Design Thinking Coordinator

About the Role

Directly supporting the Manager, Innovation Projects, the Design Thinking Coordinator takes a leadership role in all elements of design thinking and supports strategic and operational planning for the Innovation Hub. The Design Thinking Coordinator supports all design thinking projects and related design thinking and storytelling work. The Design Thinking Coordinator develops training strategy and materials, meets with project partners alongside the Manager, and maintains all Innovation Hub documentation related to design thinking and storytelling. Ensuring that Innovation Hub procedures and practices are user-friendly, and meet excellent standards is important in this role. The Design Thinking Coordinator oversees employee attendance, timesheet management, and payroll processing.

Strategic Leadership:

An active member of the core leadership team, directly working with the Manager, Innovation Projects, guiding the strategic and operational decision making at the Innovation Hub
Works closely with the Communications Coordinator to move all Innovation Hub work forward, and provide strategic leadership

Design Thinking Research:

Oversees the student design thinking project teams
Coordinates all design thinking research activities, research data and research process documentation for the Innovation Hub
Oversees deliverables and timelines of design thinking research-related work, including research reports and presentations
Responsible for all feedback and edits on written research material – ensuring the final drafts are ready on or before the deadline
Ensures quality control of all materials, including writing, layout, presentation, and communication messaging in all internal and external Innovation Hub material
Manages all Innovation Hub data, ensuring that consent and data storage standards are met
Manages the qualitative data archival process (using Dedoose)
Develops new resources and workflows for design thinking research processes and materials
Supports the Manager, Innovation Projects in any additional non-project related research requests

Program Design & Curriculum Delivery:

Takes a lead role in all Innovation Hub curriculum development and the Your Learning Journey skills development and coaching model for Innovation Hub student team members
Develops and delivers the Innovation Hub training for the design thinking teams and projects, including weekly teaching materials, asynchronous training, and tailored team-specific training resources
Develops and delivers all Design Thinking programs, workshops, and other programming, including but not limited to the Design Thinking Experience Program and Design Yourself program
Facilitates design thinking workshops for diverse campus audiences (students, staff, faculty)
Delivers training on design thinking methodologies and human-centered design approaches
Leads Innovation Hours sessions and other community engagement events
Coaches program participants through design thinking processes
Creates psychologically safe spaces for creative thinking and collaborative work
Adapts facilitation approaches for different audiences and contexts
Leads strategic visioning and futures thinking work as part of design thinking projects, including scenario planning and ideation for future possibilities

Operations

Provides day-to-day operational support to the Manager and Innovation Hub teams
Coordinates payroll processing and timesheet management
Provides strategic direction for hiring processes, workflows, and timelines
Supports new projects including calls for new projects, and project proposals

Project Management

Oversees the creation and execution of project plans for every initiative at the Innovation Hub, adjusting timelines as necessary
Coordinates with the Manager, Innovation Projects, and Communications Coordinator on project timelines & needs
Updates project plans as required and communicates with all project teams regarding changes

Supporting Student Teams & Workplace Support

Supports, coaches and leads student team members
Designs role-specific training for all teams
Provides strategic direction for the Innovation Hub's Process Guides and carries out day-to-day operations in line with Innovation Hub operational standards
Provides strategic direction for community engagement and Innovation Hours programming
Organizes and leads community and/or partner events or initiatives (as needed)

Events & Administration

Collaborates with the Communications Coordinator in carrying out hiring processes, workflows, and timelines
Develops materials outside of the scope of design thinking projects, including presentations, professional development, or conference proposals
Takes a leadership role in planning, strategy and execution of Innovation Hub events, orientation and training

Qualifications

Education & Experience:

Bachelor's Degree or an acceptable equivalent combination of education and experience
Minimum one year of related professional experience in qualitative research or design thinking, or experience leading design thinking teams
Demonstrated leadership experience with diverse populations, including direct management of a student team and experience coaching student team members

Technical & Professional Skills:

A self-starter who takes initiative and is not afraid to fail early to succeed more quickly
Demonstratable proactive time-management skills and desire to work in a fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment balancing multiple projects
A strategic thinker with a creative mind who can support team members in building visionary strategies for their work
Ability to interact with multiple stakeholders, work with a team, make routine decisions, and respond to basic inquiries
A high-capacity individual who can balance multiple projects and work within tight deadlines – demonstrated ability to organize tasks and balance multiple competing priorities
High level of patience and strong conversational skills who takes a collaborative approach, enjoys working in teams with diverse members & perspectives
Project management, ability to manage conflicting priorities and deadlines
Technical Skills: coding qualitative data in a qualitative research software (e.g. Dedoose), building and analyzing survey data (e.g. Forum)
Computer skills: Outlook, PowerPoint, Word, Excel, TEAMS, SharePoint, Miro, Mural, Zoom
Exceptional writing skills including plain-language writing
Demonstrated oral communication and presentation skills with diverse audiences
Excellent interpersonal, organizational, conflict mediation, troubleshooting, and problem-solving skills

Mindset & Values:

Strong grounding in principles of equity, diversity & inclusivity – ability to take an equity-based approach to leading teams and projects
A keen desire to learn and keep up-to-date with the methodologies used in the Innovation Hub (i.e. design thinking, integrative thinking, collaborative methodologies, ethnography, etc.)
An Entrepreneurial spirit—and a desire to work in an ever-changing and dynamic environment
Positive attitude and desire to bring positive change to U of T

Work Style & Collaboration:

Highly communicative and comfortable communicating with various stakeholders
Enthusiasm for mentorship and collaborative learning over independent work
Demonstrated ability to receive and implement constructive feedback
Professional boundaries and understanding of appropriate workplace behaviour
Ability to dedicate work hours fully to work responsibilities

Other Qualifications:

The following qualifications are considered an asset in this role:

Experience designing learning experiences, curricula, or programs (not just delivering pre-designed content)
Facilitation experience: demonstrated ability to facilitate workshops, lead groups, create engaging learning experiences
Experience in higher education settings
Background in participatory design, co-design, or community-based research
Experience managing multi-stakeholder projects
Portfolio of program design or curriculum development work

Learning Experiences

In this role, you'll learn how to be proactive and check in with your team members and keep them motivated. You'll learn how to look ahead at tasks and gain a proactive approach that allows you to take more initiative in the workplace. You'll learn how to convey complex data and ideas in a succinct and compelling way that inspires those in leadership towards action. You'll exercise your creativity and learn how to design and deliver transformative learning experiences for different audiences. You'll become skilled at leading and facilitating workshops (even if you think you're a shy person) and you'll gain an understanding of optimal workflows for maximum productivity.

You'll learn to be comfortable with not getting things right on the first try—an essential workplace skill. You'll develop resilience in receiving feedback and making revisions. You'll start to see constructive feedback as a gift and develop professional maturity in workplace relationships and boundaries. In this leadership role specifically, you'll develop skills in curriculum design and program development, learn to facilitate workshops that genuinely shift participant mindsets, and gain experience translating research insights into strategic recommendations that drive organizational change.

Application Requirements

When applying, please submit:

One PDF containing both your resume and cover letter
Your cover letter should address: your experience with collaborative vs. independent work environments, how you typically respond to constructive feedback, your experience designing and facilitating learning experiences, your approach to balancing strategic thinking with operational management, and your experience with futures thinking or visioning work as part of design methodologies
Responses should be thoughtful and specific (not generic or AI-generated)
You may be asked to complete additional questions in an application form (approximately 20 minutes)

Job Details

$36.46/hr
This is a USW Internship (Pay Band 9) with benefits available
Contract Length: 12 months
Hours per week: 37.5 hours (8:30am – 5:00pm Monday – Friday with a 1-hour unpaid lunch)
100% in-person work at U of T Student Commons – 230 College St. Toronto