Senior Design Operations Program Manager

At Mercury, we believe that thoughtful design can change an ancient industry shaped by complexity, friction, and indifference—and that intentionality, care, and taste can marry power and beauty, form and function, where these concepts are taken for granted. As we build a radically different kind of banking* experience, design isn’t an aesthetic layer added at the end. It’s how our products are shaped, how decisions are made, and how customers experience us every day. Design at Mercury is a team of 40+ curious, supportive, and thoughtful designers. We’re looking for a Senior Design Operations Program Manager to join us. In this role, you’ll help drive Design at Mercury forward: building the programs and processes that make life better for our design team, whether that’s leading thinking and implementation of AI-first Design, improving onboarding, or driving cultural programs to enhance collaboration and community. Our focus is to improve the quality, efficiency, and impact of Design. This role blends strategy and execution, giving you ownership from concept to delivery while collaborating closely with a diverse group of stakeholders. Key Responsibilities: Drive Design’s POV on AI tooling and ways to optimize the Design process by using AI, in partnership with Design Leaders and Product Ops. Work with Procurement to seamlessly secure access to new tools. Build simple processes and systems to ensure our Design org can continue to raise the quality bar and scale effectively as it continues to grow year-over-year without unnecessary overhead. Lead activities and initiatives that support a healthy design culture and quality goals such as all hands, onsites, and other team rituals. Champion initiatives that elevate our employer brand and grow the Design team’s external presence through events, content, and community engagement. Drive onboarding and enablement: Maintain and update onboarding programming in partnership with EPD Ops to ensure new designers ramp quickly and effectively. Collaborate with designers, design leaders, and cross-functional partners along with partnering with Product Ops, Research Ops, and Eng Ops in supporting programs and processes across Eng, Product, and Design. The ideal candidate for the role has: 7-10 years of experience in a design-focused operations or program management role. Excellent interpersonal, presentation, and communication skills. Demonstrated high bar for quality and attention to detail, and fostering accountability. Proven ability to influence without authority and coordinate across teams, product areas, and platforms to land new ways of working. Demonstrated ownership of complex horizontal programs, including scoping, sequencing, making trade-offs, and engaging the right partners. Ability to reflect, adapt quickly, and continuously improve in response to changing priorities and feedback. Skill in anticipating and mitigating risks across people, process, and tools. History of driving operational excellence by improving systems end-to-end, not just delivering individual projects. The total rewards package at Mercury includes base salary, equity (stock options), and benefits. Our salary and equity ranges are highly competitive within the SaaS and fintech industry and are updated regularly using the most reliable compensation survey data for our industry. New hire offers are made based on a candidate’s experience, expertise, geographic location, and internal pay equity relative to peers. Our target new hire base salary ranges for this role are the following: US employees in New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $163,000 - $203,800 US employees outside of the New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle, or the San Francisco Bay Area: $146,700 - $183,400 Canadian employees (any location): CAD $154,100 - $192,600 *Mercury is a fintech company, not an FDIC-insured bank . Banking services provided through Choice Financial Group and Column N.A., Members FDIC. Mercury values div