← Back to the LeaderboardThe Design Leadership Index

Rachel Posman

Senior Director of Central Design Operations at Salesforce; co-author of The Design Conductors

ExecutiveLeads from the backOld schoolOrgSystemsEnterprise
She is the operating-system builder behind a large enterprise design org and frames AI as a way to free designers for higher-impact work, embodying the elevate-not-hollow standard for org-level leadership.

Signature win. Built and scaled Central DesignOps for Salesforce's 400+ person design org and co-wrote the field's definitive DesignOps reference book.

The case

editorial · CCBEI · with sources
CraftHolds the bar for how design work gets done at scale (Salesforce 400+ org, UberEats, Capital One); her craft is operational systems and service design, not product pixels.6
CommunicationCo-authored The Design Conductors (Rosenfeld, 2024), the field's definitive DesignOps guide, and is a recurring DesignOps Summit speaker; making the discipline legible is her core output.9
BusinessBuilt and scaled Central DesignOps for a 400+ person org, explicitly tying design to customer and business success and durable org structures; MBA in Design Strategy reinforces business fluency.8
Education[Education recalibrated toward editorial baseline] Her entire practice is people-protection: designing environments where designers grow and thrive, plus literally writing the book that reskills the DesignOps profession.7
InnovationTalks like 'AI-Powered DesignOps' frame AI as lifting teams (sketch-to-code, freeing designers for impact) rather than shedding them — elevate-positive, though adoption is advocacy-stage more than hands-on building.7

Endorsed by peers

illustrative · opens with verified accounts
OverallI'd work for them44
CraftRaised my craft bar36
CommunicationMade the case for design54
BusinessMade design matter to the business48
EducationTaught me something I still use42
InnovationShowed me a new way to work42

Verified peers only — one tap with LinkedIn. Names stay private; we show role and industry. Bars are illustrative until the participation backend is live.

Stories

first-hand · reviewed before publishing
No stories yet.