Senior Design Strategy & Research Lead

Northern Trust; Chicago (IL); On-site; USD 137,000 - 234,000; Full time

Job summary

Northern Trust is seeking a Principal Design Strategy and Research leader in Chicago to guide high-impact experience design initiatives. You will lead research, strategy, and transformation activities, partnering with executives to translate insights into actionable roadmaps that shape future-state experiences.

You will mentor practitioners, foster interdisciplinary collaboration across design, product, technology, and operations, and deliver executive-ready narratives that influence priorities

Qualifications

• 12+ years in experience strategy, design research, service design, product strategy, innovation, transformation, or related disciplines.
• Proven leadership of complex cross-functional initiatives with executive stakeholder engagement and measurable strategic impact.
• Experience moving work from discovery through recommendations, delivery readiness, implementation planning, and organizational adoption.
• Demonstrated ability to flex across research, strategy, facilitation, service design, product discovery, and transformation support.
• Portfolio or case study body of work demonstrating process, outputs, decision-making, stakeholder leadership, and impact.
• Enterprise transformation, financial services, consulting, or complex regulated industry experience a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead Design Strategy and Research engagements from intake through problem framing, discovery, synthesis, recommendations, and adoption.
• Serve as a senior practitioner who can flex across research, strategy, facilitation, service design, product discovery, and transformation leadership.
• Partner with Transformation Office leaders, sponsors, product teams, technology, operations, risk, and clients to align objectives.
• Translate ambiguous business questions into learning agendas, research plans, and executive-ready recommendations.
• Lead or guide qualitative and mixed-method research across discovery, evaluation, and strategy.
• Synthesize findings into actionable experience strategies and roadmaps.
• Develop executive-ready readouts, narratives, and artifacts that influence priorities and investments.

Skills

Human-centered design

Design thinking

Qualitative research

Mixed-method research

Service design

Systems thinking

Product discovery

Transformation strategy

Facilitation

Stakeholder engagement

Leadership

Communication

Storytelling

Job description

Northern Trust is seeking a Principal Design Strategy and Research leader in Chicago to guide high-impact experience design initiatives. You will lead research, strategy, and transformation activities, partnering with executives to translate insights into actionable roadmaps that shape future-state experiences.

You will mentor practitioners, foster interdisciplinary collaboration across design, product, technology, and operations, and deliver executive-ready narratives that influence priorities