Senior Design Strategist: Human-Centered Strategy & Visuals

LINK; Washington (District of Columbia); On-site; USD 112,000 - 151,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Internet stipend

Commuter stipend

Healthcare benefits

401K

Paid PTO

Annual bonus

Profit sharing

Learning & development reimbursement

MacBook Pro equipment

Job summary

LINK is actively seeking a Senior Design Strategist to lead and execute innovative design strategies, collaborating with internal teams and executive-level clients to deliver impactful visual storytelling and human-centered design solutions. You will develop narratives, map journeys, and guide research to align with client missions and brand identity.

This role requires a strong track record in design strategy, systems thinking, and facilitation, with the ability to mentor others and work across

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Design, Communication, Sociology, Psychology, Human-Centered Design, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience in design strategy, service design, user experience, research, consulting, communications, or a related field.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance.
• Strong expertise in human-centered design, design thinking, systems thinking, facilitation, and strategic storytelling.
• Well-versed in a variety of design strategy disciplines and able to select the appropriate approach for a given challenge.
• Experience designing and facilitating workshops, stakeholder engagements, and collaborative working sessions that drive alignment and informed decision-making.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex research efforts and translate findings into actionable insights, strategic recommendations, and organizational outcomes.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with clients and cross-functional teams.
• Demonstrated ability to navigate ambiguity and guide stakeholders through complex challenges and decision-making processes.
• Demonstrated ability to balance multiple priorities and deadlines while maintaining high standards of quality and client service.
• Capable of mentoring and coaching others.
• Approaches work with optimism, openness to new ideas, and a collaborative mindset.
• Portfolio that demonstrates both design execution and strategic decision-making

Responsibilities

• Serves as a trusted advisor to clients by framing complex challenges, identifying opportunities, and applying human-centered design approaches to inform strategic decision-making.
• Partners directly with client stakeholders to understand organizational priorities, user needs, operational constraints, and desired outcomes.
• Leads the development of design strategy approaches that align stakeholder needs, business objectives, and mission requirements.
• Guides cross-functional teams through ambiguity, helping stakeholders build alignment and make informed decisions.
• Identifies opportunities to create tangible business value and support long-term client success.
• Leads mixed-method research efforts, including stakeholder interviews, contextual inquiry, observations, journey mapping, ecosystem analysis, and systems mapping activities.
• Synthesizes qualitative and quantitative findings into actionable insights, opportunity areas, strategic recommendations, and design directions.
• Applies systems thinking to identify patterns, dependencies, root causes, and opportunities across complex organizational environments.
• Translates technical, operational, and policy-focused challenges into human-centered insights and strategic considerations.
• Guides research activities that inform organizational transformation, service design, experience design, and strategic planning efforts.
• Develops compelling visual frameworks, journey maps, service blueprints, ecosystem maps, decision-support tools, and strategic narratives that communicate complex information clearly.
• Shapes storytelling approaches that help stakeholders understand challenges, opportunities, tradeoffs, and future-state possibilities.
• Collaborates with information designers and strategists to develop executive-level deliverables that support alignment and decision-making.
• Establishes quality standards for design strategy deliverables and provides guidance that improves consistency across engagements.
• Ensures visual outputs effectively communicate research findings, strategic recommendations, and organizational priorities.
• Designs and facilitates workshops, design sprints, stakeholder engagements, and co-creation activities that advance strategic objectives and drive organizational alignment.
• Develops facilitation approaches, agendas, exercises, and collaborative experiences that enable productive dialogue and structured problem-solving.
• Synthesizes workshop outputs into actionable findings, recommendations, and implementation considerations.
• Helps stakeholders navigate competing priorities, organizational complexity, and change initiatives through structured facilitation and engagement.
• Guides teams in applying human-centered design methods throughout project lifecycles.
• Mentors teammates through coaching, knowledge sharing, and constructive feedback.
• Models LINK values and contributes to a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing team culture.
• Shares tools, methods, frameworks, and lessons learned that improve the quality and consistency of work across engagements.
• Supports development of emerging practitioners by providing guidance on research, facilitation, synthesis, and visual storytelling approaches.
• Contributes to the continued evolution of LINK’s design strategy practice through innovation, experimentation, and continuous learning.
• Minimum 3 days per week on-site
• Full time, 40 hours per week
• Some travel required to attend relevant events and conferences, and participate in LINK team events

Skills

Design strategy

Service design

User experience

Research

Strategic storytelling

Workshop facilitation

Stakeholder management

Team leadership

Security clearance

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Design

Job description

LINK is actively seeking a Senior Design Strategist to lead and execute innovative design strategies, collaborating with internal teams and executive-level clients to deliver impactful visual storytelling and human-centered design solutions. You will develop narratives, map journeys, and guide research to align with client missions and brand identity.

This role requires a strong track record in design strategy, systems thinking, and facilitation, with the ability to mentor others and work across