Design & Research Operations Manager

Our vision here at Tesco is to become every customer's favourite way to shop, whether they are at home, out shopping, on the move, anywhere in the world. We want our customers to be inspired and whatever they are looking for, we’re finding bigger and better ways to provide it. Everything is underpinned by our continuous drive for the best tools and technology to deliver our vision. We’re driving innovation and redefining Technology to become the world’s leading e-commerce business.

We need people who share our ambition to deliver for our customers. Passionate and confident people willing to take the initiative and drive us forwards. In return, we offer excitement, a great team, an excellent benefit package, and significant career development opportunities. Joining us means playing a part in defining, building and launching an ambitious roadmap of digital products that could affect the lives of millions of people over the years to come.

About the Business Agility Team

The Business Agility team’s mission is to enable Technology & Online to win together by building adaptable capabilities, demonstrating agility behaviours, implementing effective ways of working, and driving continuous excellence. Consisting of 3 capabilities, Agility Coaching, Product Ops and UX Design & Research Ops, we sit within the CIO & Product functions in Technology.

About the role

As a UX Design & Research Operations Manager, you will be instrumental in optimising the internal operations and effectiveness of Tesco's UX Design & Research team by providing operational support, enhancing processes, tools and platforms. Collaborate with leads, managers, and Heads of Design to improve operational excellence in UX Design & Research, an integral aspect of Tesco's agile ways of working blueprint.

• Operational Support: Provide hands-on tactical operational support to develop and implement efficient design and research processes, frameworks and ways of working to maximise the operational capability, value and impact of a market leading UX Design and Research practice.
• Scaling UXDR Platforms: Support the adoption and operationalisation of UX platforms like the Design System and centralised Research Repository to optimize their capabilities across Tesco Group.
• Customer Insights Management: Establish and maintain effective systems for gathering and sharing knowledge across the organization, ensuring research insights and standard methodologies are accessible and actionable.
• Ethical Standards and Compliance: Ensure compliance with ethical standards and data protection laws. Collaborate with teams to maintain adherence and proactively handle risks.
• Research Participant Management: Support and develop streamlined customer and colleague participant recruitment processes and strategies balancing efficiency, cost-effectiveness and quality.
• Vendor Coordination: Collaborate with external vendors and internal teams to ensure timely delivery of services and tools. Oversee licensing, access, and budgeting for design and research platforms.
• Usability KPI Development and Implementation: Collaborate with partners to establish and streamline critical metrics of usability and ensure their seamless integration throughout the organization.
• Data-Driven Practices: Assist in developing and implementing critical metrics to improve operational efficiency and effectiveness of the UX research and design teams.
• Tool and System Management: Oversee the design and research teams' tools and systems, ensuring they are current and applied efficiently by cross-functional teams.
• Drive & Orchestrate Continuous Improvement: Mobilise and orchestrate key continuous improvement and capability maturity initiatives to realise UX Design & Research Strategy.

Skills

• Deep understanding of UX principles and standard methodologies.
• Proficiency in research and design tools (e.g., Sketch, Figma, Adobe XD, UserTesting).
• Excellent project management and organisational skills.
• Strong problem-solving abilities and experience driving projects from concept to completion.
• Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills.
• Expertise in usability testing and research methodologies.
• Familiarity with design systems and their implementation.
• Proactive demeanour with a strong interest in personal growth and continuous learning.

Experience

You’ll need to have demonstrated experience of:

• 2+ years direct experience of User Experience, Service Design or User Research.
• 2+ years Design Operations, Project Management or Product Management.
• Validated experience leading improvement programs, operational processes, and using metrics and data to guide decision-making.
• Practical experience in root cause analysis, prioritization methods, business process analysis, and optimisation.
• Experience in resolving conflicts, facilitating discussions, and promoting collaboration and problem-solving.
• Familiarity with Lean/Agile and Product Management concepts, principles, and practices.
• Ability to work independently in a fast-paced environment, proactively tackle problems, and navigate complexity to deliver valuable outcomes.
• Effective in working with a broad range of partners, including senior management, to understand issues, share insights, and create alignment.
• Practical familiarity with Figma, research repositories like EnjoyHQ, and common tools (e.g., Aha, Jira) and collaboration platforms (e.g., Confluence, Miro).

We’re all about the little helps. That’s why we make sure our Tesco colleague benefits package takes care of you – both in and out of work. Click Here to find out more!

• Annual bonus scheme of up to 20% of base salary
• Holiday starting at 25 days plus a personal day (plus Bank holidays)
• Private medical insurance
• 26 weeks maternity and adoption leave (after 1 years’ service) at full pay, followed by 13 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Statutory Adoption Pay, we also offer 6 weeks fully paid paternity leave
• Free 24/7 virtual GP service, Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) for you and your family, free access to a range of experts to support your mental wellbeing

Our vision at Tesco is to become every customer's favourite way to shop, whether they are at home or out on the move. Our core purpose is ‘Serving our customers, communities and planet a little better every day’. Serving means more than a transactional relationship with our customers. It means acting as a responsible and sustainable business for all stakeholders, for the communities we are part of and for the planet.

Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) at Tesco means that whoever you are and whatever your background, we always want you to feel represented and that you can be yourself at work. In short, we’re a place where Everyone’s Welcome. We’re proud to have been accredited Disability Confident Leader and we’re committed to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process. For further information on the accessibility support we can offer, please click here.

We’re a big business and we can offer a range of diverse full-time & part-time working patterns across our many business areas, which means that we can find something that works for you.  We work in a more blended pattern -combining office and remote working.  Our offices will continue to be where we connect, collaborate and innovate.