Job Description

In a nutshell:

IDEO Munich is searching for a Creative Technologist to lead and be part of a small multidisciplinary team designing innovative solutions that apply technology and systems to address core user needs.

Why is this role important for IDEO’s work?

Creative Technology Leads apply their expertise in designing technology and developing solutions as well as prototyping experiences by enabling others and enacting our mission of humanizing technology.

Their skillset is critical to our work because they provide new ways to push design, and advocate the generative possibilities enabled by software. They have a knack for combining great design and technology solutions, dealing with ambiguity and delivering impact for our clients. You should expect to apply a range of technologies to these design challenges, including but certainly not limited to the most common JavaScript frameworks such as React or Angular.

Once here you will:

• In the mid-term, lead teams of multidisciplinary designers through the design and prototyping process to innovate new approaches that optimistically bridge technology-to-people and people-to-technology.
• Lead projects by hands-on building software products from idea through prototyping to pilots or market launch, the latter in stewardship with our clients and development partners.
• Serve as a trusted advisor to our clients, ensuring they are understood and empowered to champion the solutions we develop together.
• Collaboratively synthesize research into meaningful design iterations and (digital) prototypes that we can qualitatively test, and quantitatively measure.
• Play a key role in growing and nurturing our integrated software design teams through craft leadership, mentoring and external professional relationships.
• Build strong, collaborative team dynamics that support individuals to grow towards their goals in service of the team’s and programs’ challenges.

As a Creative Technologist in Munich, we provide the opportunity for you to:

• Solve problems in a broad set of domains, including health, consumer technology, mobility, retail, financial services, augmented intelligence, and social impact.
• Explore, develop, and apply concepts with emerging technologies, such as new user interaction technologies, and augmented reality.
• Create your team’s approach to the latest design challenge. Prototype new ways of supporting design research, engineer a new cross-discipline of software-enabled proof-of-concept.
• Balance a role as both guide and contributor, where you can continue to grow in Software Design and technical skills.

Some of our work to check out:

• Ascensia – A holistic, human-centred approach to managing diabetes care
• Georg Fischer - Preparing an industrial leader for the digital future
• D-Ford - A global design lab network focusing not on products, but on customers
• What the AI products of tomorrow might look like

What gets us excited

We are particularly interested in candidates that have demonstrated fluency in the following areas:

• You can speak about designing and delivering a software-based product – identifying how technology, business, and user needs interrelate – with non-technical team members and clients in a way that’s accessible, credible, and inspiring.
• You have a fluency in modern mobile and web development technologies and an understanding of best practices associated with engineering and delivering software.
• When designing for a new platform, or researching options, you have a process for learning to understand how solutions will scale, and how we can best position design for impact on that platform.
• You are able to support teams at any point of the process whether that is during research, synthesis or design rather than restricting your focus to the purely technical aspects, prototyping and developing
• Experience in launching products to market

Application requirements and instructions:

• You are likely to have 5+ years designing and building software-based experiences, products, services, or solutions that demonstrate a high level of empathy for the end-user
• Experience with full-stack development (front-end, back-end, infrastructure, and data-driven systems)
• Team leadership experience in project-based or product context
• Ability to dive into new contexts, gain expertise, learn new tools, and inspire others
• Excellent communication, collaboration, facilitation, and team leadership.
• Ability to work in multidisciplinary teams and a deep understanding of the design process leading into a solution

Please share 2 projects that best represent your capabilities, interests, and leadership, and that demonstrate deep technical expertise in at least one platform, language, or domain. If you have them, please include links to your Github repos, portfolio, blog and/or website and clearly communicate your role in these projects.

Equal Opportunity Employer

IDEO is an equal opportunity employer; applicants are considered for all roles without regard to race, color, religious creed, sex, national origin, citizenship status, age, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, marital, parental, veteran or military status, unfavorable military discharge, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local law.