Senior Design Ops Manager
Interview Stages
| Stage | Interviewer(s) | Duration |
|---|---|---|
| Recruiter Screen | [Recruiter Name] | 30 min |
| Hiring Manager Screen | [Hiring Manager Name] | 45 min |
| Round 2: PM | [PM Interviewer] | 45 min |
| Round 2: Designer | [Designer Interviewer] | 45 min |
| Round 2: Engineer | [Engineering Interviewer] | 45 min |
| Final/Culture Round | Executive or Culture Team Member | 30 min |
Recruiter Screen
Focus Areas: Leadership, Systems Thinking, Influence
- Tell me about a program or system you helped scale across multiple teams.
- What types of challenges do you love solving in a design org?
- How do you balance structure and flexibility in your work?
Hiring Manager Screen
Focus Areas: Strategic Ops Leadership, Cross-Org Execution, Coaching
- Walk me through a time you helped a design org evolve a key workflow, ritual, or system.
- How do you ensure operational efforts are aligned with org priorities and design quality?
- How do you support the growth and success of other Ops partners or team coordinators?
Round 2 Interviews
PM Interview
Focus Areas: Alignment, Planning, Strategic Collaboration
- How do you partner with PMs to ensure design has what it needs to succeed?
- Share an example of a time you influenced planning or prioritization decisions.
- How do you ensure that progress, blockers, and goals are visible across disciplines?
- What role do you play in cross-functional rituals and cadence?
Design Interview
Focus Areas: Design Advocacy, Process Stewardship, Enablement
- What's your approach to building systems that improve design quality or speed?
- Share a time you introduced a change to a design team's ways of working — how did you roll it out?
- How do you balance the needs of junior and senior designers in the systems you create?
- What role do you play in onboarding, documentation, or leveling frameworks?
Engineering Interview
Focus Areas: Delivery, Communication, Systems Integration
- How do you partner with engineering to improve collaboration and reduce delivery friction?
- Share a time you helped resolve misalignment between design and engineering timelines or expectations.
- How do you ensure your operational systems work across disciplines?
- What kinds of cross-functional roadmapping or coordination have you supported?
Final/Culture Round
Focus Areas: Leadership Presence, Cultural Impact, Strategic Growth
- What does senior-level leadership in Design Ops look like to you?
- How do you build psychological safety and operational clarity across a team?
- Tell me about a time you shaped team culture or created a lasting ritual.
- What are you most proud of operationally — and what are you hoping to evolve next?