Senior Design Strategist: Strategy, Storytelling & Innovation

LINK; Charleston (SC); Hybride; USD 112 000 - 151 000; Plein temps

Avantages offerts par ce poste

Internet stipend

Commuter stipend

Healthcare benefits

Short Term Disability Insurance

401K with employer contribution

Federal holidays

Paid time off

Annual bonus plan

Profit sharing

L&D program reimbursement

Tech package

Résumé du poste

LINK in Charleston, SC seeks a Senior Design Strategist to lead innovative design strategies and visual storytelling for diverse clients. You will partner with executives, frame challenges, prototype ideas, and test solutions to deliver strategic, human-centered outcomes.

You will guide discovery, synthesize insights, and develop executive-ready deliverables, while mentoring teammates and shaping LINK’s strategy practice. Hybrid schedule with client-facing work required.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Design, Communication, Business, Architecture, Engineering, Innovation, Sociology, Psychology, or a related field.
• 10+ years of experience in design strategy, innovation, strategic consulting, facilitation, service design, communications, or a related field.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance. Current Secret level clearance or higher is preferred.
• Deep fluency in design thinking, including problem framing and reframing, divergent and convergent thinking, rapid prototyping, and iterative testing.
• Strong expertise in systems thinking, facilitation, and strategic storytelling. Familiarity with human-centered design is a plus.
• 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, design sprints, ideation sessions, stakeholder engagements, and collaborative working sessions.
• Demonstrated ability to lead complex discovery and 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 shows how you frame problems, make strategic decisions, and iterate toward solutions, not just final deliverables.

Responsabilités

• Serves as a trusted advisor to clients by framing complex challenges, identifying opportunities, and applying design thinking 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.
• Leads teams through the full design thinking arc, from framing the right problem through ideation, prototyping, and iteration, to move clients from ambiguity to tested, actionable direction.
• 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 discovery efforts, including stakeholder interviews, observation, journey mapping, ecosystem analysis, and systems mapping, and uses what is learned to frame opportunities and drive ideation.
• 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 discovery activities that inform organizational transformation, service design, experience design, and strategic planning efforts.
• Develops compelling visual frameworks, concept prototypes, 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 design thinking workshops, design sprints, ideation sessions, and co-creation activities that move stakeholders from problem framing to tangible concepts 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 design thinking 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.

Connaissances

Design thinking

Systems thinking

Facilitation

Strategic storytelling

Workshops

Stakeholder engagement

Mentoring

Team leadership

Formation

Bachelor’s degree in Design, Communication, Business, Architecture, Engineering, Innovation, Sociology, Psychology

Description du poste

LINK in Charleston, SC seeks a Senior Design Strategist to lead innovative design strategies and visual storytelling for diverse clients. You will partner with executives, frame challenges, prototype ideas, and test solutions to deliver strategic, human-centered outcomes.

You will guide discovery, synthesize insights, and develop executive-ready deliverables, while mentoring teammates and shaping LINK’s strategy practice. Hybrid schedule with client-facing work required.