Director, UX Operations

Our Story

Unum Technology Centre in Carlow serves as a strategic software development and IT services centre supporting Unum, a leading provider of income protection in the US. Our team of IT professionals build solutions and critical business applications to digitally transform the way we do business.

The Director, UX Operations leads the people, processes, tools, and operating practices that enable UX to scale effectively across the organization. This role provides leadership across UX workforce planning, portfolio and program management, DesignOps, ResearchOps, governance, tooling, budgets, and strategic partners.

Working closely with Design, Research, Product, Engineering and business leaders, the Director ensures UX resources are aligned to business priorities, delivery risks are proactively managed, and teams have the capabilities and support needed to deliver high-quality customer experiences.

The Role

Lead UX Talent & Workforce Planning

• Lead, coach and develop UX professionals, supporting performance, career development and engagement.
• Develop workforce strategies that balance internal talent, external partners, capability needs and changing business demand.
• Oversee UX capacity, skills, utilization and staffing across value streams.
• Lead resource planning, pod formation and deployment, resolving capacity or capability gaps.
• Build an inclusive, collaborative culture focused on customer outcomes and continuous improvement.

Lead UX Portfolio & Program Management

• Oversee portfolio planning and delivery across multiple UX initiatives and value streams.
• Translate business priorities into clear roadmaps, plans, milestones and measurable outcomes.
• Manage cross-functional dependencies, risks and delivery challenges across UX, Product, Engineering and business teams.
• Establish effective standards for prioritization, reporting, governance and executive decision-making.
• Provide clear portfolio reporting on progress, risks, capacity and investment decisions.

Evolve UX Operations & Delivery

• Develop and continuously improve the UX operating model and scalable, pod-based approach to delivery.
• Establish consistent ways of working across Design, Research, Content, Accessibility, Product and Engineering.
• Oversee UX workflows, tooling, design systems, operational services and investments.
• Strengthen collaboration between design and development to support consistent implementation quality.
• Define and track KPIs covering capacity, efficiency, quality, delivery health and business impact.

Scale Research Operations & Knowledge Management

• Develop ResearchOps practices that enable consistent, effective and compliant research.
• Oversee research repositories, insight libraries, templates and knowledge-sharing practices.
• Ensure research insights are accessible, reusable and connected to business and portfolio decisions.
• Use AI and automation responsibly to improve efficiency, knowledge sharing and insight reuse.

Manage Budgets & Strategic Partners

• Manage UX budgets, forecasts and financial reporting.
• Oversee external UX partners, including onboarding, performance, quality and renewals.
• Monitor partner performance, utilization, outcomes and value.
• Partner with Procurement, Finance and Technology to support effective sourcing and flexible capacity.
• Ensure external partners operate consistently with internal UX standards and ways of working.

What you offer

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent practical experience in UX, DesignOps, program management, ResearchOps, business operations or a related field.
• 10+ years of progressive experience across UX operations, DesignOps, portfolio/program management, ResearchOps or a comparable multidisciplinary environment.
• Demonstrated experience leading and developing employees, including coaching, performance management and career development.
• Experience managing complex, multi-team portfolios across UX, Product, Engineering and other business functions.
• Strong experience in workforce and capacity planning, resource allocation, dependency management, risk management and executive reporting.
• Good understanding of Agile delivery, UX/design lifecycles, design systems, research operations and UX tooling.
• Experience managing budgets, vendors, contracts and strategic partnerships.
• Strong analytical, change leadership, communication, negotiation and stakeholder-management skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• IAAP CPACC, WAS or CPWA certification.
• SAFe Agilist, Scrum or equivalent Agile certification.
• Prosci Change Management certification.
• Human-Centered Design, UX or DesignOps certification such as NN/g, HFI or LUMA.

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What We Offer

Our size and successful history in Carlow means we can offer you exceptional development and progression, supported by continual learning programs, IT Certifications & third level tuition reimbursement. We offer work-life-balance with flexible working arrangements (including hybrid) and initiatives in support of your well-being. Our attractive range of benefits and reward initiatives includes competitive compensation, 25 days annual leave, paid health insurance, pension scheme, annual performance-based bonus, paid maternity/paternity/adoptiveleave, reward programs, and an opportunity to engage with charity and community activities.

Company:

Unum