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Senior (Design) Project Manager

Location: Preferred: Milwaukee or New York (home office); remote OK. Must work Central Time hours.
Anticipated Hours: 40 per week
Contract Duration: 3 months, with the possibility of an extension

Description:

Plans, coordinates and actively manages and establishes the Design delivery plans of technical solutions across multiple technical products. Manages and reports regularly on the end-to-end plan that is inclusive of all of the changes needed to a given technical product in support of initiative outcomes.

Primary Responsibilities:

Oversee the delivery of your assigned portfolio or programs by partnering with design leads and product partners to translate roadmap needs into actionable plans. This includes driving progress across multiple workstreams tied to a large-scale, enterprise-wide initiative consolidating fragmented advisor and supervision tools into a unified platform.
Work closely with design, product, engineering, and research teams to embed quality mechanisms and feedback loops throughout the product development lifecycle, ensuring seamless end-to-end user experience delivery across interconnected domains (e.g., Wealth, Planning, Compliance).
Lead the design team's adoption and maturation of Agile practices by introducing ceremonies, improving sequencing, and promoting collaboration across silos.
Advocate for the role of design in a regulated, enterprise environment by translating design goals into measurable business outcomes and communicating the value of UX to senior stakeholders.
Structure and manage the design team's work across a high-impact initiative involving proprietary platform development, field- and home-office-facing experiences, and multiple delivery phases.
Partner with content and research leads to ensure comprehensive discovery, content integration, and user acceptance testing (UAT) strategies are in place.
Navigate and synthesize cross-functional input, identifying dependencies across adjacent experiences and ensuring the solutions scale across the broader ecosystem.
Provide strategic oversight and create reporting structures to maintain alignment, drive progress, and mitigate delivery risks over time.

Qualifications:

5+ years of experience managing and scaling UX programs, as well as driving operational efforts.
Experience with UX disciplines and user-centered development tools and methodologies.
Skilled in collaborating, building relationships, and communicating effectively with diverse stakeholders.
Enthusiastic about championing best practices for design teams and enhancing cross-functional collaboration.
Proficient in Jira, Confluence, Figma, and MS Office Suite.

Must Have:

5 years of Design program/project management experience in technology, product & software development and/or business functions.
Agile Software Development Lifecycle
Atlassian suite/ Jira (preferably Jira Align) tracking (working with Engineering teams)
Project planning expertise - sequencing work via Microsoft Excel and/or Gantt
Understands how software is developed, tested and implemented as well as technical concepts.
Ability to work closely with engineers, product managers, designers and business leaders.
Experience managing large scale, cross-functional initiatives using a variety of delivery methodologies (i.e. agile)
Understand the design process and lead their team through the design project process – partnering with Design and Business, potentially scope out future work as well.

Nice to Have:

Design Operations
PMP certification
Figma experience

Eligibility Requirements:

Legal authorization to work in the U.S. is required.
As a contractor, including remote contractors, you may be required to complete a background check.