Principal Design Researcher and Service Designer

Lead Design Research and Service Design Operations

Join a connected, multicultural, and highly motivated team dedicated to building design maturity within a leading organization that bridges pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. As a key contributor, you will confidently manage overall research delivery operations, build strong relationships with team members and customers, and impact projects by enabling customer-centric best practices and strategic thinking.

Core Responsibilities

• Lead design research teams in large and global cross-chapter projects.
• Navigate the complexity of business objectives and customer needs, translating them into design decisions through a solid design thinking process.
• Produce key deliverables and lead client conversations within your discipline.
• Analyze and evaluate design challenges from multiple perspectives, translating them quickly into granular activities for the team.
• Coach cross-chapter team members and other designers on design methodologies and best practices to contribute to their skills development.
• Lead practice discussions and contribute to team culture and rituals.
• Gather system-level information from multiple sources and communicate clearly to internal clients, users, and customers.
• Define workshop goals and objectives, design and plan exercises, facilitate sessions, and synthesize information to support strategic project decisions.

Additional Contributions

• Support senior roles in shaping approaches, pitching work to clients, and managing day-to-day activities.
• Lead discussions regarding domain and regulatory context, incorporating these inputs into design solutions.
• Participate in work packages aimed at creating more efficient and effective processes and practices.
• Support constructive critique and personal feedback opportunities, such as retrospectives, and suggest actionable steps.
• Create content to support thought leadership initiatives and help define overarching stories and frameworks for client presentations.
• Represent the team in internal events and meetings, articulating the business value of design.
• Actively capture value stories on projects and share them internally or via thought leadership channels.
• Identify inter-dependencies or risks early and propose solutions to address them.
• Oversee and evaluate new team members during their ramp-up period, acting as a buddy.

Required Qualifications

• Strong in-depth knowledge in Design Research and broad knowledge of related design disciplines, including Product Design and Service Design.
• Ability to orchestrate research activity across multiple projects.
• Proven track record in creating experience strategy based on customer insights.
• Ability to manage both qualitative and quantitative research methodologies and integrate different data sets.
• Experience contributing to several products or services that have come to market, with ownership of deliverables.
• Experience guiding junior designers on projects requiring in-depth knowledge of healthcare solution areas and related regulations.
• Minimum 5-10 years of experience in medical technology or regulated environments.
• Great presentation skills, with the ability to communicate ideas, solutions, and deliverables effectively and logically.
• Strategic thinker and results-oriented, capable of driving experience and business conversations.
• Strong team player able to generate consensus and buy-in in complex organizational contexts.
• Curious and humble, with a learner approach to research and design challenges.
• Creative problem solver able to look for the best solution to address challenges.
• Data-driven, grounding decision-making on a robust understanding of the problem space.
• Often the backbone of projects from beginning to end, leading the design process of one or two main projects.
• Ability to manage project development independently with minimal guidance from senior roles.
• Capability to independently engage and communicate with customers to enable customer centricity within projects.
• Demonstrates resilience in the face of failure, obstacles, or project changes.
• Deep commitment to long-term project goals, directing product and design team attention to them.
• Thinks logically and critically about client problems, remaining methodical and process-oriented.

What You Will Be Offered

• An opportunity to work in one of the world's most important pharmaceutical companies.
• A modern campus with plenty of green spaces and meeting areas.
• A varied job profile.
• Further training opportunities.
• Working in a dynamic and motivated team.