Design Operations - Director

Design Operations - Director

Our client in Milwaukee is seeking a Design Operations - Director. This is an 8-month contract role, based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Northwestern Mutual is seeking a Design Operations & Special Projects Lead to serve as a right-hand partner to the Assistant Director of Campus Design & Operations during a critical period of transition.

As the organization moves through Campus Moves and into a steady state operating environment, this role will help ensure that Design Operations can function with clarity, consistency, and resilience. Many core design and workspace allocation processes exist today but are informal, inconsistently applied, or dependent on individual institutional knowledge. In addition, evolving ways of working are expected to disrupt traditional assumptions about how space is allocated, governed, and supported.

This role will focus on defining, documenting, and reshaping design and allocation processes, so they are fit for the future—not simply preserving how work has been done in the past. In parallel, the role will act as a special projects problem solver, independently taking on ambiguous, high judgment issues and developing clear, actionable recommendations.

This is a senior, high autonomy role requiring strong judgment, analytical thinking, and comfort operating in environments where the future state is not yet fully defined.

Key Responsibilities

Design Operations & Process Definition

• Identify, document, and formalize core design and workspace allocation processes needed to support day-to-day operations.
• Focus on processes related to workspace allocation and reallocation, design intake and prioritization, design decisioning, exceptions, and escalations, handoffs between planning, design, and operations.
• Translate institutional knowledge into clear, usable process documentation, decision frameworks, and playbooks.
• Partner closely with Design Operations leadership to ensure processes reflect how the organization should operate going forward, not just historical practice.

Process Evolution in an Ambiguous Environment

• Recognize that evolving business needs and ways of working may require revisiting or redesigning existing processes.
• Help evaluate when processes should be stabilized, revised, or replaced entirely.
• Work effectively in situations where requirements and constraints are still emerging, helping move the organization from ambiguity to workable operating models.
• Surface trade-offs, implications, and risks associated with different process or governance approaches.

Allocation Governance & Decision Frameworks

• Support the refinement of allocation and design governance, including roles and responsibilities, decision rights, escalation paths, standards, and guardrails.
• Help ensure allocation and design decisions are consistent, defensible, and aligned to enterprise principles, even as conditions change.
• Develop reference materials that enable the team to apply standards with less reliance on leadership intervention.

Special Projects & Independent Problem Solving

• Serve as a special project lead for complex or loosely defined issues that exceed the current team's capacity or experience.
• Take ambiguous problems and independently develop clear problem framing, options and implications, recommended paths forward.
• Present concise, well reasoned recommendations that leadership can act on.
• Act as a pressure release valve for leadership when issues fall outside established processes or norms.

What Success Looks Like

• Core design and allocation processes are clearly defined, documented, and consistently applied.
• The Design team is less dependent on individual institutional knowledge to operate effectively.
• Leadership can confidently hand off ambiguous issues knowing they will be thoughtfully worked through.
• Design Operations is positioned to adapt as campus needs, and ways of working continue to evolve.

Technical Skills: EEO Employer

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Apex Systems is a world-class IT services company that serves thousands of clients across the globe. When you join Apex, you become part of a team that values innovation, collaboration, and continuous learning. We offer quality career resources, training, certifications, development opportunities, and a comprehensive benefits package. Our commitment to excellence is reflected in many awards, including ClearlyRated's Best of Staffing® in Talent Satisfaction in the United States and Great Place to Work® in the United Kingdom and Mexico. Apex uses a virtual recruiter as part of the application process. Click here for more details.

Apex Benefits Overview: Apex offers a range of supplemental benefits, including medical, dental, vision, life, disability, and other insurance plans that offer an optional layer of financial protection. We offer an ESPP (employee stock purchase program) and a 401K program which allows you to contribute typically within 30 days of starting, with a company match after 12 months of tenure. Apex also offers a HSA (Health Savings Account on the HDHP plan), a SupportLinc Employee Assistance Program (EAP) with up to 8 free counseling sessions, a corporate discount savings program and other discounts. In terms of professional development, Apex hosts an on-demand training program, provides access to certification prep and a library of technical and leadership courses/books/seminars once you have 6+ months of tenure, and certification discounts and other perks to associations that include CompTIA and IIBA. Apex has a dedicated customer service team for our Consultants that can address questions around benefits and other resources, as well as a certified Career Coach. You can access a full list of our benefits, programs, support teams and resources within our 'Welcome Packet' as well, which an Apex team member can provide.