Associate Director, Design Strategy

Who We Are

At Kyndryl, we design, build, manage and modernize the mission-critical technology systems that the world depends on every day. So why work at Kyndryl? We are always moving forward - always pushing ourselves to go further in our efforts to build a more equitable, inclusive world for our employees, our customers and our communities.

The Role
- As the Associate Director, Design Strategy for Kyndryl Vital Canada, you’ll be a critical member of a cross-disciplinary, customer-facing team, leading innovative projects and modeling co-creative, human-centered behaviors. You’ll utilize generative research methodologies that transforms user, data, competitive, and contextual inquiries into actionable insights to inform the strategy and customer experience. You’ll lead iterative validation exercises of concepts, feeding research into the design to ensure viability, feasibility, and desirability In customer engagements, you will lead by effectively communicating the rationale behind design decisions. You’ll guide the team through the project, providing insights, ideas, and leadership to deliver high-quality, breakthrough solutions. You’ll be an ambassador for human-centered design to co-workers, partners, and customers, building awareness and including them in the research journey.
- You’ll also work directly with our Kyndryl Vital Canada leader to identify high-potential customer projects and constantly look for more ways to add value to our customer’s experience. Your product, technological, and business acumen will enable you to effectively partner with Kyndryl business and account leaders, technical strategists, customers, and Kyndryl’s alliance partners to define problems, imagine solutions and service blueprints, and enable all to bring these solutions to life. We’re in startup mode so you’ll have a lot of influence over the ways of working both locally and at the global level.

Who You Are

Required Technical and Professional Expertise
- Portfolio demonstrating design success with craft, strategic thinking, leadership, human-centric customer engagement, integrated technology, and inventive solutions in a variety of contexts
- 6+ years in human-centered design, emphasizing experience design, service design, and co-creation
- Entrepreneurial mindset, thrive in ambiguity and enjoy ‘first of a kind challenges.’
- Flexible and creative approach to research design, knowing when to do “just enough research” and when to go in more depth. Able to work under time and resource constraints — and able to justify more in-depth studies as needed.
- Systems-thinking problem-solver who looks through multiple lenses (business, people, technology, sustainability) and integrates those insights into innovative solutions
- Business acumen and language to work with customers, define key business objectives and create high-level business cases
- Ability to ideate and visualize concepts through a mix of mediums such as diagrams, wireframes, and drawings
- Lead multi-discipline teams through user experience engagements, resulting in experience-based roadmaps and the development of touchpoints that enable technologists to dig more deeply into solutions
- Broad and flexible research method toolkit for designing co-creation journeys to lead teams from exploration to ideation. Adept at designing new tools when needed.
- Excellent collaboration and communication skills with clients and internal stakeholders
- Technology interest and acumen in some form
- Participate in new business development activities like pitches and written proposals
- Attention to detail in the language and relationship dynamics of key stakeholders
- Track record of team design, recruiting and management

Preferred Professional and Technical Expertise
- Participatory design and research
- Human behavior, change management, or other applied social sciences

Being You

Diversity is a whole lot more than what we look like or where we come from, it’s how we think and who we are. We welcome people of all cultures, backgrounds, and experiences. But we’re not doing it single-handily: Our Kyndryl Inclusion Networks are only one of many ways we create a workplace where all Kyndryls can find and provide support and advice. This dedication to welcoming everyone into our company means that Kyndryl gives you - and everyone next to you - the ability to bring your whole self to work, individually and collectively, and support the activation of our equitable culture. That’s the Kyndryl Way.

What You Can Expect

With state-of-the-art resources and Fortune 100 clients, every day is an opportunity to innovate, build new capabilities, new relationships, new processes, and new value. Kyndryl cares about your well-being and prides itself on offering benefits that give you choice, reflect the diversity of our employees and support you and your family through the moments that matter - wherever you are in your life journey. Our employee learning