<p>Kforce has a client in Greenwood Village, CO that is seeking a Program Manager - Experience Design & Research Ops.</p> <p>Summary: This role will be focused on bringing structure, coordination, and operational clarity to a research-driven, highly collaborative team working on customer experience initiatives. The work is deeply tied to retail and in-store environments, where design, research, and product teams collaborate to improve both the physical and digital customer journey. The environment is casual, non-siloed, and cross-functional, with a strong emphasis on experimentation, open communication, and aligning early insights to business and user needs.</p> <p>The Program Manager will serve as a key operational partner to teams conducting generative research that explores how customers interact with in-store technologies and service experiences. This individual will help define how work is scoped, prioritized, and executed-supporting research planning, managing timelines, optimizing workflows, and driving cross-team alignment. This role supports a seasoned research team, including a core group of senior "anchor" researchers who lead and scope major workstreams. The Program Manager will help operationalize the team's efforts and ease the day-to-day planning load on senior staff.</p> <p>Key Responsibilities:</p> <ul> <li>Act as the central coordination point between research, product, and design teams </li><li>Maintain and evolve program roadmaps, ensuring visibility and alignment across initiatives </li><li>Run agile ceremonies including refinement sessions, sprint planning, and retrospectives </li><li>Manage the Jira backlog, coordinate intake, and support capacity planning </li><li>Help formalize and improve team processes, workshops, and collaboration models </li><li>Partner with research leads to define timelines, uncover risks, and maintain momentum </li><li>Work to improve reporting structures and visibility into ongoing work </li><li>Identify blind spots and offer strategic, proactive solutions to improve delivery* 5+ years of experience in Program or Project Management-preferably within design, research, or digital product teams </li><li>Familiar with generative research practices and comfortable supporting early-stage strategy development </li><li>Solid command of agile processes and experience managing Jira backlogs </li><li>Strong communicator and natural relationship-builder who can bring clarity to ambiguity </li><li>Highly organized, self-directed, and motivated to refine how teams work together </li><li>Thrive in less structured, fast-moving environments and enjoy building operational systems from the ground up </li><li>Experience in retail, in-store technology, or customer-facing environments is a strong plus </li></ul>