Senior Innovation Strategist

Jump Associates; San Mateo (CA); On-site; USD 130,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Jump Associates LLC in San Mateo, CA is seeking a Senior Associate Innovation Strategist who brings method, judgment, and client presence today while growing into a senior Jump leader. You’ll be equal parts strategist, facilitator, and coach, turning messy client questions into clear choices, building the narratives and visuals that reveal new paths, and guiding senior clients through tough tradeoffs.

This role values ownership, high standards, apprenticeship, and a track record of turning

Qualifications

• 5–10 years of relevant experience in strategy, consulting, design, research, innovation, product, venture, or adjacent client-services work.
• Ability to turn messy inputs into clear insight and strategic choices.
• Strong communication with clarity, judgment, and presence.

Responsibilities

• Create strategy by turning research, signals, and client questions into clear choices.
• Build narratives, frameworks, and visuals to shift perspectives.
• Facilitate decision-making in client rooms to clarify priorities and tradeoffs.
• Coach leaders to think clearly in high-stakes moments.
• Raise the bar on thinking, writing, facilitation, and client work.
• Help Jump grow by supporting relationships, ideas, and offerings.

Skills

Strategy

Consulting

Design

Research

Innovation

Product

Venture

Client-services

Job description

About Jump:

Jump is the strategy firm for future-focused leaders, advising them on high-stakes questions where the answers aren’t obvious and the consequences matter. For 28 years, we’ve partnered with companies like United Airlines, Amazon, Purina, Starbucks, and Samsung to help them make clear choices about strategy, culture, and leadership.

We are a 30-person boutique firm by design. We work closely with clients in a demanding, high-standard environment that emphasizes ownership, judgment, and development.

About the Role:

We’re hiring Senior Associate Innovation Strategists — someone who already has enough method, judgment, and client presence to be useful now, but enough slope to grow into a senior Jump leader.

Your Role:

Equal Parts Strategist, Facilitator, and Coach

• Create strategy. Turn research, signals, and messy client questions into clear choices leaders can act on.
• Make the work tangible. Build the narratives, frameworks, and visuals that help people see the problem differently.
• Facilitate decision-making. Lead rooms where clients clarify what matters, wrestle with tradeoffs, and build conviction.
• Coach leaders. Help senior clients think more clearly in the moments where the stakes are high and the path is not obvious.
• Raise the bar. Make the team’s thinking, writing, facilitation, and client work better.
• Help Jump grow. Support the relationships, ideas, and offerings that shape our future work.

You Bring:

5–10 years of relevant experience in strategy, consulting, design, research, innovation, product, venture, or adjacent client-services work.

Hybrid Thinking:

You bring methodological depth in at least 1 of 3 areas:

• Business strategy: You understand how organizations make choices, create value, and turn insight into action.
• Social science / human insight: You know how to study people, behavior, culture, and context in a disciplined way.
• Design / visualization: You can make complex ideas visible, tangible, and easier for others to understand and act on.
• You also have meaningful working exposure to at least one of the other areas, can move between them, and have a clear appetite to integrate across all 3.

You’re a Strong Candidate If You:

• Have already carried meaningful pieces of ambiguous client or stakeholder work.
• Can turn messy inputs into clear insight and strategic choice.
• Communicate with clarity, judgment, and presence.
• Are comfortable with high standards, feedback, and apprenticeship.
• Show signs of earning trust in senior conversations.
• Want to grow into a larger advisory role over time.

How You'll Grow:

Everyone at this level starts as a core strategist on a client team. You’ll learn Jump’s standards, methods, and expectations by doing the work. From there, growth typically moves in 2 directions.

• Some people become Project Leads: they hold the client relationship, guide the team, and make sure the work moves cleanly from insight to action.
• Others become Content Leads: they hold the intellectual bar, sharpen the strategy, and help shape Jump’s point of view through the work.
• Both paths require real ownership. Both require judgment, craft, and accountability.
• You do not need to know your long-term path on day one.
• What matters is that you can do strong work now, learn quickly, and grow into larger responsibility over time.

Details:

• Location: San Mateo, CA (We work in person most days—typically Monday–Thursday—because close collaboration and apprenticeship matter to how we work)
• Travel: ~25% for client work and "in the field" research
• Compensation: The salary range for this role is $130,000–$160,000 annually, based on relevant experience. This role is also eligible for an annual bonus tied to organizational performance.