Innovation Specialist

Baker McKenzie; Belfast City District; On-site; GBP 45,000 - 65,000; Full time

Job summary

Baker McKenzie is seeking an Innovation Specialist to support the Practice Innovation team in developing solutions that address client challenges and strategic goals. The role combines people, processes, data, and technology to accelerate change, improving outcomes, speed, accuracy and flexibility.

The role involves ideation, design, and delivery of strategic priority projects, fostering a culture of innovation and equipping employees with methodologies and tools for client-centric

Qualifications

• Experience in innovation within a law firm or consulting environment.
• Experience with design thinking is ideal.
• Strong communication and presentation skills.
• Proactive, self-directed and delivery-focused.

Responsibilities

• Use process-improvement and human-centered design methods to design and implement solutions, including ideation workshops, user interviews, journey mapping, process mapping, and rapid prototyping
• Develop and champion design deliverables such as user journeys, service blueprints, process flows, wireframes, and playbooks
• Combine qualitative and quantitative data to tell compelling narratives and shape solutions
• Collaborate with team members from diverse legal and business backgrounds
• Track and report on project deliverables
• Frame the story of the design outcome to senior leadership, verbally and visually
• Share research and lessons learned to enable wider insights
• Work cross-functionally to map new ways of working with technology

Skills

Innovation experience

Design thinking

Process improvement

Project management

Communication skills

Stakeholder management

Ambiguity navigation

Learning mindset

Job description

The Innovation Specialist will support the Practice Innovation team in developing solutions that address client challenges and strategic goals. By bringing together people, processes, data, and technology, we accelerate change and improve outcomes, speed, accuracy, and flexibility.

The role‑holder will assist with the ideation, design, and delivery of strategic priority projects led by the globally diverse Practice Innovation team, a group of strategic and empathetic thinkers committed to enhancing the client experience through creative problem‑solving. The individual will help foster a culture of innovation by equipping employees with methodologies, tools, and the confidence to adopt a client‑centric approach.

Main responsibilities:

• Use a variety of process‑improvement and human‑centered design methods to design and implement solutions, including ideation workshops, user interviews, journey mapping, process mapping, and rapid prototyping
• Develop and champion key design deliverables, including user journeys, service blueprints, process flows, wireframes, business model canvases, and best‑practice or implementation playbooks
• Combine qualitative and quantitative data to tell compelling narratives and shape solutions
• Collaborate with team members from diverse legal and business professional backgrounds
• Track and report on project deliverables
• Support framing the story of the design outcome, both verbally and visually, to key stakeholders across the Firm’s senior leadership
• Share key research and lessons learned from projects to enable the Firm to leverage insights more broadly
• Work cross‑functionally to identify where technology can transform how projects are delivered and map new ways of working

Skills and experience:

• Some experience in innovation within a law firm or consulting environment; experience with design thinking is ideal
• Experience with AI, including personal use, is desirable
• Experience in broad process improvement and project management, or direct legal practice experience combined with an interest in doing things differently
• Excellent communication and presentation skills, including strong listening abilities, deep curiosity, and strong writing skills
• Proactive, self-directed, and delivery‑focused
• Comfortable navigating ambiguity and novel problems
• Curious, adaptable, and motivated to learn new ways of working
• Flexible mindset and open to trying new approaches to solving problems
• Strong change‑management skills with the ability to support the delivery of change across a wide range of stakeholders, from skeptics to enthusiastic early adopters
• Empathetic and thoughtful when working with a diverse group of stakeholders, with the ability to navigate and manage competing stakeholder interest

Reports to: Associate Director, Practice Innovation

Travel requirements: Limited travel may be required to support project needs