Principal Design Strategist

**Here at Portable**:
We care about people and the world. We seek out areas of social need and policy failure and make transformational change using research, design and technology. Our clients are as passionate as we are and are working in government agencies, nonprofit organisations and socially-minded businesses.

There are currently 75+ of us working as researchers, strategists, designers, technologists and producers towards our mission from our studio in Collingwood, and working remotely in every state and territory in Australia. Our Design Services team is made up of over a dozen multidisciplinary Designers and Producers who work to understand and define the needs of people and organisations and bring them through a design process towards impactful solutions.

**Then there's you**:
A Principal Design Strategist who guides our team and clients through the design process via in-depth, people-centred engagements. You play a key role in leading engagements to develop a clear understanding of the complex needs of the people and organisations we are designing for and with, and designing sophisticated and contextual strategies that bring positive change to life.

As a designer, you have a strong foundation in process and mindsets, and love to solve real problems for real people. Your toolkit across human-centred design and strategic design allows you to confidently tackle a range of environments and problem spaces. You thrive on the moments when insights emerge to guide people and organisations towards new possibilities.

While a Principal may not directly manage the performance and growth of others in the team, you are a leader in every sense. As a Principal, you consistently identify problems and facilitate engagement and collaboration to solve them. You provide helpful advice to other designers in the team and actively support their development and project delivery. You are proactive in managing your time and priorities, and lead by example with empathy and excellent communication skills. You have the courage to drive robust conversations that ultimately lead to better outcomes for our clients, teams, and the people we are designing for.

**You'll be expected to have knowledge and experience in these areas**:

- Experience leading large, complex and transformational engagements with a diversity of organisations
- Experience working in multi-disciplinary teams from research through to delivery
- Analysis and synthesis of quantitative and qualitative data to produce meaningful insights and artefacts
- Excellent written and verbal communication that articulates complex ideas in compelling stories
- Designing and conducting ethnographic design research with diverse cohorts of people
- Excellent workshop design and facilitation that creates a great experience for participants and generates fruitful results
- Experience in mentoring and coaching less experienced team members to build capability on projects
- Strong and current knowledge of emerging methodologies and technologies that inform a design practice to solve bigger, more complex problems

**Expertise you may have that would complement our team's experience**:

- Experience with designing and implementing data governance and data management processes
- Experience with data analytics and business analysis (BA) skills and tools
- Business design
- Systems thinking and design in complex environments
- Change management
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Co-design and design research with people from diverse backgrounds, including those experiencing vulnerable circumstances
- Subject matter expertise in a particular area of need, such as one of our impact areas (justice, mental health, family violence, government innovation, aged care, climate action)

**As a Principal, you'll be expected to deliver the following outcomes**:

- You independently lead large, complex projects and ensure you and others are delivering quality work within project constraints
- You ensure people are learning & growing in their practice and help to unblock your colleagues on projects
- You create new opportunities (business, partnerships, people) for Portable
- You enhance and innovate the way we deliver our design services

**If you were here last week, you may have**:

- Conducted desktop research that helps build our understanding of the use of online learning platforms and the associated challenges facing students in a remote context
- Led on developing an approach for a proposal for a new business opportunity with an aged care organisation
- Ran a four hour workshop in Melbourne (remotely) for a government client looking to reposition their service offering to citizens
- Designed and facilitated a workshop to help a not-for-profit executive team in palliative care design their digital strategy and roadmap
- Coached a less experienced member of the team to grow their design capability
- Synthesised user research with a cross-functional project team to uncover insights about young p