Internal Transformation Services - Assistant Director - Design Thinking

EY; Kerala; On-site; INR 1,800,000 - 2,800,000; Full time

Job summary

EY in India seeks an Assistant Director for Design Thinking and Strategy Design & Innovation. The role leads high-impact engagements, partnering with senior leaders to shape strategy, unlock insights, and accelerate decision-making. You will apply design thinking, craft actionable roadmaps, and co-create strategic solutions with cross-functional teams.

The role emphasizes actionable hypotheses, structured problem solving, and delivering end-to-end engagement outcomes with impact across domains.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of overall professional experience for Assistant Director.
• Strong exposure to Design Thinking and its application.
• Consulting experience across strategy, innovation, transformation, or business advisory domains.
• Experience working on strategy engagements such as GTM, product, growth, or transformation design.
• Excellent communication, presentation, and storytelling skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead and deliver strategy engagements, identifying client’s competitive positioning and define strategic pathways.
• Structure ambiguous problems and develop hypothesis-driven strategic recommendations.
• Apply design thinking to frame problems, drive cross-functional alignment and develop roadmaps.
• Design and facilitate focused problem-solving workshops across ambiguous situations.
• Own end-to-end engagement delivery and translate insights into implementation plans.
• Support knowledge assets development, pitch decks, and industry POVs.

Skills

Problem structuring

Strategy engagements

Analytical thinking

Communication skills

Leadership

Design thinking

Innovation methods

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

10+ years experience

Tools

PowerPoint

Excel

Miro

Mural

Job description

Internal Transformation Services - Assistant Director - Design Thinking

Other locations: Anywhere in Country

Date: 20 Oct 2026

Requisition ID: 1749777

At EY, you’ll have the chance to build a career as unique as you are, with the global scale, support, inclusive culture and technology to become the best version of you. And we’re counting on your unique voice and perspective to help EY become even better, too. Join us and build an exceptional experience for yourself, and a better working world for all.

GDS Business Enablement -Internal Transformation Services - Strategy Design & Innovation – Assistant Director

We are hiring for Assistant Director, Strategy Design & Innovation to drive high-impact, domain-agnostic strategy engagements across domains

This role partners closely with senior leaders to solve complex business challenges, leveraging design thinking and innovation methodologies to shape strategy, unlock insights, and accelerate decision-making.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead and deliver strategy engagements, identifying client’s unique competitive positioning and define strategic pathways
• Structure ambiguous problems and develop clear, hypothesis-driven strategic recommendations
• Apply design thinking principles to frame problem statements, drive cross-functional alignment, co-create strategic solutions with stakeholders and develop business cases, feasibility assessments, and strategic roadmaps
• Design and facilitate focused problem-solving workshops, sailing through ambiguities, unstructured and asynchronous problems
• End-to-end project management of sessions, leveraging experience of project management methodologies
• Ability to communicate smoothly with Senior Leaders and translate their insights into structured strategy outputs and implementation plans, like their reverse mentors
• Proven abilities to develop execution roadmaps aligned to strategic objectives, define operating models, initiatives, and transformation levers, across domains (not just technology)
• Own end-to-end engagement delivery, from understanding client challenges, problem framing, hypothesis building to final recommendation working closely with cross-functional stakeholders
• Support knowledge assets development, pitch decks, and industry POVs, frameworks, and innovation playbooks
• Analyze industry dynamics, market size, growth trends, and competitive landscape

Skills and Attributes for Success

• Strong ability to structure complex problems and develop actionable strategic recommendations
• Proven capability to lead strategy engagements with measurable business impact
• Strong analytical thinking, business acumen, and hypothesis-driven problem solving
• Ability to translate insights into clear strategies, roadmaps, and execution plans
• Ability to engage and influence senior stakeholders, with strong communication and storytelling skills
• Strong collaboration and ability to navigate organizational complexity and ambiguity
• Ability to apply design thinking and innovation methodologies as a problem-solving enabler
• Innovative mindset with focus on continuous improvement of tools, frameworks, and ways of working

To qualify for the role, you must have:

• 10+ years of overall professional experience for Assistant Director
• Strong exposure to Design Thinking ways of working and its application
• Strong consulting experience across strategy, innovation, transformation, or business advisory domains
• Experience working on strategy engagements such as: GTM, product, growth, or transformation design (domain agnostic)
• Excellent communication, presentation, and storytelling skills
• Proven experience in fast-paced environments with ambiguity and shifting priorities, working with senior leaders
• Strong collaboration skills, with ability to work across teams, functions, and geographies
• Experience with tools such as PowerPoint, Excel, and collaboration platforms (e.g., Miro, Mural)
• Ability to manage ambiguity and the political aspects of change

EY | Building a better working world

EY exists to build a better working world, helping to create long-term value for clients, people and society and build trust in the capital markets.

Enabled by data and technology, diverse EY teams in over 150 countries provide trust through assurance and help clients grow, transform and operate.

Working across assurance, consulting, law, strategy, tax and transactions, EY teams ask better questions to find new answers for the complex issues facing our world today.

Select how often (in days) to receive an alert:

EY refers to the global organization, and may refer to one or more, of the member firms of Ernst & Young Global Limited, each of which is a separate legal entity. Ernst & Young Global Limited, a UK company limited by guarantee, does not provide services to clients.