Job Description

In a nutshell

IDEO is seeking to hire experienced Organization Designers who have led significant organizational design projects as either a consultant or in-house employee to join one of our US locations. This role requires a rare blend of real-world experience and theory, a real passion for questioning the status quo, and the right mix of boardroom polish and grassroots hustle. You will work as a member of IDEO’s interdisciplinary project teams to help our clients achieve bold and meaningful change by applying human-centered org design in service of solutions that transform organizations and their ways of working.

Once here you will

As a Senior Organizational Designer or Organization Design Lead at IDEO, you will work with a project team to deeply understand the client context, collect and interpret relevant data, develop insights, explore and define design opportunities, create tangible design expressions, communicate a compelling vision, and ultimately help our clients create the change they are after.

You will help our clients achieve bold and meaningful organizational change. This could look like:

• designing org or people strategy
• creating new tools for the organization
• shaping the culture and operating model of a department, innovation lab, or organization
• building a ‘minimum viable organization’ to execute on a new product/service

We are currently seeking Organizational Designers at either the Senior Designer level or Design Lead level.

Senior Designers are key members of dedicated project teams. They work in interdisciplinary settings where they own and drive org design research, analogous inspiration, synthesis, concepting, prototyping, and creating assets that help our clients adopt and champion the deliverables we create for them. They help educate other designers on what Org Design is and bring them in as important collaborators. Senior Designers are responsible for delivering great content and contributing to collective team success.

Design Leads are frequently project leaders. They are responsible for leading one client project at a time, together with a team of three to five IDEO designers. Project leads at IDEO have a significant amount of freedom and responsibility. Their job is to deliver great work to the client, build a trusting relationship, and foster a creative and productive environment for the team. Design Leads also contribute to the development of IDEO's business by joining new client conversations and developing existing relationships.

In the past, we’ve helped clients address some of the following design challenges.

• How might we develop the future capabilities, competencies, and critical roles that will enable an organization’s 5-10 year business strategies?
• How might we establish and evolve minimum viable organizations in line with minimum viable products or services?

You can read about our organizational design case studies here .

What does IDEO offer you?

IDEO is a place unlike any other. It’s a place where you can solve diverse, complex challenges for our clients or the organization, alongside thoughtful, intelligent individuals who lead with curiosity, empathy, and optimism. Sure we work hard, but we also intentionally craft moments that allow our community to pause, create, and connect. We encourage our community to bring their whole selves to work, respect the need for work-life balance, and allow for autonomy in the design process and your career.

Relevant Experience and Mindsets

Your role as an Organizational Designer will vary from project to project, relationship to relationship, but will likely include some of the activities listed below. Successful candidates should have relevant past experience that will enable you to do some or all of the following:

• Crafting a research plan consisting of interviews and analogous inspiration to understand an organization’s working dynamics and surface opportunity areas and new ideas for change
• Shaping and acting on change strategies that start small and soon, but lead to long-term impact at scale
• Developing experimental approaches for our clients to prototype new ways of working in their organization
• Designing internal tools or processes that address strategic and organizational issues and foster new ways of working
• Managing a product or service design project, including scope, timelines, budgets and client expectations, all with an eye for organizational change
• Developing new operating models, competency and capability models, and career journey frameworks for companies in times of rapid talent change
• Helping to shape IDEO’s perspective on organizational design. We like to push the edge in all aspects of our work, and we are building our own perspective on how to activate change within organizations

We’d be excited if you have:

• Three to seven years of organizational design and strategic experience working on innovation in large business and corporate environments; however, if you believe that you have analogous experience in other organizational environments that is equally relevant, we welcome your application!
• Demonstrated fluency as a practitioner (not just a facilitator) of human-centered design

Bonus points if you’ve:

• Successfully launched and/or led a corporate innovation lab or program
• Rolled out digital transformation strategies and/or agile development methods at scale
• Worked in corporate strategy, business operations, or strategy consulting
• Applied behavioral economics principles in past projects
• Been able to share stories of design solutions that have influenced new ways of working within an organization.
• Led or been part of corporate ethnography/anthropology programs or initiatives

Commitment to Diversity

At IDEO, we are committed to the work of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within our organization and in the world. Our purpose of having disproportionate, world-changing impact through design is directly connected to our ability to bring many different perspectives to the table. This applies to our candidates, the people we hire, the clients and customers we serve, and the communities we learn from in our research.

As a human-centered organization, we are committed to working with and designing for people of every race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socio-economic status, physical ability or attribute, religion, national origin, or political belief. We recognize that this commitment requires ongoing work and sustained attention, as well as adaptation to new insights and best practices. Read our most recently updated Commitments to further Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at IDEO here .

Application Instructions

Please apply with a resume and cover letter (yes, we read them!). In your cover letter, please tell us more about your interest in IDEO and in the Organization Design Lead role, notably where you see alignment between your experience and this opportunity. Please also answer this question in the space provided: What’s a company or brand that’s made organizational design choices you are inspired by? Why? [250 words or less]

Equal Opportunity Employer

IDEO is an equal opportunity employer; applicants are considered for all roles without regard to race, color, religious creed, sex, national origin, citizenship status, age, physical or mental disability, sexual orientation, marital, parental, veteran or military status, unfavorable military discharge, or any other status protected by applicable federal, state or local law.