Design Director

What will you be doing?

This is a leadership role at frog. You are expected to help frog grow its reputation, business and people through Project Leadership, Design Leadership & Management, and Business/Account Development.

Project Leadership:

You will oversee 2-3 projects at a time, or act as a day-to-day engagement leader, (sometimes with Executive Director oversight on key strategic accounts) and guide teams of designers, technologists, program managers and strategists. You will build relationships with clients while advising and supporting the frog project team. You will work across every stage of the project lifecycle to ensure that the concepts and design decisions are sensitive to both the needs of users and our clients’ businesses. You will chart a path forward together with your frog team, even when information is ambiguous and the project challenging. You should be eager to involve clients in the design process, highly responsive to feedback, and excited to present your team’s ideas in front of executives. Your typical project responsibilities will include:

• Lead or oversee multiple project teams to achieve the highest level of performance without compromising timelines and team harmony
• Set craft quality standards, with a deep understanding of the client’s goals, business requirements and constraints, for qualitative foundational & evaluative research, insight articulation, experience model development (e.g. customer journeys, behavioural archetypes, service blueprints, etc.), design and testing.
• Lead teams to develop insights, define and prioritise opportunity areas, and envision concepts
• Lead teams to create meaningful customer/user feedback loops through build test & learn cycles
• Lead teams to prioritise MVP features, build a backlog, and create strategic product roadmaps

Design Leadership (Studio Discipline Lead):

You will lead the design discipline leadership in your studio and will be responsible for the culture and quality of the design discipline through the acquisition, development and mentorship of a world class and diverse creative team. You will nurture a positive, creative, and inclusive atmosphere that encourages collaboration, boldness, and constructive and respectful feedback. Specifically:

• You will be responsible for managing and developing your direct reports, providing guidance and support for their growth, as well mentoring and supporting junior colleagues on the projects you lead through specific and actionable feedback
• You will be responsible for the development and career growth of the design team in collaboration with the studio GM and HR Business Partner
• You will be responsible for talent acquisition strategy & planning in collaboration with the studio GM and TA Business Partner

Business/Account Development:

• You will collaborate on business development efforts with our BD Team and fellow discipline leaders - crafting approaches, writing proposals, and presenting to prospective clients
• You will ensure that the projects you lead continue beyond their initial scopes, and identify additional opportunities within the client’s organisation
• You will create content for frog’s demand generation activities and establish yourself as a thought leader within frog

We want you to have:

• 7+ years of professional human centred design ‘thinking & doing’ consulting experience with specific experience in one or more areas of the product development lifecycle, as a Visual Designer, IXD, Service Designer, Product Designer, Design Strategist or Experience Designer
• Proficiency with contemporary research, design and prototyping tools and methods
• Experience in managing people and projects
• Affinity with frog’s values, and a passion for creating products that meet peoples functional and emotional needs
• An understanding of sustainability across design, product, service and experience landscape
• An outstanding track record as a design leader for experience strategies, design systems, products, services, and customer experiences that delight customers/users and achieve business results
• High peer, end-user, or client satisfaction with the work products that you created
• Strong leadership and collaboration skills, with the ability to guide high performing teams using persuasion and influence (rather than command and control)
• Strong presentation and storytelling skills
• Willingness to travel for research, project delivery, and client meetings
• Business level ability in English and German

It would be a bonus if you had:

• A university degree in a relevant design, business, technology, or social science discipline
• Experience working in a variety of organisations (start-up, corporate, agency/consultancy)
• Academic, professional, or life experience from outside the design field that enriches your perspective as a designer
• Published thought leadership, with a track record of presenting and teaching in public forums and a social media presence
• A second language (and every additional language is a plus!)

Application Instructions

• As part of your application, please include a link or PDF of your portfolio of recent work, highlighting your abilities and experience relevant to the role, with specific examples of how you work, think, collaborate, and contribute to great design outcomes.
• If you have any questions, please contact our Recruiting partner dan.a.kedem@capgemini.com

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