Role overview:

You will be an expert in leading complex strategic design or consulting projects that fundamentally change the way businesses approach customer or employee experience. You will lead teams of Nile and associate designers, consultants and domain experts. Together you will tackle strategic business challenges and take multidisciplinary client teams on the exciting and often new journey of culture change and customer-centred end-to-end service design. You are creative and an expert in co-designing and piloting innovative services with customers, while building internal capability. You have strong leadership skills and care passionately about engaging front-line staff as well as executive decision-makers in a collaborative and outcome-driven strategic design process that generates measurable business outcomes.

As an expert, you will be driving our IP and thought-leadership by talking about our work at conferences and events, developing innovative new methods and tools with our team, and pro-actively shaping groundbreaking new business opportunities.

Areas of responsibility:

Strategic

• Provide market, sector and competitor insight
• Integrate Nile vision, mission, culture and values into everything we do – encourage the Nile values in others, and proactively challenge where these are not being embodied
• Promote knowledge sharing, good practice, industry/client information, lessons learned 

Project Delivery

• Lead consultant on high profile/high value projects
• Stakeholder management and engagement
• Manage project deliverables – quality, budget control, time
• Deliver client expectations/satisfaction – liaison, objectives, extend scope, opportunities
• Manage project evaluation – debrief, lessons learned
• Identify and create case studies – measurable success stories
• Actively monitor performance of associates on your projects
• Keep a finger on the pulse of team mood and flag any possible issues early on

Methodology/Innovation

• Bring new methods/approaches and thinking to the practice team
• Scope out and kick-off projects and provide support for project team
• Design and innovate processes, standardisation, efficiencies, streamline toolkit 
• Implement new techniques and methodologies
• Direct and challenge seniors on methodologies and innovation

Commercial 

• Deliver against account revenue targets
• Develop Nile’s client base by identifying and driving business with new clients
• Contribute to development and delivery of account management plans to maximise income
• Maximise own utilisation within expected bounds for role
• Lead on proposal development, pitching for new business

Client Relationships 

• Build relationships with clients and project leads
• Understand client businesses, challenges, identify opportunities
• Provide escalation on projects
• Profile raising
• Actively raise the profile of Nile and yourself 
• Speak at public events

Teams

• Input to Short and long-term resource planning – help our operations team identify the right people, at the right level, for the right projects
• Look for new talent/hire designers to grow Nile practice team 
• Promote professional development, innovation and career planning – self and team
• Plan and manage holidays and other absences for own team where appropriate 
• Support the Nile Leadership Team in the day-to-day running of Nile

You must have…

• Proven track record in leading and inspiring client and project teams to deliver high quality, innovative outcomes in a corporate or consultancy environment
• Proven experience of delivering service design projects of various sizes and methodologies to quality, time and budget constraints.
• Significant practical experience using a broad range of service design methods and approaches, particularly service proposition development, workshop facilitation, customer co-design and training
• Experience of day-to-day task direction of multidisciplinary project teams
• Line management/people management experience
• Significant experience of scoping, planning and costing programmes of work
• Deep applied understanding and application of design process(es)
• Demonstrable business development acumen
• Knowledge and experience of using qual and quant design research methods
• Strong influencing, negotiation and communication skills
• Willingness to travel (mainly in the UK, but possibly overseas)

What we offer:

• Competitive Salary
• Edinburgh based, on the city’s most Instagrammed street (UK-based remote working applications will be considered)
• 23 days holidays plus bank holidays
• Company Pension Scheme
• Private Medical Insurance & Death in Service cover
• Employee Assistance Programme (EAP)
• Annual budget for external training opportunities
• Annual team trip for quality time with your colleagues
• Flexible working, blending the best of office-based and WFH
• Loads of lovely snacks, both healthy and indulgent, and plenty of team socials & activities