Sr. Design Project Manager (For Independent Contractors)

Details

This role will provide dedicated, full-time program and operations support to UX leadership during a critical period of transformation.

Program Scope

1. UX Operating Model adoption and rollout

• Drive onboarding, adoption, and change management for the UX Operating Model
• Ensure UX practitioners are able to use the new Jira-based ways of working effectively
• Build the supporting materials, communications, and interventions needed to make adoption stick

2. UX annual planning leadership and model improvement

• Lead UX’s participation in the 2027 annual planning cycle across CBO and all four BUs
• Use delivery of that cycle to identify, test, and recommend the best longer-term model for how UX should operate within annual and quarterly planning processes
• Gather requirements, pain points, and constraints across stakeholders and translate them into a practical improvement plan
• Improve consistency, clarity, and sustainability of planning for UX leadership

3. Integration of planning and the UX Operating Model

• Ensure planning expectations are translated into the way UX managers and ICs actually plan, prioritize, track, and deliver work
• Define how approved improvements should show up in team rituals, planning expectations, Jira usage, and operating guidance
• Help embed those improvements into 2027 ways of working so they can continue beyond the contract period

Responsibilities

• Lead change management and onboarding for the UX Operating Model rollout, including stakeholder mapping, communications, training coordination, adoption tracking, and issue follow-up.
• Drive UX Jira onboarding and adoption by coordinating rollout activities, documenting ways of working, supporting teams through transition, and ensuring practitioners can successfully use the new system.
• Create and maintain the core operating materials needed for successful adoption, including playbooks, process guides, training assets, FAQs, intake guidance, and supporting documentation.
• Partner with UX craft leaders and managers to identify friction points, resistance themes, and local adoption gaps, and convert those into targeted interventions.
• Establish and run a clear operating cadence across the contract period, including milestone plans, status updates, risks, dependencies, success metrics, and leadership reporting.
• Assess the current-state UX planning challenge across CBO and the four BUs, including pain points, inconsistencies, planning burden, stakeholder expectations, and gaps in the current model.
• Lead and manage UX’s participation in the 2027 annual planning cycle across the four BUs, including timelines, inputs, documentation, stakeholder coordination, decision tracking, and follow-through.
• Gather and synthesize requirements across BUs and leadership groups related to annual planning, quarterly planning, and operating cadence, and align stakeholders on practical improvements where possible.
• Capture learnings from the 2027 annual planning cycle and translate them into clear recommendations for a more sustainable UX planning approach.
• Shape and document the recommended future-state UX planning approach in partnership with UX leadership and key business stakeholders, including how UX should engage with annual and quarterly planning processes going forward.
• Define and implement updates to operational standards, templates, and guidance needed to connect planning expectations with manager rituals, team planning, intake, prioritization, Jira usage, and ways of working.
• Coordinate planning inputs and outputs across leaders and stakeholder groups so that UX participation in planning is more structured, consistent, and easier to execute.
• Facilitate alignment discussions and working sessions with senior stakeholders to drive clarity on trade-offs, ownership, and next steps.
• Build structure and transparency around work in flight by maintaining trackers, dashboards, decision logs, planning documents, and actions needed to keep the work moving.
• Act as a connective layer between leadership intent and day-to-day execution, helping teams understand what is changing, why it matters, and what they need to do differently.
• Identify process improvement opportunities that reduce manual effort, improve consistency, and leave behind reusable systems and assets that can continue beyond the contract.
• Measure and report progress against clear outcomes, especially adoption, readiness, planning delivery quality, recommended improvements, and overall execution.

Success Measures / Expected Outcomes

• A clear and executed change plan for the UX Operating Model has been delivered.
• UX practitioners are substantially onboarded to the new Jira system and ways of working, with known adoption issues identified and addressed.
• Core onboarding and enablement assets are in place, usable, and maintained.
• The current-state planning burden, structural gaps, and cross-BU requirements for UX have been clearly identified and documented.
• UX’s participation in the 2027 annual planning cycle has been successfully managed across the four BUs.
• Key learnings from the 2027 annual planning cycle have been synthesized and turned into a clear set of recommendations for the longer-term UX planning approach.
• A practical and documented approach exists for how the UX Operating Model connects to annual and quarterly planning rhythms, especially for UX managers and ICs.
• Agreed updates to templates, processes, guidance, and Jira ways of working have been identified and implemented where appropriate.
• Risks, dependencies, and key decisions across the work are visible and well-managed.
• The team is left with reusable tools, documentation, governance assets, and operating guidance that support continuation after the contract ends.

Requirements

Must-have experience:

• Significant experience in program management, UX operations, DesignOps, ResearchOps, ContentOps, or closely related operational delivery roles.
• Proven experience independently leading multiple complex projects or a portfolio of initiatives with multiple stakeholder groups, dependencies, and moving parts.
• Strong experience leading large-scale process change, onboarding, or operational improvement initiatives.
• Strong experience creating and operationalizing repeatable workflows, playbooks, documentation, standards, and governance mechanisms.
• Demonstrated success working across cross-functional stakeholder groups with different goals, incentives, and levels of seniority.
• Experience leading or managing annual planning cycles, quarterly planning, business cadences, or leadership operating rhythms.
• Experience managing complex planning processes with senior stakeholders and multiple cross-functional counterparts.
• Experience supporting UX teams, including Design, Research, and/or Content/Writing.
• Strong organizational skills with the ability to manage multiple workstreams, deadlines, dependencies, and stakeholders at once.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to simplify complex process changes into clear and actionable guidance.
• Comfortable working with Jira, Google Workspace, spreadsheets, presentations, and documentation tools as core operating tools.
• Experience presenting status, risks, trade-offs, and recommendations clearly to senior stakeholders.
• Able to operate with high autonomy, sound judgment, and a practical bias toward execution.

Nice-to-have:

• Experience in a UX, Product, Design, Research, or Content environment.
• Familiarity with organizational change management frameworks and adoption measurement approaches.
• Experience supporting or improving operating models, ways of working, or portfolio / planning rituals.
• Experience in large, matrixed, international organizations with multiple business units and stakeholder groups.
• Experience facilitating workshops, planning sessions, and leadership working sessions.
• Experience helping define or scale a craft-specific operations capability.

Candidate Profile

The ideal candidate combines the strengths of a program manager, change lead, and craft-aware operations builder. They should be highly structured and delivery-focused, comfortable with ambiguity, able to influence without direct reports, and capable of turning unclear processes into practical, adoptable systems. They should be strong at follow-through, proactive communication, stakeholder alignment, and converting leadership intent into well-run execution. Familiarity with how Designers, Researchers, Writers, managers, and directors work in practice is important.

Logistics

• Contract timeline: 6 months (Starts: Jun 15, 2026 — Ends: Dec 14, 2026)
• Hours: 40 hrs/week
• Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
• Payrate: 50 - 100 €/hr
• Tools mentioned: Jira, Google Workspace, spreadsheets, presentations, documentation tools