Temporary Service Designer

Interrail; Utrecht; Hybrid; EUR 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Interrail, headquartered in Utrecht, is seeking a Senior Service Design/Experience Designer for a temporary maternity-cover assignment from October 2026 to February 2027. You will join the Customer Experience – Research & Insights team to shape the Customer & Travel Experience Strategy and the Target Traveller Journey.

You will synthesize data, conduct qualitative interviews across cultures, define the Interrail Experience, and develop strategic opportunities.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of experience in Service Design, Strategic Design, Customer Experience Design, UX or a comparable field.
• Proven experience creating customer journeys, service blueprints, experience principles and strategic service concepts.
• Strong qualitative research skills: independently designing, conducting and synthesising interviews with people from different cultures.
• Ability to turn insights into an experience vision and tangible concept directions, without locking into solutions too early.
• Confidence in facilitating and aligning senior, cross-functional stakeholders, and explaining complex insights simply.
• An independent, pragmatic approach to delivering a time-bound assignment.
• Professional fluency in English and Miro.
• Experience in travel or edutainment.
• Experience researching across cultures and markets.
• Interest in sustainable travel!

Responsibilities

• Synthesize existing customer, brand and travel-data insights.
• Research the European traveller perspective through around 12 qualitative interviews.
• Define the distinctive Interrail experience, the ‘Interrail Effect’.
• Develop the Target Traveller Customer Journey.
• Shape 3–5 strategic experience opportunities and concept directions.
• Align with stakeholders and hand over the work for 2027 and beyond.

Skills

Service Design

Strategic Design

Customer Experience Design

UX

Qualitative Research

Facilitating Stakeholders

English Proficiency

Miro

Travel/Edutainment Experience

Cross-Cultural Research

Tools

Miro

Job description

We believe travel can create citizens of the world. We spark moments of connection and transformation, giving people the freedom to explore openly and shape their own story.

With colleagues from more than 50 countries, our diversity sparks curiosity, insight, and a culture of openness, essential to understanding our travellers and one another.

We work in a flexible hybrid model from our Utrecht HQ and our homes across the Netherlands.

Just as travel is about discovery, we’re looking for people who want to go one stop further, joining a journey that inspires personal transformation through train travel.

We’re on the search for…

…someone who can go One Stop Further by helping us answer one big question: how can we help travellers feel the transformative ‘Interrail Effect’, and support them to seek, have, capture and share that experience?

This is a temporary assignment from October 2026 to February 2027, covering maternity leave.

What you’ll be doing

You’ll be joining the Customer Experience team (Research & Insights), the people who build and maintain a strong understanding of traveller needs, behaviour, experience and satisfaction across the end-to-end journey. And make sure every stage of the traveller journey is impactful and meaningful, from first daydream to lasting memory. Your day-to-day contact is the Head of Customer & Travel Experience.

You will help us define what travelling with Interrail should feel like from 2027 to 2029. Together with the team, you’ll shape two things: our Customer & Travel Experience Strategy, and a Target Traveller Journey, a picture of the ideal end-to-end trip from first inspiration to sharing stories back home. Throughout, the focus is on what makes an Interrail trip distinctive, authentic and transformative. Your work will cover research, synthesis, strategy and concept direction. Building solutions and setting product roadmaps are not part of this assignment.

Below is our suggested approach, but we’re very open to changing it based on your expertise and proposal.

• Synthesise existing customer, brand and travel-data insights
• Research the European traveller perspective through around 12 qualitative interviews
• Define the distinctive Interrail experience, the ‘Interrail Effect’
• Develop the Target Traveller Customer Journey
• Shape 3–5 strategic experience opportunities and concept directions
• Align with stakeholders and hand over the work for 2027 and beyond

What we’re looking for

It's already a possible match when you share the same mindset as us, being forward-thinking, results-driven, caring and embracing diversity.

In terms of your experience and skills:

• 7+ years of experience in Service Design, Strategic Design, Customer Experience Design, UX or a comparable field
• Proven experience creating customer journeys, service blueprints, experience principles and strategic service concepts
• Strong qualitative research skills: independently designing, conducting and synthesising interviews with people from different cultures
• The ability to turn insights into an experience vision and tangible concept directions, without locking into solutions too early
• Confidence in facilitating and aligning senior, cross-functional stakeholders, and explaining complex insights simply
• An independent, pragmatic approach to delivering a time-bound assignment
• Professional fluency in English and Miro
• Experience in travel or edutainment,
• Experience researching across cultures and markets
• Interest in sustainable travel!

To support fair and unbiased hiring, we use a blind recruitment process in the early stages. Personal details such as your name, date of birth, photo, contact information, social media links, gender, and nationality are hidden, allowing us to focus on your skills, experience, and potential.

In the meantime…

If you’re curious, why not check us out on LinkedIn and get a sense of our culture and values?

Got questions? Our People & Culture team would be happy to help — just drop us a note at [e-mail]. We don’t use LinkedIn for messages, so this is the best way to reach us!

While you're here, explore our travel passes and get inspired for your next journey at www.interrail.com