Lead Design & Innovation Strategist

International Baccalaureate; Zuid-Holland; Hybrid; EUR 54,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Relocation support

Flexible benefits allowance (1.5% of a

Flexible working (core hours 10am-3.30

Annual leave 25 days

Job summary

The International Baccalaureate is seeking a Design & Innovation Manager to drive user-centered innovation across the Digital Office and IB ecosystem in The Hague. You will translate strategic priorities into practical discovery, co-creation, prototyping and testing, embedding design thinking and service design across teams.

Under the Head of Innovation, you will deliver inclusive, scalable products, support workshops, and mentor colleagues while embracing emerging tech and new design

Qualifications

• Minimum 5-7 years’ experience in design-led innovation, service design, product design, user research or a related role.
• Experience delivering design thinking workshops, co-creation sessions and structured problem-solving activities with cross-functional teams.
• Experience translating user research and stakeholder insight into practical concepts, service improvements, prototypes, or pilots.

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery, co-creation, prototyping and testing workstreams, progressing priority initiatives from strategic intent to evidence-informed concepts, pilots and recommendations.
• Plan and conduct qualitative and quantitative research with internal and external stakeholders, translating needs, behaviors and pain points into actionable insights.
• Develop concepts, service journeys, experience maps and solution artefacts to help teams understand user needs and make informed choices about what to test or progress.
• Create and iterate low, medium and high fidelity prototypes, pilots and minimum viable products to validate assumptions and reduce delivery risk.
• Design and facilitate workshops, ideation sessions and feedback loops that bring together diverse stakeholders and encourage shared ownership of innovation outcomes.
• Support practical implementation of the Digital Blueprint by helping teams apply agreed innovation principles, tools and methods to priority initiatives.
• Develop training, toolkits, playbooks and coaching to strengthen design thinking, experimentation and innovation practice across the IB.
• Track workstream progress, document learning, maintain quality standards, and provide recommendations to support continuous improvement.
• Support and mentor junior colleagues and cross-functional contributors to build capability and maintain high quality innovation outputs.

Skills

Design thinking

Service design

User research

Prototyping

Facilitation

Stakeholder management

Journey mapping

Figma

Product design

Tools

Figma

Miro

UserTesting

Job description

The International Baccalaureate is seeking a Design & Innovation Manager to drive user-centered innovation across the Digital Office and IB ecosystem in The Hague. You will translate strategic priorities into practical discovery, co-creation, prototyping and testing, embedding design thinking and service design across teams.

Under the Head of Innovation, you will deliver inclusive, scalable products, support workshops, and mentor colleagues while embracing emerging tech and new design