Experience and Service Design Director, Workforce AI Transformation
Job Description
Ankura is a team of excellence founded on innovation and growth.
The Experience and Service Design Director is a pivotal role within the Workforce AI Transformation practice in EMEA. This position sits at the intersection of experience, service and product design, shaping how organisations design and deliver AI-enabled ways of working.
Role Purpose
This is a senior design leadership role focused on shaping how AI-enabled work is structured and delivered in practice.
As organisations invest in AI, the challenge extends beyond capability to how it is embedded into workflows, tools, and ways of working.
This role defines the services, tools, and experiences that enable organisations to apply AI effectively, ensuring they are grounded in how people work and how organisations operate.
You will bring deep expertise across service design and product design, alongside a strong understanding of how AI informs decisions, actions, and workflows. You will help clients translate ambition into clearly defined services, tools, and experiences that are usable, reliable, and grounded in how work is carried out in practice.
Your focus will be on how AI is embedded within tools, workflows, and operational environments, ensuring that what is designed supports clarity, consistency, and effective decision-making.
Why Join Ankura
Opportunities to work on some of the largest and most high-profile projects, providing advice at the highest level.
To work in a dynamic and fast paced environment, alongside senior leaders of our business.
The opportunity to learn quickly and influence the growth and development of our team.
Fantastic personal and professional development opportunities and the ability to learn from experts in their fields.
Exposure to senior clients and an opportunity to build your own client relationships.
Key Responsibilities
Service Design & Product Design
Lead the design of end-to-end services, defining how front-stage interactions are enabled by underlying processes, tools, systems, and organisational capabilities
Establish service blueprints, system views, and product structures that make complex work visible, understandable, and actionable
Define direction for tools, platforms, and interfaces that support AI-enabled work across operational contexts
Shape workflows, interaction models, information structures, and decision points with a focus on usability, clarity, and value
Translate research and strategic direction into structured design outcomes
Set the standard for clarity, coherence, and quality across all design work.
AI-Enabled Workforce Transformation
Define how AI capabilities are embedded into services, tools, workflows, and operational environments
Shape how AI informs decision-making, task execution, collaboration, and outcome delivery
Establish a clear point of view on the role of design in enabling effective use of AI
Ensure alignment between technology capability, human need, organisational context, and delivery realities
Design for moments where clarity, accountability, and confidence are critical.
Proposition & IP Development
Define the design-led proposition for AI-enabled workforce transformation, establishing how the practice approaches the structuring of work, decision-making, and organisational experience
Lead the development of frameworks, methods, tools, and reusable assets that shape how engagements are delivered and how value is created
Establish a differentiated point of view on how design operates within AI-enabled environments
Drive coherence across disciplines by integrating design with research, strategy, and technology into a unified and recognisable approach
Position design as a core driver of how AI-enabled work is defined, structured, and delivered.
Client Engagement & Market Visibility
Lead senior client engagements, shaping how organisations design, structure, and apply AI-enabled ways of working
Present direction, models, and concepts with clarity and authority at executive level
Build trusted relationships with stakeholders across design, HR, technology, transformation, and business leadership
Work in close partnership with clients to ensure decisions reflect their priorities, context, and workforce needs
Represent the practice through events, publications, and industry engagement
Establish a credible external voice on service design, product design, and AI-enabled experience.
Requirements:
Significant experience across service design, product design, experience design, or related disciplines
Strong track record leading design work in complex organisational, digital, or transformation contexts
Proven ability to define and scale design approaches across services, tools, systems, and teams
Experience working in AI, digital transformation, or emerging technology environments
Experience working with senior stakeholders in large, complex organisations
Strong understanding of how design creates value across strategy, delivery, and adoption
Exceptional ability to articulate complex design concepts and system relationships in a clear and actionable way for executive audiences
Strong design leadership presence, able to set direction and maintain clarity across complex environments
Deep systems thinker, able to connect interactions, workflows, tools, and organisational context into a coherent whole
Proven track record operating at the intersection of design, technology, and business
Confident working in evolving and ambiguous environments, bringing structure and clarity
Recognised voice within the design community, with a track record of thought leadership through speaking, writing, or industry engagement
Strong commercial awareness, able to position design as a driver of measurable outcomes
Builds trust quickly with senior stakeholders through clarity of thinking and credibility of approach.
Success Measures
Quality and impact of design within client transformation programmes
Adoption of service and product design approaches, frameworks, and tools
Contribution to revenue through design-led engagements and proposition development
Strength of client relationships with senior stakeholders
Growth and development of design capability within the team
External visibility through publications, events, and industry presence
Effective collaboration across research, strategy, AI, and digital teams.
Ankura is an Affirmative Action and Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, or protected veteran status and will not be discriminated against based on disability. Equal Employment Opportunity Posters, if you have a disability and believe you need a reasonable accommodation to search for a job opening, submit an online application, or participate in an interview/assessment, please email [email protected] or call toll-free +1.312-583-2122. This email and phone number are created exclusively to assist disabled job seekers whose disability prevents them from being able to apply online. Only messages left for this purpose will be returned. Messages left for other purposes, such as following up on an application or technical issues unrelated to a disability, will not receive a response.