Senior Strategic Experience Designer

About AKQA

At AKQA we believe in the imaginative application of art and science to create beautiful and performative ideas, products and services. With an entrepreneurial and collaborative approach, we craft powerful storytelling, design adaptive digital services and applications that capture the imagination, delivering meaningful returns for our clients.

About the Role: Senior Strategic Experience Designer

The Senior Strategic Experience Designer at AKQA Amsterdam leads complex, large-scale projects that create exceptional brand experiences, ones that meet real human needs, drive measurable results, and push creative boundaries. At this level, you are not just a contributor; you are a strategic leader, a trusted advisor to clients, and a shaping force within the studio. You are the ultimate orchestrator of experience direction, holding the vision, connecting the dots across disciplines, and ensuring the work is both creatively ambitious and grounded in genuine human insight.

You bring a rare combination of analytical rigour and creative instinct. You help clients frame and dissect complex business problems with structure and clarity, while using design thinking and strategy to develop bold, innovative visions that drive meaningful change. You set the standard for what great looks like: in the work, in how we work, and in how we show up for our clients and each other.

Role Requirements

• Own the full strategic experience design process end-to-end: from brief interpretation and problem framing, through research and insight generation, to concept definition and experience vision; ensuring every decision is purposeful, connected, and human-centred.
• Lead and inspire multidisciplinary teams across research, strategy, design, and technology, creating the conditions for ambitious, collaborative work while balancing output with team wellbeing.
• Frame client challenges with clarity and confidence, identifying the right questions before jumping to answers, and translating complexity into actionable strategic directions and experience concepts.
• Drive discovery and research, leading stakeholder interviews, user research, competitive analysis, and synthesis, turning findings into sharp insights and compelling strategic narratives that guide creative and design execution teams.
• Act as a trusted advisor and thought partner to senior clients, challenging perspectives where needed, building relationships grounded in both empathy and expertise, and proactively identifying opportunities beyond the immediate engagement.
• Own the development of pitches, proposals, and new business opportunities, independently and in partnership with client service teams, demonstrating a clear understanding of where AKQA can create the most value.
• Develop and communicate experience visions, strategic frameworks, concepts, and recommendations with exceptional clarity, both visually and verbally, for internal stakeholders and client audiences at all levels.
• Establish and champion human-centred design methodologies and best practices across the studio, contributing to the evolution of our processes, tools, and point of view at a global level.
• Coach and develop mid-level and junior team members through constructive feedback, on-the-job mentorship, and by modelling intellectual curiosity, creative ambition, and kindness under pressure.
• Contribute to shaping the overall culture of the Experience Design and Strategy, fostering an inclusive, intellectually ambitious environment where every voice is valued and great thinking is celebrated.

Qualities and Characteristics

• Experience within a consultancy, experience design agency, or innovation environment where strategy, human-centred design, and digital innovation are central to the work.
• A proven track record of leading end-to-end experience and service design projects across digital and physical touchpoints, from early-stage discovery through to concept definition and execution.
• Deep expertise in qualitative research methodologies (including ethnography, UX research, cultural analysis) and the ability to synthesise complex findings into clear, strategic direction.
• Experience developing growth strategies, defining new value propositions, or shaping new digital products and services in response to shifting business and cultural landscapes.
• An entrepreneurial mindset, comfortable operating in ambiguity, able to self-organise and bring structure to complexity, and confident in defining the path forward for yourself and your team.
• Exceptional communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to inspire confidence in clients and motivate teams around a shared vision.
• Strong cross-functional leadership skills, with experience guiding diverse teams and navigating senior client relationships with both authority and humility.
• A genuine passion for the intersection of business, culture, and technology; and a restless curiosity about what the future of experience design can and should look like.

Key skills/competency

• Strategic Design
• Experience Design
• Human-centred Design
• Qualitative Research
• Design Thinking
• Client Advisory
• Digital Innovation
• Service Design
• Team Leadership
• Business Strategy