Design Program Manager, Product Experience

Unclassified - Salem, OR

Part-time - Mid Level

Salem, OR

About the position

The Design Program Manager for Product Experience at Cardinal Health is a pivotal role aimed at enhancing and streamlining the operations within the Product Experience organization. This position focuses on establishing effective processes, fostering collaboration across teams, and ensuring the delivery of high-quality design experiences in the healthcare sector. The role requires a blend of design enthusiasm, operational expertise, and strong communication skills to drive cultural and operational excellence across the organization.

Responsibilities

• Establish predictable, repeatable processes to help leaders and contributors prioritize, plan, and execute multiple parallel projects.
• Develop routines and systems to track and balance initiatives, capacity, work estimation, scheduling, and resource alignment.
• Proactively assess risk, raise flags, facilitate decision-making, and resolve issues before they become problems for the larger team(s).
• Capture, analyze, and aggregate UX, customer, and business metrics to measure impact at the project, portfolio, and organizational levels.
• Provide visibility and accurate reporting on organizational status, resource utilization, team performance, and project/program health when and where needed.
• Work with Product Experience and cross-functional teams to adopt and leverage standards, best practices, and definitions of good & done.
• Partner with product, engineering, and business partners to share design's working model and ensure a smooth product development process.
• Manage project and operational expenses, focusing on scope, time allocation, and funding.
• Support the hiring and onboarding of employees, manage contractors and vendors, and strategically balance attrition.
• Drive procurement, implementation, and adoption of tools (design, research, and project management) to empower our organization, work more effectively, and build upon each other's efforts.
• Streamline communications to ensure information and knowledge flows freely within our team, partners, and broader Cardinal Health.
• Own key programs, team rituals, and continuous-improvement efforts.
• Keep a finger on the cultural pulse of the Product Experience team and actively participate in shaping it, focusing on morale, attrition, unspoken feedback, and overall well-being.

Requirements

• 8-10+ years' experience in program, project, and/or operations management within a product design organization and/or creative agency, preferred.
• Bachelor's degree in related field, or equivalent work experience, preferred.
• Successfully created and managed a wide range of design-related processes, resources, programs, and improvements that have delivered measurable results.
• Experience working directly with designers, researchers, and strategists.
• Extensive knowledge of the inner workings of product, design and engineering teams from discovery through delivery.