Who are we looking for?
We are looking for a seasoned Design Strategist with international work experience to join a team of enthusiastic designers, researchers and changemakers from around the world. Ideally you are someone that is a rock star managing innovation projects, conducting field research, building strategic designs, prototyping and testing activities, and isn’t afraid to make a difference.
This role is based out of our Phnom Penh, Cambodia office and requires the candidate to be located and have the right to work there on their start date.
The current 12 person team members at the iDE Innovation Lab, located in different countries, have all been working together for a number of years, so this is a rare opportunity to join a well established team working on a broad range of projects in Asia and Africa with a social innovation focus.
Who will you be working for?
You will be working with the non-profit iDE Innovation Lab with a mission to champion an integrated approach to innovation that drives lasting impact for iDE’s multi-sectoral programs.
The iDE Innovation Lab also functions as a strategy and innovation consultancy working in focus areas of water, sanitation & hygiene, climate change (clean energy, conservation), agriculture, and maternal health & nutrition. Over the years we have worked with a portfolio of international development organizations such as Care International, Hellen Keller, USAID, UNICEF, World Bank Group, Plant and Food Research, Save the Children, and SNV.
We are in the mission of driving lasting, impactful change through a market systems approach and human centered design methodologies, so we are looking for a world class expert in design and innovation to join our multidisciplinary and multicultural team to solve development challenges.
iDE is a global non-profit organization spanning offices in 14 countries, employing over 1,000 people directly, and indirectly enabling income, and opportunities for our rural audience of focus through market-based approaches across different sectors. Find out more about iDE here!
What you will be doing:
- Leading multiple end to end social innovation projects, which include:
- Project & client management, collaborating and managing peers throughout the process
- Building a project plan, meeting deadlines, and delegating tasks
- Conducting desk research, expert interviews, designing research plans required to solve the design problem we want to tackle
- Conducting ethnographic research in diverse contexts
- Synthesizing findings and presenting them in digestible and visual ways for the client
- Coming up with actionable ideas and strategies that are easy to operationalise for the client
- Engaging with stakeholders, leading and facilitating alignment meetings and strategy workshops
- Running fun and engaging co-creation/brainstorming workshops in the field and in the office
- Building and developing prototypes and testing loops that will inform the design of the final solution (strategy, product, digital product, businesses or services)
- Making confident and timely decisions in order to move the project forward
- Inspiring your peers within iDE to apply innovation methodologies and approaches in their programmes
- Establishing and nurturing client relationships
- Supporting proposal writing and business development efforts
Requirements
Your experience level:
- Someone with at least 6 years of experience working for an international design firm/innovation lab or design consultancy
- Background (sociologist, design, product/industrial designer, engineer, etc)
- Someone passionate about empathetic design
- Someone driven by making meaningful solutions to solve complex development problems.
- Experience working in different countries, across diverse cultural environments, or remote areas
The type of experience that we are looking for:
- Solid experience managing projects and co-team members (great time management skills and people management skills)
- Experience in applying various innovation methodologies to project (human centered design, behaviour change methodologies, behavioural economics, rapid prototyping and testing)
- Experience with conducting ethnographic research in diverse contexts
- Experience in synthesizing large amounts of qualitative data into a digestible and visual story
- Experience in converting research findings into actionable strategies that are easy to operationalise
- Visual design or product design skills
- Experience in developing creative directions and communicating this effectively with a client and team
- Experience in facilitating offline and online workshops (HCD, co-creations, stakeholder alignments)
- Experience in presenting in front of large audiences
- Skilled in using Adobe Creative Suite and other design software like Mural
- Skilled using project management tools like Clickup or Asana
- High proficiency in English reading, writing and speaking
Bonus points if you have:
- A business/marketing background, or experience supporting entrepreneurs
- Experience in product/service development
- Experience working on digital solutions (UX Design, ICT tools)
Ideally, we would love to find someone that:
- Is highly professional, responsible and accountable for
- Is passionate, positive, dynamic, curious and caring person
- Is an autonomous problem-solver with a mind full of ideas ready to be tested
- Is driven by a social mission
- Has cultural sensitivity and respect towards unfamiliar contexts
- Has a flexible mindset, is agile and adaptive, and at the same time takes into account their capacity, deadlines and limitations
- Has excellent time management skills
- Can embrace uncertainty and manage stress
- Is able to challenge the status quo in order to create creative solutions
Benefits
We cover:
- Our intention is to pay our staff a competitive salary benchmarked with market pay scales, and commensurate with experience. In addition, we will cover both health and accident insurance.
The annual salary range for this position is $40,000 to $50,000.
Diversity Statement:
iDE takes pride in our talented and diverse workforce. Minorities, women, and individuals with disabilities are encouraged to apply. Hiring, promotion, and compensation of employees are conducted without regard to race, color, religion, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, disability, or age.
