What we're looking for...

We're in search of a seasoned Senior Strategic Designer, ideally based in Sydney, to lead our team and clients through immersive, people-centered design processes. Your expertise lies in deciphering the intricate needs of both individuals and organisations, crafting nuanced digital, product and service strategies that create meaningful change.

At your core, you're a designer dedicated to tackling complex challenges head-on. Your toolkit spans human-centered and strategic design, enabling you to navigate diverse environments and sectors with confidence. You enjoy helping individuals and organisations to thrive by uncovering insights and new directions.

Strategic Designers at Folk:

• Bring together user research findings and detailed business requirements to develop strategies and approaches to product and service design that capture opportunities for organisations.
• Provide recommendations on technology platforms, stacks or specifications to improve an organisation’s product or service ecosystem.
• Develop actionable roadmaps or plans to support implementation of strategies for clients.
• Translate strategy into detailed design through collaboration with product designers, user interface designers and developers.
• Have deep knowledge and understand of human-centred design and UX research methodologies from a similar role in a consultancy or agency.
• Can apply HCD and UX methodologies to large- and small-scale problems and budgets.
• Are experienced in analysing both qualitative and quantitative research and connecting the dots to drawing out insights between the two.
• Have deep knowledge of best-design practice, including content design, product design and service design, to inform strategies.
• Have good knowledge of industry trends and emerging technologies and how best to apply these to the design practice and strategic client work.
• Practice excellent written and verbal communication skills (and can demonstrate this with examples) with a keen eye for detail - understanding the small stuff does matter.
• Are excellent at building strong relationships with clients, presenting work and anticipating client expectations, challenges and needs.
• Are experienced in designing and facilitating client workshops both online and in-person, to create an engaging experience that produces clear results.
• Have excellent organisational skills with the ability to multi-task and work to deadlines.
• Are mature, confident, flexible and have an open mind, with a strong desire to collaborate and contribute to studio culture.

Seniors at Folk are expected to: 

• Excel at problem identification, problem framing and collaboration.
• Play a pivotal role in problem-solving alongside Leads, aiming to prevent recurring challenges.
• Take a proactive approach which extends to supporting and mentoring fellow designers, while still effectively managing your own workload and keeping across budgets.
• Use your human-centered approach beyond design, focusing on empathetic collaboration with clients and colleagues of all backgrounds.
• Lead by example, leveraging strong and clear communication and relationship-building skills to navigate client interactions with confidence.
• Push for innovative solutions and ultimately work towards creating exceptional outcomes on every engagement.

We'd love you to have:

• Strong systems thinking and service design skills and the ability to apply this to complex problems.
• Good understand of ethnographic research approaches and how best to use these.
• Experience of planning and conducting co-design and design research with people with lived experience, and those from diverse and marginalised background.
• Experience of organisational change and large transformation projects.
• Experience aligned with our impact areas (health and wellbeing, sustainability and climate, education, justice, government and aging).

Some of the benefits of working at Folk are:

We care about the wellbeing of our team. Here are some of the benefits our team enjoys: 

• We work on projects with social purpose and impact.
• We work on big, complex challenges that impact real people.
• We have a hybrid flexible working model – work from home and come to the studio to connect and collaborate.
• We value the other important parts of your life as well – we offer flexibility for pick-ups and drop offs or sick children as well as anything else life throws at you.
• Our workplace culture encourages everyone’s input and it’s taken onboard.
• You are actively empowered to help shape the business, if you think something can be done better – tell someone.
• We want you to grow – we have a generous development budget that we encourage you to use to invest in building your skills and following your career ambitions.
• We love working with people who bring their personality, their experience, and their uniqueness to the team.
• We put the wellbeing of our staff before projects and profit – through regular check-ins and transparent communication we ensure the everyone feels safe and supported.

How to apply?

Folk is committed to building a diverse team. We actively encourage candidates with diverse backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives to join our team.

If this role appeals to you, please send us a link to your CV, LinkedIn profile or anything that demonstrates your experience – and a brief note that tells us what attracted you to the role and what excites you about the work we do to [email protected]

At Folk, we believe diversity is essential to creating the best products, services and experiences. We're proud to be an equal opportunity employer committed to diversity and inclusion – we are proud members of the Diversity Council of Australia. We do not discriminate based on race, gender, ethnicity, citizenship, national origin of employees, religion, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability. We believe that a variety of perspectives leads to innovation and success.

Acknowledgement of Country
Folk acknowledges the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands on which Folk offices are located, Gadigal and Wangal Country. We pay our respects to their cultures, and to their Elders — past, present, and emerging. 

You must be legally able to work in Australia. Only shortlisted applicants will be notified.

Apply now.