{"id":172458,"url":"https://alion.io/job/pnc-design-systems-operations-lead","title":"Design Systems & Operations Lead","company":{"id":4228,"name":"PNC Financial Services Group","domain":"pnc.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/pnc","size_band":"5000+","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Workday","truth_index":{"grade":"B","score":82,"open_postings":183,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.738,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":29,"computed_at":"2026-10-23T05:54:15Z"}},"role":"Design","role_family":"Design","seniority":"lead","employment_type":"full_time","work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["Pittsburgh, United States","Houston, United States","United States"],"countries":["US"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":122000,"max_usd":220000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":206},"experience_years_min":5,"visa_sponsorship":true,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":false},{"name":"Figma","optional":false},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":true},{"name":"Storybook","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-07-15T00:00:00Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-07-15","last_verified_at":"2026-10-22T02:51:27Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":100,"trust":{"level":"stale","repost_count":0,"flags":["stale"],"days_open":100},"description":"Position Overview\nAt PNC, our people are our greatest differentiator and competitive advantage in the markets we serve. We are all united in delivering the best experience for our customers. We work together each day to foster an inclusive workplace culture where all of our employees feel respected, valued and have an opportunity to contribute to the company’s success. As a Design Systems & Operations Lead within PNC's Treasury Management Digital organization, you will be based in Pittsburgh, PA, Hamilton, NJ, or Houston, TX.Role Summary:\nThis role sits at the intersection of Design Operations, Product Design, and Design Systems, partnering across Product, Research, Experience Design, UI, and Engineering teams to scale design quality, consistency, and delivery effectiveness.\nThis role operates horizontally across teams, ensuring that:\nDesign systems are adopted and evolved based on real product needs.\nDesign workflows are consistent, efficient, and scalable.\nCross-crew alignment is strong between Design, Product, Research, and Engineering.\nThis role owns the effectiveness of the design delivery system, ensuring work is properly shaped, routed, governed, and delivered across Research, Experience Design, and Design System teams.\nThe role serves as an operator, orchestrator, and systems owner responsible for improving how work flows through the organization. This includes defining and optimizing operating models, enabling cross-functional collaboration, driving Design System adoption, and removing friction that slows teams down.\nYou will partner closely with Design Leadership to define DesignOps strategy while driving execution as a key operator and change agent across the organization.\nThis is a hands-on senior IC role that blends:\nDesign delivery orchestration and operational leadership.\nDesign System governance and adoption.\nProduct design expertise and selective hands-on execution.\nThis role is ideal for a senior individual contributor who has experienced the challenges of scaling design organizations and has successfully built systems, processes, and operating models that improve delivery outcomes.\nCore Responsibilities:\n1. Design Operations & Cross-Crew Orchestration\nDesign Delivery System Ownership\nOwn the health and effectiveness of the design delivery ecosystem across Research, Experience Design, and Design System teams.\nAct as the operational connector across disciplines, ensuring the right work reaches the right team at the right time with clearly defined goals, dependencies, and success criteria.\nDesign and optimize workflows, rituals, and operating models both within Design and across Product and Engineering.\nDrive operational consistency while maintaining team agility and delivery velocity.\nIdentify organizational friction points and actively remove barriers to execution.\nIntake, Work Shaping & Prioritization\nOwn and evolve intake and work-shaping processes to ensure initiatives are properly defined, assessed, and routed before entering delivery.\nPartner with leadership on intake management, prioritization, roadmap alignment, and delivery planning.\nSupport capacity planning and resource visibility across teams.\nEnsure new work enters the system with appropriate context, ownership, objectives, and success measures.\nStage Gates, Dependencies & Delivery Readiness\nDefine and maintain stage gates across discovery, design direction, design system alignment, development readiness, implementation QA, and delivery closure.\nEnsure clear design readiness for development and implementation.\nSurface and manage cross-crew dependencies, blockers, unresolved decisions, and operational risks.\nEstablish escalation paths and governance mechanisms to maintain delivery flow and reduce rework.\nFacilitate critiques, working sessions, alignment forums, and operational reviews.\nVisibility, Metrics & Continuous Improvement\nCreate visibility into:\no What teams are designing.\no Where duplication or divergence is occurring.\no Where Design System opportunities exist.\no Where operational bottlenecks are slowing delivery.\nDefine and track Design health metrics, delivery metrics, and Design System adoption measures.\nMonitor and improve the effectiveness of the design delivery system over time.\nSuccess measures may include:\nReduced design rework.\nImproved design readiness for development.\nIncreased Design System adoption.\nReduced one-off design solutions.\nImproved consistency across product experiences.\nClearer ownership and accountability.\nImproved delivery flow and reduced operational friction.\n2. Design System Ownership & Activation\nGovern, champion, and evolve the Design System in partnership with Design Leadership.\nCo-own the Design System roadmap, including components, tokens, patterns, templates, and supporting assets.\nDefine organizational governance models and contribution processes for Design System enhancements.\nEstablish clear inclusion criteria for system components versus custom solutions.\nDrive Design System adoption as both a product and operational discipline.\nPartner with Product, Design, and Engineering leaders to align teams around system usage and implementation standards.\nEnable teams through documentation, education, working sessions, office hours, and ongoing support.\nFacilitate Design System audits and adoption reviews to improve consistency across products.\nSupport design-to-development parity throughout the implementation lifecycle.\nPartner with engineering teams to improve Design System implementation, scalability, and maintainability.\n3. Product Design Leadership & Strategic Execution\nLead or support select high-impact product initiatives where hands-on design involvement is required.\nMaintain direct exposure to product design work to inform operational improvements and Design System evolution.\nEstablish quality benchmarks and best practices through participation in strategic initiatives.\nCreate and deliver design concepts, workflows, prototypes, and experience solutions when needed.\nPartner with Product, Research, and Engineering teams to ensure experiences align with user needs and business goals.\nSupport user research, usability testing, and iterative design improvements.\nChampion accessibility, usability, and responsive design best practices.\nServe as a credible design practitioner capable of contributing to and evaluating design work across teams.\nTechnical Skills:\nMust-Have\nAdvanced Figma systems expertise (Components, Variants, Variables, Tokens, Libraries)\nDeep experience scaling and governing Design Systems.\nStrong UX and Product Design fundamentals across the end-to-end product lifecycle.\nProven experience establishing or improving DesignOps functions, workflows, or operating models.\nStrong understanding of:\no Front-end architecture\no Component-based systems\no Responsive design principles\no Design-to-development workflows\nExperience working within Agile product delivery environments.\nExperience supporting cross-functional delivery models at scale.\nAccessibility (WCAG) expertise integrated into design practice.\nExperience defining metrics, performance indicators, and operational measures for design organizations.\nNice-to-Have\nStorybook and Design System tooling ecosystems.\nDesign maturity assessment and organizational transformation experience.\nProcess optimization, service design, or operating model design experience.\nAnalytics and measurement frameworks for adoption, efficiency, and quality.\nSoft Skills:\nMust-Have\nOperator mindset (not strategist-only, not designer-only).\nSystems thinker who identifies patterns across teams and addresses root causes.\nStrong organizational and operational leadership skills without direct people management.\nAbility to influence peers, leaders, and cross-functional partners.\nBias toward action, simplification, and continuous improvement.\nAbility to establish standards and governance without creating unnecessary bureaucracy.\nStrong facilitation and alignment-building capabilities.\nAbility to navigate ambiguity and build structure where it does not yet exist.\nNice-to-Have\nHigh emotional intelligence and organizational awareness.\nCoaching and mentorship mindset.\nExecutive communication and stakeholder management experience.\n• Change management and organizational design experience.PNC is an in-office company that fosters a supportive culture where employees can thrive and achieve balance. We encourage candidates to connect with their recruiter and hiring manager to understand workplace expectations and ensure the role aligns with their goals.PNC will not provide sponsorship for employment visas or participate in STEM OPT for this position.\nJob Description\nTransforms complex tasks into intuitive, accessible and easy-to-use designs through the entire experience lifecycle, from the first-time user to the expert.\nLeads and guides the discovery of customer and business needs through contextual inquiries, generative and quantitative research. Uncovers customer latent needs and creates vision to meet those needs.\nSets the design direction and strategy. Leads others to execute visual, information, interaction and service design elements of the initiative that meets business and customer needs and delights customers. Communicates the initiative and product to others, including senior management, through user journeys, storyboards, prototypes, wireframes and other materials.\nSets the direction for usability of new and existing products, makes adjustments to align with shifting customer expectations.\nEstablish research methods and strategies, conduct studies, and present findings that will inform improvements in the customer experience.\nCoaches and mentors junior staff; Assists management team in training new staff.\nPNC Employees take pride in our reputation and to continue building upon that we expect our employees to be:\nCustomer Focused - Knowledgeable of the values and practices that align customer needs and satisfaction as primary considerations in all business decisions and able to leverage that information in creating customized customer solutions.\nManaging Risk - Assessing and effectively managing all of the risks associated with their business objectives and activities to ensure they adhere to and support PNC's Enterprise Risk Management Framework.\nQualifications\nSuccessful candidates must demonstrate appropriate knowledge, skills, and abilities for a role. Listed below are skills, competencies, work experience, education, and required certifications/licensuresneeded to be successful in this position.\nPreferred Skills\nAgile Web Development, Business Requirements Documentation (BRD), Data Visualization, Digital User Experience, Employee Engagement, IT Architecture, JavaScript, WireframingCompetencies\nBusiness Analytics, Creativity, Design Thinking, Effective Communications, Graphic Visualization, Group Facilitation, Product Development Life Cycle, Requirements Analysis, Solutions Development, User Experience Design, User Interface DesignWork Experience\nRoles at this level typically require a university / college degree, with 5+ years of industry-relevant experience. Specific certifications are often required. In lieu of a degree, a comparable combination of education, job specific certification(s), and experience (including military service) may be considered.Education\nBachelorsCertifications\nNo Required Certification(s)Licenses\nNo Required License(s)Pay Transparency\nBase Salary: $91,000.00 - $185,900.00Salaries may vary based on geographic location, market data and on individual skills, experience, and education. This role is incentive eligible with the payment based upon company, business and/or individual performance.Application Window\nGenerally, this opening is expected to be posted for two business days from 07/15/2026, although it may be longer with business discretion.Benefits\nPNC offers a comprehensive range of benefits to help meet your needs now and in the future. 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