Cognizant
Website:
cognizant.com
Company:
https://www.linkedin.com/company/cognizant
Industries: IT Services and IT Consulting and Business Consulting and Services
Job details:
The Regional Design Strategy & Industry Portfolio Leader leads the India design solutioning team — the hub through which design pursuits, proposals, and pre-sales engagements are supported across all global geographies. This is a foundational role in the evolution of a global design solutioning model, with India serving as the primary center of gravity from which regional spokes in the Americas, EMEA, and beyond are supported.
This leader directly manages a team of Industry Design Solution Leaders based in India, overseeing how design is positioned, scoped, and sold across verticals in support of cross-regional pursuits. While the team is regionally based, the mandate is inherently global — partnering closely with regional design solutions leaders and sales leadership across geographies to drive consistent, high-quality design solutioning at scale.
The role requires executive client-facing presence — leading pitches, workshops, and strategic conversations — alongside the operational and people leadership needed to run a high-performing solutioning team. They must be credible across design craft, commercial strategy, and global stakeholder dynamics simultaneously.
Core Responsibilities
- India Solutioning Team Leadership
- Directly manage a team of Industry Design Solution Leaders in India, setting direction, managing performance, and developing their pre-sales and solutioning capability.
- Oversee how the India team supports cross-regional pursuits — ensuring strong coverage, prioritization, and quality of design-led solutioning across all verticals.
- Bring consistency to how the team pitches, scopes, and solutions across industries without flattening the vertical-specific nuance each lead brings.
- Build and evolve the operating model for India-based design solutioning, establishing practices, standards, and ways of working.
- Pre-Sales & Market Growth Leadership
- Oversee cross-regional pipeline visibility and health — understanding coverage, prioritization, and risk across the India solutioning portfolio.
- Step directly into high-value pursuits when they require senior design alignment or strategic escalation.
- Own the design narrative in competitive RFP situations alongside sales, consulting, and engineering counterparts.
- Client-Facing Leadership
- Lead executive-level pitches, workshops, and strategic client conversations — able to lead the room, not just participate.
- Facilitate design-led discovery and visioning sessions with senior client stakeholders across cultures and geographies.
- Communicate design value in business terms — translating design strategy into commercial outcomes for executive audiences.
- Represent the global design solutions function credibly in high-stakes client settings regardless of geography or industry.
- Global Collaboration & Cross-Regional Alignment
- Operate as a key node in the global design solutioning network — partnering with regional design solutions leaders in the Americas, EMEA, and other geographies as peers.
- Share pipeline intelligence, coordinate on cross-regional pursuits, and align approaches on global accounts to avoid duplication or conflicting narratives.
- Contribute to global solutions strategy in partnership with the Global Lead, Design Sales & Solutions.
- Delivery Oversight & Quality Governance
- Serve as a senior escalation point for design solutioning and delivery challenges across industries.
- Ensure the team has the right delivery models, staffing strategies, and capability readiness for upcoming engagements across all regions they support.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration
- Act as the design liaison for global and regional executives — participating in planning, forecasting, financial reviews, and portfolio performance discussions.
- Ensure strong alignment between design, consulting, engineering, and digital teams across the engagements the India team supports.
- Collaborate with marketing and GTM teams to shape industry-specific assets, case studies, and capability narratives.
Skills
Design Solutioning & Pre-Sales Leadership
- Proven experience owning the design narrative across complex, multi-vertical enterprise pursuits.
- Ability to scope, price, and staff design engagements across different delivery models.
- Comfort working in competitive RFP situations alongside sales, consulting, and engineering counterparts.
- Experience building and reviewing capability decks, case studies, and pursuit responses at an executive level.
Client-Facing Presence
- Executive-level presence in pitches, workshops, and strategic client conversations — able to lead the room, not just participate.
- Ability to facilitate design-led discovery and visioning sessions with senior client stakeholders.
- Strong visual and verbal storytelling — communicating design value in business terms, not design terms.
- Comfortable operating across cultures and geographies in a global client-facing capacity.
Portfolio & Pipeline Oversight
Ability to manage a portfolio of active pursuits across verticals and geographies simultaneously — understanding coverage, prioritization, and risk.
- Experience partnering with sales and account leadership to influence early pursuit shaping.
- Comfort escalating into or leading high-value deals that require senior design alignment.
Design Fluency
- Sufficient depth across UX, product design, service design, and creative production to evaluate quality, challenge approaches, and set direction.
- Understanding of how modern design teams are structured and how design integrates with engineering and consulting delivery.
- Awareness of AI-native design workflows and how they are changing what is sellable and deliverable.
People Leadership & Model Building
- Direct management experience overseeing senior design leaders — setting direction, managing performance, and developing their sales and solutioning capability.
- Ability to build and operationalize a solutioning model, not just manage within one — comfortable establishing practices, standards, and ways of working from the ground up.
- Strong coaching instincts at the leadership level — developing commercial and client-facing capability in others.
- Operates with a high degree of independence — able to own the solutioning function without requiring heavy direction.
Global Stakeholder Navigation
- Ability to operate as a peer to regional design solutions leaders across geographies — sharing pipeline intelligence, aligning on cross-regional pursuits, and coordinating on global accounts.
- Comfortable contributing to global solutions strategy while managing a regionally based team.
- Sufficient presence and credibility to hold their own alongside experienced regional leaders across the Americas, EMEA, and beyond.
Commercial & Strategic Acumen
- Understanding of how design contributes to revenue — as a growth driver, not just a delivery function.
- Ability to participate in pipeline reviews, forecast conversations, and business planning at a global level.
- Able to identify emerging solution patterns and sharpen vertical narratives accordingly.
Qualifications
- 15+ years of experience in design, with at least 5–7 years in a client-facing, commercial, or solutioning capacity within a consulting, professional services, or agency environment.
- 3–5 years of direct management experience overseeing senior designers or design leaders — with a demonstrated ability to develop commercial and client-facing capability in others, not just design craft.
- Proven track record of leading executive-level pitches, workshops, and client presentations independently — not in a supporting capacity.
- Experience working across at least two to three industry verticals, with the breadth to credibly engage across a multi-vertical portfolio.
- Background in competitive RFP and pursuit environments, including scoping, pricing, and staffing design engagements of varying scale and delivery model.
- Cross-geographic work experience, including direct collaboration with or in support of teams and clients across multiple regions — Americas, EMEA, or equivalent.
- Bachelor's degree in Design. Advanced degree or MBA is a plus but not a requirement — commercial acumen should be demonstrated through track record.
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