Strategic Designer

carsales; Australia; Hybrid; AUD 100,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Flexible working arrangements

Diversity & inclusion

Job summary

CAR Group in Australia is seeking a Strategic Designer for the NEXT division to explore future opportunities across its marketplaces. You’ll lead customer journey work, uncover unmet needs, and collaborate with a Senior Product Manager to translate ideas into concepts, prototypes, and experiments.

You’ll partner with cross-functional teams and use AI-enabled tools to speed discovery. The role requires experience in strategic or service design, strong research and synthesis skills, and the

Qualifications

• Experience in strategic design, service design, or related discipline across complex journeys.
• Ability to navigate ambiguous, early-stage opportunities from research to concepts.
• Strong research and synthesis skills combining qualitative, quantitative, and market evidence.

Responsibilities

• Lead customer journey and strategic discovery work across CAR Group’s marketplaces.
• Translate unmet needs into clear opportunity areas and strategic artifacts.
• Own priority discovery workstreams from problem framing to prototyping and testing.
• Design lean experiments assessing desirability, viability, feasibility and scale.
• Collaborate with product, technology, data, commercial, operations and regional teams.
• Synthesize evidence into recommendations and pitches for investment decisions.
• Utilize AI-enabled research, synthesis and prototyping tools to speed discovery.

Skills

Strategic design

Service design

Customer experience

Product design

Research & synthesis

Journey mapping

Prototyping

Tools

AI-enabled tools

Job description

Are you ready to be a big part of something big?

CAR Group has been driving innovation and growth since the 1990s. Collectively, our world leading marketplaces bring together deep expertise powered by a talented team, data, and technology across Oceania, Asia and The Americas.

We deliver world leading technology and advertising solutions designed to make buying and selling a great experience and are the parent company of wholly owned digital marketplaces in Australia (carsales), South Korea (Encar), the United States (Trader Interactive) and Chile (chileautos), in addition to being a majority shareholder of webmotors in Brazil.

With a vision to be the global leader in online vehicle marketplaces, we’re transforming how people buy and sell across the world. We discover new ideas and bring them to life. We continue to grow, and we continue to evolve - and we’re committed to taking innovative steps to get there.

When it comes to your career, we want to offer meaningful opportunities that empower you to make a lasting impact. But for that to happen, we strive to feel small - small enough to stay agile, learn across teams, and connect authentically with each other.

This role sits in our NEXT division which is focussed on future innovation opportunities and developing new products to better serve our users across our global marketplaces. NEXT is a small team of entrepreneurs exploring high-potential, unsolved problems with a start-up mindset and pace.

We embrace hybrid working - combining the flexibility of remote work with the energy and connection of in-person collaboration. We champion flexibility and offer a range of policies and leave options to support your wellbeing.

What’s on offer:

• A place where you can move your career forward, where you’ll be continuously backed to make new ideas happen, and the chance to do work that makes real, significant impact in the world.
• We’re proud to be recognised as one of Australia’s Best Workplaces™ by Great Place to Work®, a Family Friendly Workplace and a WORK180 endorsed employer for women.
• The support of a highly engaged, high-performing team including a leadership team thatyou’ll actually have face time with.
• 24 weeks paid parental leave for primary caregivers, four weeks paid secondary caregivers leave and paid family & fertility planning leave.

What you’ll be doing

As a Strategic Designer,you'llhelp NEXTidentifyand explore the opportunities that willshape the future of CAR Group.You'lllead customer journey work to uncover unmet needs and opportunity areas, then work alongside a Senior Product Managerto turn priority opportunities into tangible concepts,prototypesand experiments. Working closely with the Head of Strategic Design and cross-functional teams,you'llbring together customer research, marketevidenceand creative problem-solving to inform which big bets we pursue and how they could come to life.

• Lead customer journey and strategic discovery work across CAR Group’s marketplaces, combining customer research, behavioural data, marketinsightand existing knowledge.
• Translate complex journeys and unmet needs into clear opportunity areas,recommendationsand strategic artefacts that teams can act on.
• Lead priority discoveryworkstreams from problem framing and hypothesis development through concepting, prototyping,experimentationand testing.
• Design lean experiments that assess customer desirability, business viability, technical and operational feasibility, strategic fit and potential to scale.
• Partner with product, technology, data, commercial, operations and regional teams,facilitatingworkshops and co-creation to build alignment and momentum.
• Synthesise evidence into compelling recommendations, investmentcasesand pitches, helpingdeterminewhether opportunities should progress, pivot, pause or stop.
• Use AI-enabled research,synthesisand prototyping tools to improve the speed and quality of discovery while applying sound judgement to outputs.

Whatwe’relooking for

• Experience in strategic design, service design, customer experience, productdesignor a related discipline, ideally working across complex end-to-end journeys.
• Experience navigating ambiguous, early-stage opportunities and taking work from research and problem framing through to concepts, prototypes,experimentsor recommendations.
• Strong research and synthesis skills, with the ability to combine qualitative, quantitative and market evidence into practical insights.
• Hands-on capability in journey mapping, service blueprinting, conceptdevelopmentand prototyping.
• Strategic and commercial curiosity, with the ability to consider customer value, business impact,feasibilityand scale.
• Strong collaboration,facilitationand storytelling skills, with confidence using modern research, mapping,prototypingand AI-enabled tools.
• Marketplace,platformor multi-sided business experience is a plus; automotive or mobility experience is welcome but not essential.

We know not everyone will meet every requirement, andthat'sokay. Ifyou'reexcited about the role and believe you can make a difference,we'dlove to hear from you.

A few other things we want you to know...

• As an equal opportunity employer, CAR Group welcomes applications from individuals of all backgrounds, identities, abilities, and life experiences. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and supported.
• If you have a disability or require adjustments to participate fully in the recruitment process, please let us know—we’re here to support you.
• We understand the importance of work-life balance and offer flexible working arrangements, including part-time options. If you’d like to explore this, just ask during the process.
• We’re also a proud Circle Back Initiative employer, which means we commit to responding to every applicant.
• Successful candidates joining the CAR Group team will need to complete a National Police Record check and must have full-time Australian working rights.

Socomeandjoinourteam-becauseeveryroleisabigroleinourplanstogobig.