Associate Director - AI Innovation Lab, Human-centered Design

Kyndryl; Liverpool; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Kyndryl is seeking an Associate Director to lead customer innovation engagements from framing through prototype direction, evidence and executive decisions. You will be the strategic contact for the customer and trusted advisor to senior leadership, bridging business problems, research insights, and testable concepts.

This design-led consultancy role emphasizes human-AI collaboration, shaping engagement architecture, and driving value from Lab activities into funded programs.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in design, HCI, business, engineering, computer science, architecture or related field.
• 10+ years in design, innovation or consulting.
• 3+ years leading multidisciplinary teams and owning senior customer or executive relationships.
• Business-level fluency in English.

Responsibilities

• Own engagement architecture and outcomes, including customer journey, design direction, prioritization, prototype intent, validation plan and executive decision moments.
• Lead senior customer relationships and ensure post-Lab value realization.
• Bridge business problems, research insights and tangible prototypes through to decisions and scaled impact.
• Direct and coordinate multidisciplinary teams (designers, researchers, engineers, technologists) across build and test cycles.
• Ensure quality and learnings are reusable across Lab engagements and industries.

Job description

Who We Are

At Kyndryl, we run and reimagine the mission-critical technology systems that drive advantage for the world's leading businesses. We are at the heart of progress; with proven expertise and a continuous flow of AI-powered insight, enabling smarter decisions, faster innovation, and a lasting competitive edge. For our people—Kyndryls that means doing purposeful work that powers human progress. Join us and experience a flexible, supportive environment where your well-being is prioritized and your potential can thrive.

The Role

As Associate Director you lead customer innovation engagements end to end - from challenge framing and executive workshops through prototype direction, evidence and the decision that follows. You are the customer’s strategic contact throughout and a trusted advisor to their senior leadership, bridging the gap between business problems, research insight and tangible concepts people can test.

This is a design-leadership and consulting role, not an engineering one. Practical AI fluency is essential - a point of view on how AI reshapes what we design, and enough understanding of agentic systems to direct credible prototypes - but you do not need to be the deepest engineer in the room. You are composedinambiguity, create just enough structure to movefastand help a complementary team do its best work.

What you will own

• Thecustomerjourney. Shape the brief, engagement arc and success measures with the customer and account team; connect immersion, co-design, workshops, build,testand post-Lab follow-through.

• Executive momentum. Lead CIOs, CTOs, COOs and their leadership teams through ambiguity, constructivechallengeand the decisionsrequiredto move.

• The opportunity frame. Translate business priorities, user needs and operational realities into a precise opportunity, a credible valuehypothesisand an actionable design challenge.

• The human-AI system. Define what people, agents and systems each know,decideand do - handoffs, exceptions,controland accountability.

• The build and the test. Set fidelity, medium and AI approach; direct creative technologists, designers,researchersand engineers through focused build cycles; define the evidence before the test using research, realistic scenarios, syntheticpersonasand system evaluation.

• The decision. Connect challenge,evidenceand recommendation to an owned next step - sprint, pilot, transformationinitiativeor deliberate stop.

• Whatrepeats. Turn validated work into reusable methods, patterns, components, prompts, agent states, policies, evaluationsetsand reference builds.

• The practice. Build complementary strengths across design, consulting,AIand business strategy rather than one profile; set the quality bar and coach; keeproughly 10 percentof capacity for moonshots in human-AI collaboration, embodiedAIand adaptive interfaces.

Scope and partnerships

You own the whole engagement, not every artifact: its intellectual and experiential quality, the senior customerrelationshipand the path from Lab activity to durable business value.

• Youown engagement architecture and outcomes. Customer journey, design direction, prioritization, prototype intent, validation plan, executive decision moments and the post-Lab path.

• The Senior Creative Technologist owns hands-on making. Assigned prototypes, interaction artifacts, technical exploration, testingevidenceand implementation-ready handoff, workingtodirection from you and the Director. On smaller engagements they carry the day-to-day customer relationship within that direction.

• Engineering,accountand Lab operations own their domains. Engineering leadsownproduction architecture, security,integrationand deployment; you connect business intent and the intended experience to technical delivery. Account, industry and alliance teams bring opportunity context, domainexpertise,relationshipsand commercial follow-through. Scheduling, hospitality, AV,safetyand equipment sit with Lab operations.

Success lookslike.

Engagements end with evidence and an owned executive decision, not just satisfaction; what is built traces to a customer priority and a plausible source of value; validated opportunities move into funded sprints, pilots or programs; patterns and assets compound across Lab teams, industries and customers.

Who You Are

What you bring

Minimum qualifications

• Education. Bachelor's degree in design, HCI, business, engineering, computer science, architecture or a related field, or equivalent practical experience.

• Experience. 10+ years in design,innovationor consulting, including 3+ years leading multidisciplinary teams and owning senior customer or executive relationships.

• Portfolio. Case studies of engagements you led end to end: the challenge, how you framed it, what was prototyped and tested, and the decision or outcome it produced.

• Language. Business-level fluency in English.

You will thrive here if you have

• Executive presence and facilitation. Confidence leading senior customers through ambiguity, co-design, constructivechallengeand consequential decisions.

• Business acumen and consulting judgment. The ability to read enterprise priorities, frame opportunity and connect value,feasibilityand a practical route to action - going beyond strategy into live implementation.

• Human-centered design leadership. Significant experienceleading service, product, experience or innovation work from research and framing through validation and outcome.

• End-to-end engagement leadership. Experience shaping and running complex customer workshops, Labengagementsor consulting programs, not justfacilitatingisolated sessions.

• AIopportunityfluency. Enough understanding of generative and agentic systems to spot meaningful possibilities, challengeassumptionsand direct credible prototypes.

• Multidisciplinary direction. Experience aligning designers, creative technologists, researchers, engineers, industryexpertsand commercial teams around one outcome, and the curiosity to keep learning without a fixed playbook.

Preferred qualifications

• Advanced degree. Master's degree or MBA in design, HCI, innovation,businessora relatedfield.

• Consultancy or lab background. Time in a design consultancy, innovation lab, productstudioor creative agency, repeatedly moving ambiguous customer challenges into actionable opportunities.

• Global and cross-industry exposure. Senior stakeholders across sectors such as financial services, insurance, manufacturing, retail,travelor government, ideally in more than one geography.

• Working toolkit. Figma,FigJamor Miro; workshop and design-sprint facilitation methods; generative AI tools for research synthesis and concept exploration.

• Prototype andgovernancefamiliarity. Digital,spatialor physical prototyping and the enterprise considerations around responsible AI adoption - governance,riskand model evaluation.

• Business development. Experience shaping proposals, pitches and thought leadership with account and industry teams.

• Mobility. Willingness to travel to customer sites and Lab locations as engagements require.

Being You

The "Kyn" in Kyndryl means kinship, which represents the strong bonds we have with each other, our customers and our communities. We focus on ensuring all Kyndryls feel included and we welcome people of all cultures, backgrounds, and experiences. Even if you don't meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply. We believe in growth, and we're excited to see what you can bring. At Kyndryl, employee feedback has told us that our number one driver of employee engagement is belonging. That sense of belonging - being a valued, respected, trusted member of the team - is fundamental to our culture and fueling great experiences for our customers. This dedication to welcoming everyone into our company means that Kyndryl gives you the ability to thrive and contribute to our culture of empathy and shared success. That's The