Director of Design & Innovation at International Rescue Committee

Job Overview

 This role will establish an innovation strategy that focuses on ideas with the highest potential for impact and scale both within and outside of the IRC. You will oversee the portfolio for ideation and design of new and improved solutions within the IRC as well as shape how we increase our incubation and acceleration of local innovators and solutions. You will generate relationships with innovation partners, hubs, startups and entrepreneurs in the places we work while facilitating their relationships with IRC country programs, innovation consultants, technical units and Airbel staff.  

This role will nurture and grow a high performing team of design and innovation management staff and consultants working across, service, product, business and digital design in the regions where we work. You’re excited to model creativity, inclusivity, and rigor in how we work and collaborate. You will build an inclusive community that defaults towards co-creation and collaboration. 

This role will define creative excellence in Airbel’s work – both in terms of how we work and in terms of what we create. You will work closely with the Chief Research and Innovation Officer to define and communicate excellent practices and results and ensure that the team is guided by a clear vision and approaches that support it. 

Major Responsibilities

Generate Strategic Vision

• Develop bold early stage innovation strategies for IRC’s 4 Global Research and Innovation Priorities in collaboration with priority leads: Tackling Child Malnutrition, Last Mile Learning, Empowering Women’s Reproductive Choice and Saving Mother’s and Newborn Lives, and Climate Resilient Agriculture
• Collaborate with priority leads to develop and source ideas, and design and evaluate solutions with high potential for impact and scale, scope projects
• Oversee reviews of the innovation landscape and scope and evaluate potential partnerships with innovation partners, hubs, startups and entrepreneurs in the places we work 

Generate a compelling, fundable Digital Strategy for Airbel and support its implementation 

• Identify Airbel’s unique role and value proposition in the digital development space  
• Create a digital strategy and establish internal and external partnerships to support our strategic and tactical needs

Operationalize the Vision: Advance our Innovation Methods and Approach

• Oversee a talented and ambitious Design Team to design high impact, scalable products, services and delivery mechanisms 
• Conduct workforce planning for designers with Priority leads and Ops team
• Scout and hire designers and consultancies to build teams for Airbel projects
• Support high quality, ambitious and impactful work across ongoing innovation projects
• Ensure quality standards for early stage innovation work across Airbel projects and portfolios and support staff in meeting them and delivering high return on investment
• Build support systems, resources and partnerships to execute and replicate high-quality innovation processes

Refine Airbel’s approach to incubate and accelerate promising local solutions aligned with Airbel’s mission 

• Develop innovation models to support the incubation, replication and adaptation of promising local solutions and build on the multidisciplinary approach established in Airbel’s early stage design phase 
• Collaborate with priority leads to define high impact innovation models and ensure that innovation agendas and projects can be rapidly supported by in-country capacity 

Create an enabling environment for innovation

• Build internal and external relationships and structures to support innovation processes that are locally led and partnership driven
• Identify and improve organizational systems to increase innovation in partnership with other departments
• Collaborate with country and regional leadership to ensure strategic alignment, support innovation teams and internal capacity building while connecting teams to local expertise
• Build design and innovation capacity within Airbel, country teams and with local innovators

Fundrais and Support Financing Solutions 

• Support the business development team and priority leads on high value opportunities that align with our capabilities and strategy
• Work with the innovative finance lead to identify sustainable pathways to scale solutions through a blend of grants and social impact investment

Key Working Relationships: 

• Position Reports to: Chief Research & Innovation Officer
• Position directly supervises: Associate Director for Health Innovation; Design Leads; Innovation Manager; Deputy Director Innovation Venezuela Crisis Response

Other Internal and/or external contacts: 

Internal: 

• Technical Unit Directors and Team Members 
• Country and Regional Directors 
• IRC IT Leadership
• Airbel Priority Leads
• Airbel Practice Leadership
• Airbel’s business development team

External:  

• Key public sector design and innovation schools, institutions, and professional societies
• Private sector local design consultancies
• Innovation hubs, networks and other groupings of innovation talent where we work

Job Requirements

 Minimum Requirements   

• 10+ years’ experience leading innovation or R&D teams in complex organizations or systems (government, nonprofit, large company)
• Experience working collaboratively in human-centered design techniques in a wide range of product and service design projects and contexts
• Deep understanding of at least two design disciplines (e.g. product design, UX,)
• Extensive experience building and managing relationships with external partners
• Outstanding manager, mentor, and coach to people of all backgrounds and creating an inclusive culture
• Builder of a creative culture that thrives across borders and screens within a large organization and works in synchronous and asynchronous ways
• Strong track record of scaled digital and analog innovations in low- and middle-income countries 
• Experience managing multiple multi-disciplinary projects with multi-disciplinary collaborators in an inclusive way
• Ability to influence across a wide range of diverse stakeholders, utilizing excellent visual storytelling and synthesis skills, including public speaking and writing
• Ability to bring people along with a stated vision and strategy
• Strong professional network and recognized expertise

Preferred 

• French, Arabic or Spanish language skills strongly preferred