Associate Design Director (Senior Manager level)

You will be joining frog, frog is a leading global creative consultancy, part of Capgemini Invent.

Why join frog?

Joining frog means you'll be joining the "pond," a global network of studios, each with a thriving in-person and vibrant virtual culture. As a leading global creative consultancy that is part of Capgemini Invent, frog challenges the status quo to craft and build transformative human experiences that win hearts and move markets. Partnering with passionate leaders and visionary entrepreneurs, we apply creativity, strategy, design and data to re-invent businesses, drive growth and orchestrate customer-centric transformation. Together we strive to shape a regenerative future that is both sustainable and inclusive for businesses, people and planet. Our culture is open, flexible, inclusive and engaging. Working at frog means being empowered to Make Your Mark on every project, in your studio, your community—and the world at large.

Your job in one paragraph

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, Business Development and Discipline Leadership.

Project Leadership:

You will have primary responsibility for project delivery as a day-to-day engagement leader (sometimes with Director, Senior Director or VP oversight on larger, more complex programs), and guide teams of designers, strategists, business or transformation consultants, technologists, and program managers. You will build, develop, and maintain relationships with clients while advising and supporting the frog project team with leadership and hands-on engagement. You will work across every stage of the project lifecycle to ensure that outcomes and deliverables are sensitive to both the needs of users and our clients' businesses. You will chart a path forward together with your project team, even when information is ambiguous and the project challenging. You should be eager to involve and collaborate with clients in the creative process, highly responsive to feedback, and excited to present your team's ideas in front of executives.

On a typical project you will:

• Lead a project team to achieve the highest level of performance without compromising timelines and team harmony.
• Set 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 and contribute to develop insights, define, and prioritise opportunity areas, envision concepts.
• Lead and contribute to create meaningful customer/user feedback loops through build test & learn cycles.
• Lead and contribute to prioritise MVP features, build a backlog, and create strategic product roadmaps
• Support and guide the implementation to bring new products to life.

Business/Account Development:

• You will collaborate on business development efforts with our BD and Go-to-Market Teams and fellow discipline leaders - crafting approaches, writing proposals, and presenting/pitching 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 in your discipline.

Design Leadership:

You are part of the design leadership in your studio and will help cultivate the design culture and team. Specifically:

• You will manage direct reports and coach and mentor junior colleagues, providing guidance and support for their growth, and specific and actionable feedback.
• You will participate in talent acquisition, either as a hiring manager, or member of hiring teams.

Your home base at Capgemini Invent

You will be joining a vibrant and diverse team of designers at frog. We care for each other and we care about the work that we are doing for our clients. We cover various design disciplines including Interaction Design, Product Design, Service Design, Visual Design, Strategic Design and Design Research.

There are also plenty of development opportunities and global frog hangouts where the latest and greatest is shared across the globe. Lastly, we are a pretty social bunch. We like to go out for lunch or get together and catch up over some drinks after work.

Why this job is a good fit for you?

• 7-12 years of professional human centred design 'thinking & doing' consulting experience with specific experience in one or more areas of the product development lifecycle, for example as a Visual Designer, Interaction Designer, Service Designer, Product Designer, Design Strategist or Experience Designer
• Affinity with frog's values, and a passion for creating products that meet peoples functional and emotional needs.
• An outstanding track record as a design leader and contributor 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 Dutch.
• For this role it is a must to speak Dutch (at least B2 level) and live in The Netherlands.

It would be a bonus if you had:

• A university degree in Interaction Design, Human Computer Interaction, or a related design or behavioural 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!)

Equal Opportunities at frog

frog is an Equal Opportunity Employer encouraging diversity in the workplace. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, national origin, gender identity/expression, age, religion, disability, sexual orientation, genetics, veteran status, marital status, or any other characteristic protected by law.

frog is a global business with teams working across the world. To help us process your application, please ensure that your application documents (CV, cover letter, portfolio, etc.) are all in English.