This role is 6-month, fixed-term employment directly through IDEO.org, and is eligible for the benefits listed at the bottom of the page. For this role, we are hoping to hire on a temp-to-permanent basis. Should budgetary conditions be favorable, at the end of the 6-month employment term, our goal would be to add this role permanently to our small team. Across these 6 months, we will be as transparent and communicative as possible about conversion feasibility. 

We strongly prefer to hire someone to join us in a 2 day/wk hybrid work capacity in our San Francisco studio in the Mission District, but are open to considering someone sitting in our New York City studio in Hudson Square. We sometimes travel to co-locate with each other, our partners, and the communities we work alongside, so we’re looking for someone willing and able to travel within the U.S. (and potentially outside of the U.S.) approx. ~20% of the time.

About IDEO.org

IDEO.org is a nonprofit design studio on a mission to design a more just and inclusive world. We partner with organizations and communities to co-create products, services, and programs across health, economic opportunity, and wellbeing. Our team is nimble, collaborative, and deeply creative. We thrive on ambiguity and believe that curiosity, optimism, and human-centered design can uncover new possibilities within even the most complex challenges.

About the Role

IDEO.org is looking for a Digital Design & Strategy Lead to help us imagine and build digital products and experiences in service of a more just and inclusive world. You might call yourself a product designer, an interaction designer, a creative technologist, a prototyper, a systems designer, a digital designer, a UX designer, or an AI tinkerer. On any given day, you can shift seamlessly from shaping product strategy alongside communities for a new digital service, to prototyping in Claude Code, to thinking through pixel-perfect user flows. Curious about the type of work you’d do in this role? This recent case study of our work with the National Domestic Workers Alliance is a great example. 

We’re a build-to-think culture. That means the ideal candidate is a maker at heart. You’d rather prototype an idea than describe it; you’re comfortable moving between strategy and execution, and you actively experiment with new technologies to understand what they make possible. You also bring a thoughtful point of view about how technology should be designed responsibly, particularly in partnership with communities that are too often left out of its development.

As a Lead, you’ll be deeply embedded in the work. You’ll be both contributing directly through your craft, and simultaneously leading projects and workstreams, working alongside partners, communities, and a handful of multidisciplinary teammates to build trust, share power, and co-create outstanding work together

Responsibilities

Deliver excellent design work:

• Lead UX and digital design work end-to-end, from research and product strategy through prototyping, testing, and implementation, taking accountability for the quality and delivery of the work.
• Make the work tangible, using different visual expression formats to explore ideas, test assumptions, and communicate possibilities quickly.   
• Build confidence through prototyping, starting with low fidelity prototypes and working your way to higher fidelity through iteration.
• Set clear creative and product direction, translating human-centered research insights into strategies, experiences, systems, and interfaces.
• Incorporate emerging technologies, including AI, both as a material for the experiences we design and as a tool for how we design them.
• Design technology responsibly, working deeply with communities and considering questions of access, trust, bias, transparency, privacy, and user agency from the start.
• Collaborate across disciplines, working alongside service designers, communication designers, business designers, business strategists, researchers, and others to create holistic solutions.

Support and enable our partners:

• Build trusted relationships with partners and communities we work with, creating the conditions for collaboration, co-design, and shared ownership.
• Steward the work, making thoughtful decisions across creative ambition, scope, timelines, budget, team capacity, and partner needs.
• Contribute to new opportunities, bringing UX, product, and emerging technology expertise to proposals, scopes, pitches, and conversations with partners.

Support and nurture our community. This means:

• Strengthen our creative community, sharing what you’re learning, giving useful feedback, and helping teammates grow through the work.
• Bring a point of view on emerging tech, helping IDEO.org play at the frontiers of AI and technologies while keeping people centered in everything we do.

Qualifications

• Though not a requirement for the role, if a helpful reference, we generally see mid-career designers with 5-7 years of relevant professional experience succeed at IDEO.org’s Lead level.
• A strong portfolio of digital products, services, or experiences that demonstrates depth in UX, interaction design, product strategy, prototyping, and/or digital systems design. Within this, demonstrated experience using AI in the process and the products you’ve built.
• Experience working on non-profit/social impact challenges alongside partners and communities most impacted, centering their agency both in the process and the outcome.
• Experience leading projects (or significant workstreams), and guiding multidisciplinary teams through complex, ambiguous challenges.
• Experience working on multidisciplinary teams, where sometimes you lead, and sometimes you support projects in crafts that are not your own. 
• The ability to move fluidly between strategic thinking and hands-on making, from rough prototypes to clear, compelling experiences.
• A build-first mindset and comfort delivering low- and high-fidelity prototypes.
• Deep fluency in translating research and human-centered insights into product and design decisions.
• Proficiency with contemporary design and prototyping tools (e.g., Figma, Figma Make, Adobe Creative Suite, Claude Code, Codex, Framer, Linear), with genuine curiosity about emerging tools and technologies.
• Clear communication skills, sound judgment, and the ability to surface challenges and make thoughtful tradeoffs as the work evolves.
• A collaborative approach to leadership: you create room for others to contribute their strengths while helping the team maintain a strong creative ambition.
• You think about and actively work toward applying your craft toward making the world a more just, equitable, and joyful place.

Spanish-language fluency is a plus.

Application Instructions

To apply, please submit your resume, responses to the application questions below, and your portfolio (web, slide deck, PDF, or Figma file format). Your portfolio should include at least three examples of recent digital design work (previous 3 years), and feature how you use AI tooling in your design process. 

Pay & Benefits

IDEO.org values pay transparency to enable jobseekers to make informed and empowered choices with their time and effort. The annualized salary range associated with a Design Lead is $100,000 – 115,000 with participation in benefits, including medical, dental, vision, paid vacation, sick time, and holidays.

Wondering where you might land within this range? The exact salary for a role ultimately depends on many factors, including peer data within our organization and a candidate’s level of direct and relevant experience. During your interview process, your recruiter will discuss level and salary with you to help you understand how we make equitable pay and level decisions at IDEO.org.