Full-time Senior Design Strategist

Seymourpowell help our clients grow their business by delivering transformative brand experiences that people love. We are the global design and innovation company with a 35-year history of delivering world first innovations.

Our Foresight team is a small and specialist unit within Seymourpowell. We use our expertise in consumer insight, trend forecasting, colour, material and finish, and brand strategy to create the conditions for design and innovation to thrive. We are lucky to work with many of the world’s best loved brands and innovative start-ups. From spaceships to sex toys, we cover pretty much every category you can dream of.

We believe that great design makes things better. Better for people, better for business and better for the world.

We’re on the hunt for an exceptional Senior Design Strategist to join our Foresight team. You should have the ability to inspire and channel a team of clients (from blue-chip to start-ups) and world class designers, adding clarity and accuracy to the design and innovation process. The projects you would work on could come from countries and industries far and wide – the future of payment; the next evolution of wearables; the innovation roadmap for a global brewery; or new revenue streams for a much-loved broadcaster.

The diversity of our project briefs means that our team covers multiple skills and we’re looking for someone with experience in some of the following:

• Future product strategy and vision
• Creative propositions
• Scenario building
• Consumer research (both quant and qualitative studies)
• Trend forecasting
• Workshop facilitation
• Brand models
• Range and brand architecture
• Product roadmaps

As a Senior Strategist you would work with team members to:

• Plan and implement numerous research methodologies to gather user and expert insights, translating them into tangible design and innovation strategy.
• Understand how to apply insights to underpin convincing and creative brand or product propositions.
• Find effective ways to approach each project, identifying new perspectives on the challenge that will give our clients something fresh.
• Analyze research findings, identify useful insights, and sharpen them into directional inspiration for our design teams, lifting the quality of our new ideas and designs.
• Incorporate insights into compelling presentations for our design teams and clients.
• Evaluate creative work and build a reasoned case to support its development and direction, maintaining a solid bridge between strategy and reality.
• Take a role in developing Seymourpowell’s internal Trend Observatory. Actively keep up with emerging trends and contemporary culture. Identifying new trends and capturing them in an easy to digest format.
• Help to build Seymourpowell’s reputation by taking an active role in public thought leadership and generating compelling commentary and content for our social media channels.
• Develop and mentor team culture, supporting mid-weights in clarity of insight, advising on potential pitfalls and interpreting value from insights.
• Support the leadership team with new business activities, write up project winning proposals and take responsibility for delivering the proposal.

You are a Seymourpowell Design Strategist if…

• You work with passion. Seymourpowell’s team is built from a broad range of skills and personalities. What unites our diversity is our passion for mastering our craft and delivering excellence.
• You have a love for design. You should have a deep understanding of design. You should have a degree that is relevant to a design and innovation company (for example in product, transport, packaging, engineering, or digital).
• You are culturally keyed in. You are curious and have a good understanding of trends and can quickly get to grips with the concepts and language of new subject areas.
• You enjoy exploring how trends will affect the world and know how to use them to inspire the design and innovation process.
• You are an instigator. You start things and work proactively taking the initiative in a resourceful way.
• You are original. You know how to create an inspiring project environment.
• You are persuasively concise. You’re a natural storyteller. Your writing is sharp and stylish.
• You know your tools. You have the spark and gravitas to work live with clients.
• You are meticulously concise. You sweat the small stuff, you are considered and opinionated.
• You take a critical approach. Whilst an optimist at heart, you use critical thinking skills to stress-test your work against your client’s business priorities.
• You are solution focussed. You have strong analytical skills.
• You can make a mean cup of tea. Collaboration makes you tick, and you believe in the adage that two heads are better than one.
• You are a perceptive listener who people in turn want to listen to.

At Seymourpowell we want to make your working experience a fulfilling and energising one. We are about making things better: better for people, better for business and better for the world. We offer a flexible, fun and inspiring working environment.

Some of our benefits include:

• Hybrid working
• Competitive salary
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
• Birthday day off
• Staff profit share
• A great wellbeing package which includes Inspiration days, Team Lunches & Employee Assistance Programme

We pride ourselves in helping you grow and develop in your role and learn from some of the best (and nicest) people in the industry, so if this opportunity sounds exciting - we’d love to hear from you!

Applying for the Role:

The role available is a full-time contract, starting as soon as possible. If you like the sound of the role and want to apply please send an email to recruitment@seymourpowell.com together with:

• Your CV – detailing your recent experience, achievements and skills.
• Your Folio – a short PDF or weblink demonstrating your approach and work – ideally demonstrating articulations across trends, strategy, visual language and CMF palettes.
• A Cover Letter – a short letter explaining what drives your passion for CMF and why you think you’ll be a good match for Seymourpowell.

Only applications that include all of the above will be considered for interview, which we hope to conduct in May. We’re sorry but due to the volume of responses we receive it is only possible for us to respond to successful applicants.