Job Title: Design Project Manager
Location: Irvine, CA
Duration: 6 months
We’re seeking a highly experienced Senior Design Project Manager to drive the orchestration of design activities across a major app redesign. This contract role is critical to ensuring our design team is set up for success across strategy, execution, and delivery. You will act as a central connector between design, product, engineering, and business stakeholders to keep work on track, on time, and aligned with our broader product goals.
 
Key Responsibilities
Program & Project Management

• Own and manage the full schedule of design tasks, deliverables, dependencies, and hand-offs across the app redesign.
• Oversee capacity planning and resource allocation across design contributors, balancing workloads and adjusting to changing priorities.
• Proactively identify, track, and mitigate risks related to schedule, resources, or quality.
• Manage and streamline the design review and approval process with clear checkpoints and decision gates.

 
Cross-Functional Collaboration

• Serve as the liaison between design and cross-functional partners including product, engineering, marketing, and leadership.
• Participate in PI planning, roadmap discussions, and alignment meetings to ensure design timelines and dependencies are accounted for.
• Represent design in stakeholder meetings and program reviews.

 
Agile & Workflow Operations

• Lead and facilitate design-specific ceremonies such as stand-ups, sprint planning, design reviews, and retrospectives.
• Collaborate closely with product managers and scrum teams to ensure design work is reflected in roadmaps, Jira tickets, and sprint plans.
• Translate product and stakeholder inputs into clear design user stories with defined acceptance criteria.

 
UX, UI, & Design Systems Support

• Partner with design and research leads to support UX research, usability testing, and user validation activities within the sprint cadence.
• Maintain a strong understanding of UX and UI practices to intelligently advocate for design quality and feasibility.
• Ensure high-quality delivery of design assets and documentation via tools such as Figma and ZeroHeight.
• Champion consistency through oversight of design systems and adherence to established patterns and component governance.

 
Communication & Governance

• Create clear documentation, meeting notes, and executive-level updates to support decision-making and visibility.
• Maintain accountability across the design team by tracking responsibilities, deadlines, and outcomes.
• Help shape and enforce design operations best practices that enable efficiency, clarity, and strong team collaboration.

 
Required Skills & Experience

• 5+ years of experience in digital project or program management, with at least 3 years supporting UX/UI or product design teams.
• Deep proficiency with Jira, Confluence, Figma, and ZeroHeight.
• Strong working knowledge of agile and waterfall methodologies, and ability to flex between them.
• Proven ability to manage complex, multi-track digital design projects from initiation through delivery.
• Clear understanding of the UX and UI design lifecycle, including research, interaction design, visual design, and design systems.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; able to confidently engage with senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams.
• Detail-oriented, organized, and adept at keeping multiple threads moving without letting quality slip.

 
Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in large-scale app or platform redesigns.
• Familiarity with product design tools, design tokens, and development hand-off best practices.
• Background in customer-centric or consumer-facing digital products.

  

 


At SPECTRAFORCE, we are committed to maintaining a workplace that ensures fair compensation and wage transparency in adherence with all applicable state and local laws. This position’s starting pay is: $55.00/hr.