Manager, Service Design, Edmonton

About the Team The Office of Strategic Transformation and Delivery (OSTAD) is the engine room for the organization’s most ambitious goals. We don’t just plan for the future; we build the roadmap to get there. Our mission is to bridge the gap between high-level vision and tangible results by driving large-scale, cross-functional initiatives that redefine how we operate. We are a team of problem-solvers, dot-connectors, and catalysts. If you thrive in high-impact environments where "the status quo" is a challenge to be met, the OSTAD is where you’ll do your best work.

Job Description Location -

This role is hybrid with a mix of remote and in-person. Work primarily takes place at North Campus, Edmonton.

The Manager, Service Design is a strategic leader responsible for orchestrating the end-to-end design of university services to ensure they are seamless, efficient, and human-centered. Operating within the Office of Strategic Transformation and Delivery, this role bridges the gap between high-level institutional strategy and the lived experience of students, faculty, and staff.

You will lead a team of practitioners to rethink how the University delivers value, moving away from siloed processes toward integrated service ecosystems. Your goal is to foster a culture of empathy-led design, ensuring that transformation initiatives are not just technically sound but intuitively functional for the people they serve.

Responsibilities

Service Strategy&Vision: Partner with the Director to define the service design roadmap for major institutional transformations.

Human-Centered Research: Oversee user research activities, including ethnography, stakeholder interviews, and journey mapping to uncover deep insights into user pain points.

Service Prototyping: Lead the iterative design process, creating low-to-high fidelity prototypes of new service models to test and validate before full-scale implementation.

Cross-Functional Leadership: Facilitate design-thinking workshops with diverse stakeholders (Registrar, HRHSE, FPP, IST, Shared Services, Colleges&Faculties, etc.) to co-create solutions that break down administrative silos.

Service Standards&Governance: Develop and maintain a "Service Design Playbook" for the University, ensuring consistency in service quality and brand experience across all touchpoints.

Team Management: Mentor and lead a team of service designers and analysts, fostering professional growth and ensuring project milestones are met.

Measurement&Impact: Establish Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of redesigned services, focusing on user satisfaction, efficiency gains, and cost reduction.

Qualifications Education

Undergraduate degree in a relevant discipline (e.g., Service Design, Interaction Design, Business Administration, or a related social science).

Knowledge

7+ years of experience in design-led transformation.

5+ years of experience in leadership roles, particularly managing Service Designers&User Experience Analysts.

Expert proficiency in journey mapping, service blueprinting, persona development, and ecosystem mapping.

Knowledge of organizational change principles to help staff transition from legacy processes to newly designed service models.

Skills

Ability to visualize the university as an interconnected ecosystem, understanding how a change in one faculty or department impacts upstream and downstream workflows.

Ability to synthesize qualitative user stories with quantitative data to build compelling business cases for change.

Exceptional ability to lead complex groups through the "Double Diamond" process, managing conflicting priorities with diplomacy.

Mastery in creating technical blueprints that map front-stage user actions against back-stage processes, support staff, and internal technology systems.

Proficiency in using design tools (e.g., Miro, Adobe Creative Suite, or Figma) to communicate complex ideas through compelling visuals and narratives.

Skill in synthesizing qualitative research into chronological maps that highlight emotional highs and lows and friction points in the user experience.

Abilities

Ability to coach and mentor staff in complex modeling and negotiation techniques.

The University of Alberta is a community of knowledge seekers, change makers and world shapers who lead with purpose each and every day. We welcome applications from all qualified persons. We encourage women, First Nations, Métis and Inuit persons, members of visible minority groups, persons with disabilities, persons of any sexual orientation or gender identity and expression and all those who may contribute to the further diversification of ideas and the University to apply.

All University employees have a responsibility to foster a workplace that prioritizes safety in all its forms—physical, cultural, and psychological. This is achieved by promoting a safe environment, adhering to all safety laws, policies and procedures, completing all required safety training, identifying hazards and implementing controls, reporting incidents, and contributing to a culture of belonging and respect, while endeavoring to ensure that all colleagues feel valued and safe to express their thoughts, perspectives and concerns.

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