Senior Strategic Design Lead, Design Practice (2-Year Contract)

Summary

As the Senior Strategic Design Lead for the Design Practice division you will be responsible for driving delivery of the School of X and Learning by Design strategies, to achieve the desired outcomes for the Design Practice, and support realisation of the Design Masterplan.

Working closely with Director, Design Practice, the role involves the design of actionable roadmaps and delivery plans to enable the strategic goals of the Division to be achieved, including embedding design practice and culture as a work norm, the development of appropriate programmes and curriculum to support the realisation of client aspirations, and the provision of coaching and guidance to the Design Practice teams to enable them to upskill and deliver impact-focused, design-led outcomes for external stakeholders.

You will play a key role in ensuring the division’s outcomes are met, and you will propose recommendations and strategies to support workplan development in such a way that enables the division to achieve its desired results.

About DesignSingapore Council

DesignSingapore Council (Dsg)’s vision is for Singapore to be a liveable, loveable, and limitless city by design. As the national agency for design, our mission is to develop the design sector to be globally competitive, champion the use of design for innovation and growth in Singapore, and make life better in this UNESCO Creative City of Design. The Dsg is a subsidiary of the Singapore Economic Development Board.

About Design Practice Division

The Design Practice division equips Singaporeans with practical design thinking and application skills across the general education sector and the wider community, including collaboration with other Dsg divisions as our design thinking delivery partner. Primarily established to activate the non-design community to understand the role design can play in realising desired outcomes, and equipping people with skills to enable them to design for change, the Design Practice division focuses on upskilling, building design mindsets, and enabling design-led change by everyday innovators.

The Design Practice division comprises two teams: School of X, a national platform for development of design thinking skills and mindsets whilst co-designing solutions to complex, real world challenges; and Learning by Design, a multifaceted platform to enable stakeholders in the General Education space to readily integrate design thinking, design mindsets and design culture into schools through curriculum innovations, innovative learning experiences, partnerships, and change programmes.

Senior Strategic Design Lead, Design Practice Division

In this role, you will support the School of X (SoX) and Learning by Design (LbD) teams to ensure the quality and relevance of the applied training programmes, with oversight and coaching of officers in design practice activities, to achieve client and Dsg strategic outcomes.

Responsibilities

This role reports to Director, Design Practice (D/DP), at Dsg, and responsibilities include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Drive business growth for SoX and LbD programmes, supporting business development and sales activities, by translating client aspirations and needs into tailored programme proposals;
• Provide guidance to key stakeholders regarding the opportunities to apply design-led approaches to their challenges, with particular focus on engaging public service organisations and schools, in order to build design-led cultures and drive design adoption within the organisations;
• Develop programme content for SoX and LbD programmes, in collaboration with the SoX Programme Design Lead, the LbD Assistant Director, and in consultation with D/DP, to enable Challenge Sponsors(clients) and partners to realise their desired outcomes through Design Practice interventions;
• Ensure programme content, programme experience, and operational requirements are considered in a holistic and integrated way to achieve desired programme outcomes;
• Facilitate senior level and strategic design progammes that result in learning outcomes, mindset growth, and actionable participant-developed solutions;
• Conceptualise and develop new offerings and resources (e.g. masterclasses, toolkits, etc) that meet identified unmet needs, to strengthen the ways in which SoX and LbD help organisations and participants to develop sustainable and effective design mindsets, skills and outcomes;
• Oversee, coach and develop the Design Practice officers, ensuring that they are equipped to deliver their roles and responsibilities in relation to strategic design consulting, programme design, training and coaching, and providing performance feedback on a regular basis to support their ongoing growth as design practitioners;
• Support D/DP in inculcating a values-driven, design-led work culture that is based upon core design dispositions, in particular driving a citizen-centric work culture, in order to role model and normalise what is taught by the SoX and LbD teams;
• Maintain oversight of project delivery, through robust project management, and ensure that key deliverables and deadlines are adhered to;
• Contribute to the development of the division's strategies and workplans, and guide teams in the delivery of annual targets through design practice engagement activities;
• Develop research proposals, build research partnerships, and monitor research progress in order to generate tangible evidence relating to the application and value of design in everyday innovation;
• Capture data and feedback, and generate reports to reflect Design Practice achievements and progress, for internal and external stakeholder audiences;
• Deliver talks and presentations, as required, to articulate the work of the Design Practice and its role in realising the Design Masterplan.
• Critically review and evaluate programme proposals, procurement submissions, and other management matters arising in the delivery of Design Practice services, and appraising senior leadership of critical issues or matters with potential risk considerations.

Requirements

To succeed in this role, you need to:

• Have a strong Bachelor’s degree and ideally a post-graduate qualification demonstrating research capabilities, and integrating complex problem-solving components.
• Possess at least 8 years of relevant experience in using design to achieve societal or environmental outcomes in complex settings.
• Possess experience in teaching or coaching others to use design-led approaches to problem-solving, including design thinking as a methodology for addressing complex challenges.
• Bring experience in co-design approaches and execution of co-designed solutions, preferably including experience working with non-designers in the co-design process to generate grounds-up solutions.
• Have prior experience in public service administrative processes, procurement and governance, as a preference but not essential.

In addition, we are seeking candidates with the following knowledge and skill sets:

• Have systems thinking and strategic design knowledge and skills, with the ability to connect the dots between motivating conditions and desired future states, with empathy to resonate with stakeholder needs and aspirations to bring people on the co-design journey together.
• Have knowledge and experience in design research, and also preferably, bring experience in evidence-based strategy development, with the ability to develop research proposals, structure long-term research studies, and write up evaluations of research outcomes for knowledge sharing.
• Have strong project management and governance abilities, with a track record in managing multiple co-running projects including diverse stakeholder management requirements.
• Be a strong collaborator and team player, comfortable with agility and iteration, whilst also comfortable working independently.
• Demonstrate strong communications and engagement skills, being able to energise workshop participants, resonate with stakeholders, articulate complex issues succinctly and clearly, frame design opportunities, and have the ability to forge interpersonal connections with people in order to build trust-based relationships.
• Be able to develop design mindsets in others, by encouraging and coaching people to try difficult things and embrace uncertainty as they navigate future possibilities.
• Be detail oriented, performance driven, and able to drive performance in others.