Director, Work Design – Innovation

Role Overview

• Lead Work Design & Transformation
• Own a cohesive innovation agenda aligned to Mercury’s business strategy and People Team roadmap
• Collaborate with ELT and business leaders to spot high-leverage opportunities in org structure, governance, decision-making, and execution
• Design and execute pilots/experiments (e.g., new team models, async norms, meeting cadences, decision rights) with clear hypotheses, KPIs, and rapid feedback loops
• Develop scalable change resources (playbooks, templates, comms kits, enablement sessions) to support leaders in adopting new practices
• Track and communicate impact on key outcomes: performance, speed-to-decision, quality, cycle time, and employee experience
• Act as People Team and cross-functional sponsor for AI, identifying and prioritizing use cases that boost productivity, decision quality, and experience
• Partner with Technology, Risk, Legal, and business teams to safely deploy AI workflows/tools, ensuring compliance, security, and real value
• Create practical guidelines, training, prompts, guardrails, and best practices for leaders, managers, and ICs to work effectively with AI
• Embed AI into core workflows to free capacity for strategic, high-touch work
• Establish and evangelize Mercury’s principles for async, knowledge-led, and high-leverage work (e.g., async-first defaults, documentation standards, decision records over meetings)
• Work with People Ops, IT, Comms, and teams to build intuitive knowledge systems and workflows for discovering, contributing to, and reusing institutional knowledge
• Promote async collaboration patterns (written updates, shared docs/canvases, threaded decisions) to cut meeting load and handoff friction
• Lead end-to-end reviews of critical cross-functional processes: map current state, identify pain points, and design streamlined future states
• Advise on role clarity, spans-and-layers, org structures, and archetypes (e.g., pods, squads, CoEs) that enable strategy execution and scalability
• Provide thoughtful design input during restructures, capability builds, and growth phases—ensuring changes are intentional, consistent, and well-landed

Requirements

• Minimum of a Bachelor’s degree
• 10+ years leading change, transformation, or operating model work in complex, fast-growth environments
• Proven success implementing modern ways of working (agile/product-centric, async, knowledge-led) at scale
• Hands-on experience with AI/automation for process improvement and knowledge/collaboration tools (e.g., enterprise search platforms, genAI assistants; quick learner mindset essential)
• Track record in org/role design, operating models, and partnering with senior leaders on structure/governance
• Strong program/change management: from big-picture strategy to disciplined execution, scaling, and measurement
• Systems thinker, connects processes, org, tech, and culture into coherent designs
• AI-curious/tech-forward: experiments personally, adopts quickly, and guides safe/effective use
• Exceptional communicator/facilitator: influences without authority, tells compelling stories, brings people along
• Data/evidence-driven: designs experiments, uses metrics/feedback to iterate, and proves impact
• Pragmatic innovator: turns bold ideas into practical, constraint-aware solutions and playbooks
• Collaborative/inclusive: builds cross-functional trust and designs for diverse teams/perspectives

Benefits

• Competitive compensation
• Flexibility to work from anywhere in the United States for most positions
• Paid time off (vacation time, sick time, 9 paid Company holidays, volunteer hours)
• Incentive bonus programs (potential for holiday bonus, referral bonus, and performance-based bonus)
• Medical, dental, vision, life, and pet insurance
• 401 (k) retirement savings plan with company match
• Engaging work environment
• Promotional opportunities
• Education assistance
• Professional and personal development opportunities
• Company recognition program
• Health and wellbeing resources, including free mental wellbeing therapy/coaching sessions, child and eldercare resources, and more