The Lead Experience Designer is responsible for orchestrating experience design projects, ensuring their successful execution from start to finish. You will guide and inspire our pioneering team to deliver beautiful, usable, and valuable digital products and services for many of Australia’s most ambitious brands.

Your Impact:

You bring a strategic, customer-centric approach that consistently drives impactful outcomes. You excel at connecting strategy and design thinking to define the ‘north star’ for projects and guide them from inception to completion. By being actively involved with the XD team through ideation, iteration, and implementation, you foster cross-discipline collaboration and provide consultation and assistance to the broader team. Your knack for building and managing client relationships, combined with your fearless honesty in addressing tough truths, ensures a clear path to solving problems and achieving success.

What You’ll Do:

• Integrate with cross-discipline teams: Partner with the Experience Design (XD) directors and the project team to deliver end-to-end projects through discovery, definition, solution, and build phases.
• Apply Psychology & Behavioral Science: Inform design decisions with UX psychology and behavioural science to ensure digital products and services resonate deeply with customers.
• Lead Research: Plan and lead the design research process to uncover human truths and solve for the end-user, always championing an evidenced based design approach
• Facilitate Design Sprints: Facilitate cross-functional and hybrid teams through rapid design sprints using prototyping and mixed testing and analysis methods.
• Architect Design Systems: Define and scale intelligent design systems to meet the needs of businesses
• Raise Standards: Enhance all process and production artefacts through exceptional visual communication and compelling storytelling.
• Mentor & Guide: Act as an escalation point for the XD team; nurturing and guiding the project team and direct reports
• Demonstrate Leadership: Show thought leadership in strategic design, service design, and all things user experience with clients and the industry at large.

What We Offer:

• Collaborative and Connected Environment: Work alongside peers in Sydney, Auckland, and Wellington—surrounded by some of the brightest minds in their fields—to deliver world-class experiences as part of our global network.
• Growth Opportunities: Learn and grow within a creative and technically advanced team, with access to ongoing personal and professional development.
• Hybrid Work Model: Enjoy the flexibility of our hybrid WFH model, with 3 days in the studio each week.

About You:

• Passionate about creating exceptional, category defining digital experiences.
• Strategic and customer-centric mindset; always thinking beyond the interface.
• Collaborative leader who thrives in a hands-on role.
• Strong verbal and visual communication skills to articulate design decisions and strategies
• Proven track record of leading teams to successful project outcomes

AKQA is an Equal Opportunities Employer, we believe that diversity is vital to AKQA's ability to provide our clients with the best recommendations and are committed to fostering a varied and inclusive work environment. Your race, colour, ancestry, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, disability or veteran status have no bearing on our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please let us know. Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander and Indigenous people are encouraged to apply for this role.