Inclusive Research and Strategy Lead

This role is a remote role - anyone who is based in Australia or New Zealand is eligible to apply. You can submit your application (including answers to included questions) by e-mail to .digital.

Hi, we are Intopia

We are a digital consultancy with a difference. We're change makers. We believe everyone has a right to inclusive digital experiences. This is our purpose, our quest, the white rabbit we follow.

We do what we love, with people we like, to help make the world more inclusive. We place the user, regardless of their ability, at the centre of everything we do. We work to break down the barriers and make technology universally accessible.

About the role

The Inclusive Research and Strategy Lead leads Intopia's Strategy and Policy, and Equitable Research and Design teams, ensuring our work in governance, policy, research and design is inclusive, equitable and strategically impactful.

You'll manage a multidisciplinary team of consultants, overseeing delivery, guiding strategic priorities, and ensuring projects are grounded in lived experience and aligned with Intopia's mission. You will drive the growth and evolution of both service areas, fostering innovation, thought leadership and ethical practice across all engagements.

You will help Intopia to embed inclusion and accessibility across research, design, governance, policy and organisational strategy supporting our clients scale their accessibility efforts holistically.

This role is remote and is open to anyone based in Australia or New Zealand. What you would be doing in the role will vary but some of the key responsibilities will include:

• Act as a senior subject matter expert, providing leadership, guidance and support to consultants working on strategy and research client projects
• Mentor and develop team members, fostering their professional growth, wellbeing and contribution to Intopia's long-term success
• Manage team capacity, priorities, and workflow to ensure high-quality, timely delivery across projects
• Establish and refine the consultancy's research methodologies, ensuring they are rigorous, empathetic, and set the industry standard for inclusive practice
• Foster collaboration between the research and strategic service areas to integrate their insights and deliverables into cohesive, organisation-wide accessibility consulting solutions
• Collaborate with other service teams across Intopia to support growth, efficiencies and accessibility at scale
• Drive strategic growth of both service teams, including expanding client engagements, scaling services and increasing organisational impact
• Lead the design, prototyping and validation of new service offerings
• Support customer engagement, helping with proposals and building long term and successful relationships with customers
• Produce high impact thought leadership for your practice, including white papers, industry reports, presentations and community engagement.
• Drive the growth and impact of Intopia Connect, ensuring the service and team continues to evolve in line with our organisational goals
• Foster a culture of curiosity, continuous learning, and excellence within the team

About you

You're an experienced leader and accessibility practitioner who thrives at the intersection of human centred research, strategy and inclusion. You balance vision with practicality, equally comfortable shaping the big picture while guiding your team through high impact delivery. You understand that equitable design and strategy start with centring lived experience, and you bring empathy, curiosity and systems thinking to all that you do. Key skills and experiences that you'll have which are important for the role are:

• 9+ years of experience, or equivalent demonstrated outcomes, in accessibility research, strategy, design or policy within inclusion or human-centred design contexts
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams and managing quality of delivery across craft or practice areas
• Outstanding communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to build trust and alignment across diverse audiences
• Demonstrated experience developing and implementing strategies, policies, governance frameworks and procedures to drive organisational accessibility maturity
• Demonstrated experience turning research insights into actionable strategies or recommendations to embed inclusive practice across organisations
• Deep understanding of inclusive and ethical research practices, particularly involving people with disability or underrepresented communities
• Proven ability to manage multiple priorities, projects and timelines while maintaining a focus on quality and impact

Don't meet every single requirement? At Intopia we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you're excited about this role but your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we still encourage you to apply. You may be just the right candidate for this role (or others we might be hiring for).

People with disabilities, women, Indigenous people and ethnic minorities are encouraged to apply. Preference will be given to applicants with lived experience of disability, experience working with people with disability and/or a demonstrated personal understanding of disability.

The salary range for the role is $140,000-$160,000 plus superannuation, subject to location and experience.

Why work with us?

We have an amazing team of people, each with a diverse range of expertise and experiences. Our team is still growing, and we are now the largest specialist digital accessibility team in Australia and New Zealand. We also have team members based in the United States and Canada.

We are a social enterprise who are committed to giving part of our profits to initiatives that support people with disabilities. We're also a certified B Corp and proud supporter of the 1 percent pledge initiative. Our work provides positive social impact every day.

Our team is a little different. We know the force is strong and everything is bigger on the inside. We celebrate with glitter, and we know you can build anything with the right bricks.

We value people who:

• love what they do,
• think outside of the box,
• can turn customers into fans,
• are always learning,
• give more then they take,
• and always put people first

Benefits

• Remote first & flexible working hours and conditions
• Optional co-working space
• Professional development days throughout the year
• 2 paid volunteer leave days every year
• Paid annual and personal leave (amount location dependent)
• Unlimited unpaid leave
• Access to EAP
• Monthly team days

Down the rabbit hole

If this role sounds like you, even if you don't match all the requirements, then we want to hear from you Apply today by sharing your resume, cover letter and answers to the three questions below. Please attach your answers to the end of your cover letter. You will need to answer all three questions for your application to be considered. We don't need war and peace just a few paragraphs so we can get to know you better.

Question 1: Making Impact - Tell us about a time you turned inclusive research or strategy into something that really made a difference for people. What was your approach and what happened?

Question 2: Superpower Check - If you had a "superpower" to make accessibility and inclusion stick in organisations, what would it be and how would you use it?

Question 3: Leadership in Action - How do you keep your team inspired, coordinated and ready to save the day?

Applications (and any enquiries about the role) can be sent by e-mail to .digital. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so if you're interested in the role, apply now

Agencies please do not contact us or send applicants to us.