Service Design Practice Director

Good Maven•Atlanta, GA

1d•Remote

About The Position

As a Service Design Practice Director at Harmonic Design, you are a strategic leader, a master of craft, and a trusted partner to our delivery teams and clients. You will be responsible for raising the bar on delivery excellence across our portfolio, developing our senior practitioners into confident executive partners, and working in close partnership with our operations leadership to ensure consistent, high-quality execution. This role requires a blend of design mastery, facilitation excellence, and business acumen to translate organizational challenges into systemic solutions.

Requirements

10+ years in design, with at least 5 years in a leadership capacity within a consultancy, agency, or in-house environment.
Demonstrated success leading complex service design engagements with Fortune 500 or similarly sophisticated clients.
Deep expertise in creating systemic change through service design.
Mastery of core service design methods: service strategy, service blueprinting, journey mapping, co-creation, and systems thinking.
Mastery in defining engagement approaches based on best practices and client needs, and adapting them based on new evidence.
Experience and a clear point of view on the role of AI in services and in the practice of service design.
Strong point of view on how service design helps organizations address their challenges.
Ability to tie design outcomes to business metrics and client KPIs.
Comfort discussing project P&L, scope, and delivery risk.
Experience articulating design value to executive audiences.
Demonstrated prowess in facilitation, storytelling, writing, and presentation.
Ability to translate complex systemic challenges into compelling narratives that move executives to action.
Comfort in ambiguity and ability to guide groups toward decisions.
Degree in Design, HCI, Social Sciences, Business, or equivalent professional experience.

Nice To Haves

Systems Thinkers: See the connective tissue between people, processes, and technology and understand that excellence in delivery comes from how these elements integrate.
Adaptive: Thrive in ambiguity and can pivot when context changes; comfortable in emerging structures and growing alongside the firm.
Mentors: Genuinely invested in developing the next generation of service design leaders, seeing mentorship as core to the role.
Collaborative: Work well in partnership with Harmonic leadership, operations, account leads, and with their team; do not need to own everything to add value.
Articulate: Can explain the "why" behind the "what" to anyone, from a senior practitioner to a CEO, making complex thinking accessible.

Responsibilities

Own the standard for how Harmonic delivers service design across all engagements, ensuring work is strategically sound, systemic, and helps clients close the gap between stakeholder experience and operations.
Bring visibility and intentionality to how engagements unfold, working with executive partners, engagement leads, and senior practitioners to ensure methodological rigor, client alignment, and a focus on business outcomes.
Identify delivery risks and course-correct before problems compound.
Partner with practice leadership to set and evolve the approach to service design work, articulating guiding principles and ensuring they are applied in every engagement.
Develop senior designers into confident consultants capable of leading accounts and guiding client strategy at the executive level through management, real work, embedding in engagements, modeling excellence, and creating growth opportunities.
Coach team members on communication, facilitation, and relationship skills for working with Directors, VPs, and C-suite stakeholders, modeling these skills and coaching through high-stakes client interactions.
Enhance team capabilities in design and consulting, confidence with executives, and ability to see and articulate organizational challenges.
Work directly with clients, providing expertise while mentoring engagement leads and practitioners.
Lead complex service design work with executive clients when assigned, demonstrating executive presence, facilitating high-stakes workshops, and guiding clients toward systemic solutions.
Partner with executive partners to ensure delivery excellence supports broader account strategy and growth.
Build and nurture working relationships with directors and higher stakeholders on client teams, acting as a trusted partner who understands organizational context and translates Harmonic's value.
Collaborate with Design Operations on resourcing, project setup, and staffing, providing a delivery perspective and flagging skill gaps, capacity constraints, and development opportunities.
Inform, but do not own, staffing decisions.