Manager, CARE Design Operations

Who We Are:

At Vistaprint, we believe that everything we do has a lasting impact on our customers and on each other. It begins and ends with a passion for helping our customers succeed. To give our customers our best, we empower our team with the autonomy to make smart decisions and deliver value. We are a dynamic organization that maintains an exciting, results-oriented culture.

About the Team:

The CARE Design Operations team is Vistaprint’s design crew, handling customers across multiple locales, and supporting them by providing expert designs for a range of marketing materials and products offered by Vistaprint. Understanding the needs and dreams of small busines owners is one of the keys to success in this crucial role. As a Design Operations Manager, you will lead and motivate the teams that help make our customer’s dream come true!

Your Role:

Many of Vistaprint’s customers find they need support or guidance when it comes to design, or perhaps they just want confirmation from an expert that what they have created is professional looking and well-designed. You will lead 4-5 teams of designers in CARE Design Operations that support our customers through creating/revising designs with an array of styles and product types, ensuring that they have everything they need to make their business look and feel professional. Your role is to cultivate high performance through effective coaching, mentoring and motivating team leads and frontline designers, and to inspire collaboration cross-functionally between operations and support teams. In addition, you will strive to consistently improve the customer design experience and satisfaction together with key metrics, raising the quality bar, and targeting consistent conversion of design orders to print.

• Motivate, coach and develop team leads and design artists to reach their full potential through consistent monitoring, assessment and feedback to achieve and maintain high standards of performance
• Work with a team of creative leads to help improve awareness of design principles and help interpret customer needs from design brief
• Provide guidance to team leaders in understanding customer designs as part of the Vistaprint Design Service
• Educate team leaders on how to review designers’ work for relevance, consistency and accuracy through proofing, editing and optimizing workflow
• Drive excellence in quality, design and typography
• Communicate the value proposition of Vistaprint products and services to the Team and other departments
• Ensure that team leads meet and exceed established KPIs, and promote success by consistently analyzing process improvement opportunities
• Consistently and effectively report on team progress, challenges & successes by compiling statistics, interpret data and take appropriate action to support findings and goals (KPIs)
• and seeks opportunities for continuous improvement
• Proactively raise issues which impact the domain’s ability to maintain success
• Ensure that disciplinary discussions and actions for team leads and design artists facilitated in transparent, accurate and timely manner
• Develop, adhere to, support and administer company policies and procedures as defined
• Resolve escalations
• Manage relationship with unit business managers and other operational leaders
• Guide employees along a mutually identified development path
• Maintain accurate documentation of team members’ overall performance, personnel records and other documentation, as identified and requested.
• Support and assist with hiring and training teams, as requested
• Perform additional responsibilities as consistent with job level and overall direction of CARE leadership team.

Qualifications & Functional Skills:

• Six or more years of design, art direction, and/or formal design training with exceptional conceptual and design skills
• At least 3-years’ experience in a production or service environment
• At least 2-years of people leadership experience (in and out of Cimpress)
• Deep understanding of design styles, specially producing and printing consistent color, proofing and printing an image, typographic design, working with type style, vector drawing techniques, creating vector objects for the background, working with defined custom shapes, importing a smart object
• Expert use of design applications: Adobe Creative Suite - Illustrator, Photoshop, In-Design
• Strong Illustration skills or the keen ability to direct Illustrators is required
• Preferably has experience as a creative “working” mentor
• Excellent communication and presentation skills
• A proven track record of managing multiple priorities, tasks, and projects simultaneously
• Self-accountable for CARE Design quality of work and performance against goals
• An aptitude for learning new technology and the ability to use multiple systems
• Demonstrable expertise and experience in people management, with an emphasis on managing multiple teams in a constantly changing environment. Has the ability to motivate and empower employees to consistently meet and/or exceed goals
• Proficient in reducing conflict and increasing participation through interpersonal skills and strong teamworking and collaborative behavior
• Demonstrate a positive attitude to lead and facilitate change, and model professionalism at all times
• Has demonstrated design-related capabilities in dealing with Global & Local Design Quality team
• Resolves issues balancing the needs of the end-customers with the needs of the company.
• Displays willingness to learn through openness to feedback and development
• Has a strong Service Orientation mindset