communication skills and proven storytelling ability – can clearly articulate the what, why, and how of their approaches and tailor a message to the audience.

Preferred KSA’s:

• Experience in design system, design ops, or design program management roles
• Experience leading the in-house design delivery of software in a complex enterprise industry, B2B2C, or regulated industry (healthcare, finance, enterprise SAAS).
• Experience working closely with Product Management and Engineering teams.
• Prior success partnering closely with engineering leaders and teams to strategize and plan improvements to front-end architecture systems and/or use of third party frameworks
• Proficiency with agile, scrum, or other iterative software development processes and experience with common product prioritization and project management methods.
• Fluency with Figma, UI libraries, token-based architectures, and emerging AI tools for design and development
• Experience scaling teams and scaling team operations.
• Experience facilitating workshops or design sprints.

Physical Requirements:

• Must be able to work at a computer for prolonged periods of time
• Must be effective at managing one’s time, energy, and productivity in a mostly remote working environment

Who We Are:

Aledade, a public benefit corporation, exists to empower the most transformational part of our health care landscape - independent primary care. We were founded in 2014, and since then, we've become the largest network of independent primary care in the country - helping practices, health centers and clinics deliver better care to their patients and thrive in value-based care. Additionally, by creating value-based contracts across a wide variety of health plans, we aim to flip the script on the traditional fee-for-service model. Our work strengthens continuity of care, aligns incentives and ensures primary care physicians are paid for what they do best - keeping patients healthy. If you want to help create a health care system that is good for patients, good for practices and good for society - and if you're eager to join a collaborative, inclusive and remote-first culture - you've come to the right place.

What Does This Mean for You?

At Aledade, you will be part of a creative culture that is driven by a passion for tackling complex issues with respect, open-mindedness and a desire to learn. You will collaborate with team members who bring a wide range of experiences, interests, backgrounds, beliefs and achievements to their work - and who are all united by a shared passion for public health and a commitment to the Aledade mission.

In addition to time off to support work-life balance and enjoyment, we offer the following comprehensive benefits package designed for the overall well-being of our team members:

• Flexible work schedules and the ability to work remotely are available for many roles
• Health, dental and vision insurance paid up to 80% for employees, dependents and domestic partners
• Robust time-off plan (21 days of PTO in your first year)
• Two paid volunteer days and 11 paid holidays
• 12 weeks paid parental leave for all new parents
• Six weeks paid sabbatical after six years of service
• Educational Assistant Program and Clinical Employee Reimbursement Program
• 401(k) with up to 4% match
• Stock options
• And much more!