Executive Design Director

JOB DESCRIPTION: Executive Design Director

DEPARTMENT: Design

PRIMARY LOCATION: Bengaluru (Comfortable with frequent travel across India and overseas)

REPORTING: CEO

Role Overview

Think Design is looking for a senior design leader to take on the role of Executive Design Director – India . This leadership role will be responsible for driving experience design quality, delivery excellence, and business growth.

The Executive Design Director works closely with Deepali Saini, CEO, Think Design & Global Chief Experience Design Officer, Havas CX , and plays a critical role in ensuring that Think Design consistently delivers high-impact experience design while expanding client relationships and winning new business.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Experience Design Quality & Delivery

• Own and uphold experience design quality across all India studios, ensuring consistently high standards of thinking, craft, and execution.
• Be hands-on in guiding design delivery for complex, high-impact engagements , especially during discovery, concept definition, and key review milestones.
• Ensure strong integration of design research insights into UX, CX, and product design outcomes.
• Lead design excellence across enterprise and consumer-facing products , including web and mobile solutions.
• Act as the final escalation point for design quality and delivery challenges across studios.

Client Partnership & Account Growth

• Build deep, trusted relationships with senior client stakeholders through strong design leadership and delivery confidence.
• Expand existing client accounts through consistent design excellence, strategic thinking, and partnership-led engagement .
• Identify opportunities to grow scope within accounts by connecting design outcomes to business impact.
• Ensure client satisfaction translates into long-term relationships and repeat business.

Winning Design Business

• Actively support new business pitches and strategic pursuits , contributing to win strategy, solutioning, and presentations.
• Translate client needs into compelling design approaches, scopes, and engagement models.
• Represent Think Design confidently in senior client conversations, presentations, and industry forums.
• Strengthen Think Design’s positioning as a strategic experience design partner.

Workshops & Senior Client Engagement

• Lead and conduct design thinking, CX, product, and strategy workshops with client leadership teams.
• Translate complex business goals, technology constraints, and user needs into clear design strategies and roadmaps.
• Guide teams in handling ambiguity and complexity in large enterprise environments.

AI-Driven Experience Design

• Bring experience in designing AI-enabled experiences , including:
• Enterprise and consumer products powered by AI
• Agentic AI workflows and human-AI interaction models
• AI-assisted decisioning and automation journeys
• Ensure adoption of GenAI tools for experience design across research, synthesis, ideation, prototyping, and delivery.
• Stay current with evolving AI trends and translate them into practical design approaches.

Business & P&L Ownership

• Own P&L responsibility for design delivery across India studios.
• Balance design excellence with commercial discipline, ensuring projects are delivered profitably.
• Support leadership in shaping pricing, resourcing, and delivery models.
• Contribute to revenue growth through strong delivery and account expansion.

People & Multi-Studio Leadership

• Have proven experience managing and scaling geographically distributed design teams across India .
• Have consistently managed design teams of 40+ people or more across multiple studios or engagements.
• Build a strong culture of craft excellence, accountability, and collaboration.

Strategic Contribution

• Work closely with the CEO, Think Design & Global Chief Experience Design Officer, Havas CX on India design strategy.
• Align India delivery with global expectations and standards within the Havas CX ecosystem.
• Contribute to shaping and evolving Think Design’s service offerings.

Required Experience & Capabilities

• 15+ years of experience in UX, UI, CX, product, or service design, preferably from a services or consulting background .
• Proven experience managing large, geographically distributed design teams across India , with team sizes of 40+.
• Strong hands-on experience guiding design delivery across multiple teams and studios.
• Demonstrated ability to win design work and grow client accounts through delivery excellence.
• Deep understanding of design research tools and methods as a foundation for experience design.
• Experience designing across multiple industries , including BFSI, EdTech, and Healthcare .
• Strong exposure to enterprise and consumer-facing digital products , including web and mobile platforms.
• Well-versed with GenAI tools for experience design and modern AI-enabled workflows.
• Experience working on international projects is a strong advantage.
• Excellent communication, storytelling, and senior stakeholder management skills.
• Comfortable operating in a global, matrixed organization.

Travel & Location

• Based in Bangalore .
• Open to frequent travel within India and internationally for client meetings, workshops, presentations, and leadership interactions.

What This Role Is

• A hands-on experience design leader , not only a people manager.
• Accountable for experience design quality, delivery confidence, and client growth across India.
• A senior partner to the CEO in scaling Think Design without dilution of craft or values.

About Think Design – a Havas Company

Think Design, a Havas Company, has been one of the frontrunners in the UI UX Design industry since 2004. Spread across the world, the agency has enabled mission-critical initiatives of some of the world's most renowned organisations and brands to help drive impact. It works closely with top leadership and foundational teams to identify elements that constitute success, propose solutions, and help build them. With a team of 130 experts in UI UX Design, Data Visualisation, Digital Design, and User Research, Think Design delivers meaningful human-centered experiences that transform businesses at scale.

For more information, visit & follow Think Design Collaborative on LinkedIn.

About Havas India

Havas India gathers the expertise of 25 agencies, specialised divisions and strategic alliances across 3 verticals: Havas Media Network – Havas Media, PivotRoots (integrated digital), Arena Media, Havas Market (e-commerce), Havas Play (sports, entertainment & content), CSA (technology, data & analytics), Havas Programmatic Hub (programmatic trading desk), Havas Analytics (data & analytics), Socialyse (pure-play social media); strategic alliances: Havas Media Tribes (out-of-home), Havas Play Gameplan (sports marketing), KlugKlug (influencer tech stack), and Havas Play SGSE (sports & entertainment); Havas Creative Network – Havas Creative India (creative), Havas People India (talent communications & employer branding), Havas CX India (customer experience), ekino (technology), Think Design (UX/UI), Shobiz (experiential marketing), Shobiz Exhibits (exhibitions), Conran Design Mumbai (branding & design), GateOne (business & digital transformation management), PR Pundit Havas Red (PR).