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About the Role

LINK is seeking a Senior Design Strategist to lead and execute innovative design strategies, collaborate with internal teams and executive-level clients, and drive impactful visual storytelling. This role involves understanding client challenges, developing compelling narratives, and implementing design strategies that align with mission, goals, and brand identity.

Responsibilities

Serve as a trusted advisor to clients by framing complex challenges, identifying opportunities, and applying human-centered design approaches to inform strategic decision-making.
Partner directly with client stakeholders to understand organizational priorities, user needs, operational constraints, and desired outcomes.
Lead the development of design strategy approaches that align stakeholder needs, business objectives, and mission requirements.
Guide cross-functional teams through ambiguity, helping stakeholders build alignment and make informed decisions.
Identify opportunities to create tangible business value and support long-term client success.
Lead mixed-method research efforts, including stakeholder interviews, contextual inquiry, observations, journey mapping, ecosystem analysis, and systems mapping activities.
Synthesize qualitative and quantitative findings into actionable insights, opportunity areas, strategic recommendations, and design directions.
Apply systems thinking to identify patterns, dependencies, root causes, and opportunities across complex organizational environments.
Translate technical, operational, and policy-focused challenges into human-centered insights and strategic considerations.
Guide research activities that inform organizational transformation, service design, experience design, and strategic planning efforts.
Develop compelling visual frameworks, journey maps, service blueprints, ecosystem maps, decision-support tools, and strategic narratives that communicate complex information clearly.
Shape storytelling approaches that help stakeholders understand challenges, opportunities, tradeoffs, and future-state possibilities.
Collaborate with information designers and strategists to develop executive-level deliverables that support alignment and decision-making.
Establish quality standards for design strategy deliverables and provide guidance that improves consistency across engagements.
Ensure visual outputs effectively communicate research findings, strategic recommendations, and organizational priorities.
Design and facilitate workshops, design sprints, stakeholder engagements, and co-creation activities that advance strategic objectives and drive organizational alignment.
Develop facilitation approaches, agendas, exercises, and collaborative experiences that enable productive dialogue and structured problem-solving.
Synthesize workshop outputs into actionable findings, recommendations, and implementation considerations.
Help stakeholders navigate competing priorities, organizational complexity, and change initiatives through structured facilitation and engagement.
Guide teams in applying human-centered design methods throughout project lifecycles.
Mentor teammates through coaching, knowledge sharing, and constructive feedback.
Model LINK values and contribute to a collaborative, inclusive, and high-performing team culture.
Share tools, methods, frameworks, and lessons learned that improve the quality and consistency of work across engagements.
Support development of emerging practitioners by providing guidance on research, facilitation, synthesis, and visual storytelling approaches.
Contribute to the continued evolution of LINK’s design strategy practice through innovation, experimentation, and continuous learning.

Requirements

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.

Skills

Human-centered design
Design thinking
Systems thinking
Facilitation
Strategic storytelling
Design strategy
Service design
User experience
Research
Consulting
Communications
Workshop design
Stakeholder engagement
Collaborative working sessions
Research synthesis
Visual frameworks
Journey mapping
Service blueprints
Ecosystem maps
Decision-support tools
Strategic narratives
Information design
Design sprints
Co-creation activities
Problem-solving
Mentoring
Coaching
Knowledge sharing
Team collaboration

Location

San Diego area

Work Type

On-site with the client 2-3 days per week
Full time
40 hours per week
Some travel required

Experience Level

10+ years of experience
Senior

Education Level

Bachelor’s degree in Design, Communication, Sociology, Psychology, Human-Centered Design, or a related field.

Salary/Compensations

$112,000 - $151,000

Benefits

$100 monthly internet/cell phone stipend
$150 monthly commuter stipend for eligible participants
LINK sponsored healthcare benefits including medical, dental, vision
Company-paid Short Term Disability Insurance
401K with employer contribution of up to 4%
11 Federal Holidays per year
15 days of Paid Time Off (PTO) per year
Paid Holiday Time Off (Christmas Eve through the New Year)
Annual bonus plan participation
Annual profit sharing participation
$2,000 Learning and Development program reimbursement
Technology package that includes a LINK-owned MacBook Pro, monitor, mouse and keyboard

About the Company

LINK is a fast-growing Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB) that leverages human-centered design to support strategy, innovation, communication, change, and branding within the federal government and adjacent industry partners.
At LINK, we partner with engineers, futurists, and thought leaders to untangle complexity, discover opportunity, and communicate clearly with visual stories.
Let us be your partners in change.

Equal Opportunity

LINK is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by applicable state, local, and federal law.
If you are unable to complete this application due to a disability, contact Human Resources to ask for an accommodation or an alternative application process.