Associate Experience Design Director

Title: Associate Experience Design Director

Location:

Chicago - Hybrid

Employment Type

Full time

Location Type

Hybrid

Department

Experience Design

Compensation

• Associate Experience Design DirectorEstimated base salary depending on experience and qualifications. $170K – $180K

Department: Experience Design

Job Description:

All applicants must include a link to their portfolio or attach work samples.
IA Collaborative is seeking an Associate Director of Experience Design who will serve as a strategic leader in our Experience Design discipline. Experience designers at IA Collaborative are masters of their craft in user experience design, guided by an unwavering commitment to human-centered practices and strategic thinking.

At the forefront of user-centered design that creates business value, we live and work at the leading edge of Artificial Intelligence and other emerging technologies; at the intersection of design and business; of creativity and strategy. Join our team to support current clients in user experience and digital transformation strategy, service design, digital product design, and enterprise application design.

Responsibilities:

• Lead multidisciplinary teams across all phases of digital projects from strategy to design to production and launch and also dig into executing work with the team

• Define approaches and processes, partnering with other team leads, to deliver successful projects that are creative, compelling, and impactful for our client’s business

• Understand current trends in digital design and business and bring strategic thinking to insights and solutions

• Take a lead role in new business pitches, proposal development, and project initiation

• Deliver distinctive client service and authentic client experiences to build long-term relationships that grow the business

• Develop new initiatives to create opportunities to advance an open and inclusive environment that empowers team members and develops the culture of IA Collaborative

• Contribute to the future vision of the discipline, including skill development to ensure we continue to have the capabilities required to meet our clients’ needs   

• Know the Business of the Business: Act as a steward of IA Collaborative’s overall business by exploring future possibilities for the organization including new offerings and capabilities, talent acquisition, thought leadership, and other business growth-oriented activities.

Required Qualifications: 

• Eight or more years of UI/UX design experience, preferably within a design firm or digital agency, including experience with:

  • User research that can be translated into strategy, concepts and design decisions

  • Business strategy for digital projects at multiple scale

  • A range of methodologies for digital project engagements

  • Leading teams through complex engagements with enterprise clients

  • Hosting and structuring successful client ideation and prioritization work sessions

• Experience leading business development efforts for both existing clients and new prospects

• Experience driving organizational initiatives, including team management, talent recruitment, and overall office culture

• Experience leveraging AI tools within the design process 

• Experience designing for AI tools and interfaces

• Passion for contributing to thought leadership, public speaking and community outreach

• Ability to work from our Chicago HQ and onsite with clients/in the field, per our IA Collaborative Work Model policy

   

About the Experience Design Team

Experience designers at IA Collaborative create experiences for people through their engagement with products, services, and platforms. Employing our user-driven design approach, we translate insights and strategy into tangible experiences that meet business objectives and delight users. As digital innovators, we thrive on an iterative design process and explore emerging platforms and novel applications; as digital leaders, we guide organizations through transformation.

Our team thrives in a fast-paced, challenging, multidisciplinary and highly collaborative environment. We welcome new tools and processes, diverse perspectives and backgrounds, and challenges that demand unconventional thinking to push the boundaries of our discipline.

 

IA Collaborative Work Model

IA Collaborative leverages a hybrid work model, with Chicagoland-area team members working from our downtown headquarters three days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday) with additional in-office days as needed.

 

Work Authorization

All applicants must be authorized to work in the United States; IA Collaborative will not sponsor applicants for employment visas.

 

About IA Collaborative

IA Collaborative is a global design and innovation consultancy focused on leading the forefront of behavioral insight, applied AI, and business innovation. We partner with the world’s most ambitious organizations to realize new growth, accelerate cultures of innovation, and create breakthrough products, platforms, and experiences. Our teams lead from insight to action – designing experiences that enhance lives, building collaborative intelligence that reinvents how we work, and launching offerings that impact the future of human experience.

IA is on the national and global stage speaking about the business value of design. Featured by Fast Company as one of the country’s preeminent design thinkers and nominated by the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum as a “Design Visionary,” IA’s leadership and work has been profiled by prominent business publications and has received multiple design accolades, including Best Design North America and Best UX Design in Fast Company’s Innovation by Design Awards; the SXSW Business Design Award; and multiple honors in the Red Dot International, International Design Excellence Awards (IDSA), the GOOD DESIGN Awards, and the iF World Design Awards. IA Collaborative works with the world’s most successful brands, including FedEx, Allstate, Airbnb, Fidelity, Apple, Johnson & Johnson, Nike, Lilly, and Audi.

At IA Collaborative, we are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace. We believe that welcoming a diverse variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills to our organization contributes to a thriving culture, a vibrant community, and breakthrough work. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristics protected by federal, state, or local law.