Senior Design Strategist

Join a passionate and supportive community of design experts and put your stamp on high-profile, complex projects! Why You’d Like It If you thrive on turning chaotic, ambiguous ideas into crystal-clear, customer-centred strategies, this is the playground you’ve been looking for. You will get to step in at the very beginning of major initiatives, shake off the standard "solution-first" thinking, and genuinely shape the direction of experiences that impact millions of people. It’s high-impact, fast-paced, and gives you the autonomy to steer the ship before it even sets sail. The Story Our client is renowned for world-leading customer innovation, but staying ahead of the curve means ensuring new projects start in the right place. They are looking to bring in a Senior Design Strategist to bridge the gap between big-picture strategy and actual squad delivery. This isn’t about sitting in an ivory tower looking at enterprise-level CX metrics; it’s a hands-on, highly collaborative role designed to tackle complex problem spaces, map out journeys, and get cross-functional teams completely aligned from day dot. Company Profile This is an opportunity to join an iconic brand that practically has innovation in its DNA. Operating at the top of their game, they pride themselves on a collaborative, forward-thinking culture that embraces modern tools (yes, including AI) to work smarter, not harder. They value pragmatic thinkers who can cut through the noise, challenge the status quo, and bring diverse teams along for the ride. Your Role As a Senior Design Strategist, you will lead the early-stage framing and shaping of new initiatives so delivery teams can hit the ground running with absolute clarity. You’ll drop into short, high-impact engagements to untangle complex problems, facilitate decision-making, and transition out once the path forward is set. Your day-to-day will involve: Mapping out current customer experiences, identifying critical pain points, and pinning down the exact problem spaces worth solving. Facilitating energetic, structured workshops that bring cross-functional stakeholders onto the same page. Running lean, evidence-based research to define target customer behaviours, needs, and success metrics upfront. Developing experience maps, blueprints, and directional concepts to guide the product or service's early evolution. Utilising AI and modern design tools to accelerate your synthesis, framing, and insight generation. Benefits Contract Term: Initial 6-month contract with high likelihood of further extensions Daily Rate: Between $720-$800 per day + GST Flexible Working: 4 days on-site, 1 day work from home Thriving Team Culture: Join a passionate, supportive community of design craft experts. High-Impact Work: The chance to put your stamp on high-profile, complex projects from the ground up. Your Fit You are someone who looks at a messy, ambiguous brief and gets excited rather than overwhelmed. You’ll have 5+ years under your belt in design strategy, service design, or product design, with a proven track record of using customer evidence to steer product direction. You’re a pragmatic, outcome-focused practitioner who knows how to spot a "solution-first" bias from a mile away and gently steer the team back to the customer. Excellent workshop facilitation skills and a high comfort level with modern AI tooling will make you a standout fit for this team. Applicants must be legally entitled to work in New Zealand. If you are not a NZ Citizen, you must have the right of permanent residence or a valid work visa. #J-18808-Ljbffr