Senior Designer, Visual Interaction Design

In a nutshell:

We’re looking for a Senior Visual Interaction Designer to join our Cambridge Studio who is passionate about crafting elegant, thoughtful user experiences, and who brings strong visual design craft to the interactions people have with complex design systems, software, services, and each other.

Senior Visual Interaction Designers at IDEO shape how experiences look, feel, and behave. In this role, you’ll translate human-centered insights into clear, compelling interactions and interfaces that are functional, expressive, and meaningful. You’ll balance visual excellence with usability, and bring a distinct visual voice to each design challenge while learning and growing alongside a multidisciplinary team.

This is a phenomenal opportunity for designers who are highly self-guided, eager to take on complexity, and motivated to continually sharpen their craft.

Once here you will:

• Contribute to a diverse portfolio of projects spanning data, experience, interaction, digital product, and service design across a range of industries
• Work across all phases of a project, from research synthesis and concepting through prototyping, refinement, and production-ready execution
• Translate human-centered insights into interaction models, visual systems, and polished digital interfaces
• Create “looks-like / works-like” prototypes to explore ideas, test assumptions, and communicate concepts to teammates and client stakeholders
• Collaborate closely with designers from different backgrounds—including design research, business design, industrial design, and communication design—to develop cohesive, holistic experiences
• Design across a wide variety of mediums and contexts, such as mobile apps, AI experiences, websites, digital/physical systems, room-scale displays, AR/VR, or voice interfaces, always guided by user needs and context
• Advocate for high-quality visual and interaction design, contributing to a culture of strong craft, curiosity, and experimentation

Design Craft + Relevant Experience

• Relevant experience and/or educational background required in visual, interaction, or graphic design across digital products or experiences
• A strong portfolio demonstrating visual excellence, thoughtful interaction design, and a clear point of view on typography, color, layout, and motion
• Comfort working at multiple levels of fidelity, from rough explorations to refined, production-ready designs
• Experience in delivering low and high fidelity prototypes.
• Proficiency with contemporary design and prototyping tools (e.g., Figma, Adobe Creative Suite, Framer, Principle), with curiosity about emerging tools and technologies
• Familiarity with motion, code, or physical computing (e.g., HTML/CSS, After Effects, Processing/P5, Arduino) is a plus, but not required

Mindset

• Systems-oriented thinker who can engage with complex, interconnected challenges and design for clarity within them
• Highly self-guided: able to take initiative, manage your own work, and move ideas forward with limited direction
• Curious and experimental, with a willingness to try things, learn from failure, and iterate quickly
• Strong collaborator who contributes thoughtfully to team discussions and is open to feedback and critique
• Clear communicator with the ability to articulate design decisions visually and verbally, and an understanding of how design creates value in a broader business and organizational context

What does IDEO offer you?

IDEO is 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. 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.

Application Instructions:

To apply, please submit your resume, cover letter, and your portfolio. Your portfolio should include at least 4 examples of work-related projects. In particular, we want to hear about the processes involved in developing the designs or projects.

Payscale & Benefits

IDEO is committed to paying its employees, contractors & vendors equitably, regardless of gender identity or race/ethnicity/cultural identity.

The salary range for this role is $80,000–$100,000 USD. Final offers may vary based on candidate experience, location, and other factors. As a full-time position, this role is eligible for employee benefits.

Senior Visual Communication Designer

In a nutshell:

IDEO Shanghai is in search of a Senior Visual Communication Designer who will inspire and move both teams and clients using the craft of visual communication. 

Why is this role important for IDEO’s work?

Visual Communication Designer makes the biggest impact to solving complex challenges by helping to bring ideas to life visually. We count on them to embody the belief that Creativity can give simple, human and delightful answers to the most complex problems in the world and encourage others to be creative as well by applying design to systemic problems and making the answer visual and tangible.

Once here you will:

• Be called upon to work or consult on a wide range of things: brand identities and full brand implementation, graphics for retail spaces, packaging, workbooks and publications, rapid prototypes for consumer testing, illustrations of business ecosystems, exhibition graphics, user interfaces and even rolling your sleeves up to help create beautiful presentation decks.
• Work seamlessly with people come from diverse backgrounds to tackle complex challenge (including but not limited to Industrial Designer, Design Researcher, Business designer, Interaction Designer and Environments Designer);
• Get exposure to and involvement with all aspects of the design consultancy projects: research, inspiration gathering, brainstorm, strategy defining, concept development, prototyping etc..
• Go out in the field and build empathy with users through activities like observing the life of a cosplay model and riding a car with a professional race car driver;

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.

IDEO has been in China for over a decade and our mission is to create new value by enabling enlightened leaders to answer the right questions and to tackle systemic challenges. These can range from working with ambitious Chinese enterprises, multinationals and enterprising entrepreneurs on challenges to do with healthcare, mobility, education or food safety. Over the years, we have grown in the scale of our influence and impact, and we are now looking for talented individuals who share our mission and sense of purpose to join our vibrant and dynamic Shanghai location.

Some previous projects to check out:

Society of Grownups: A storefront designed to connect the MassMutual brand to young adults through focusing on their money-spending habits over great food and conversation.

Pill Pack: An IDEO startup-in-residence. We helped build a venturing strategy for its prescription home-delivery system. IDEO refined the company's brand vision, strategy, and identity across channels and used this framework to redesign PillPack’s website and private dashboard for customers.

Relevant experience and mindset:

• Design craft: successful candidates will bring a wide range of experiences in multiple fields within communication design including: Brand Identity, Editorial Design, Information Graphics, Typography, Packaging Design, Exhibition Design.
• Diverse experience: you have been in the creative industry for minimum 5 years, and have worked on a variety of industries and projects, preferably had experience in different international markets.
• Career Aspirations: You’re looking for a place that will challenge your curiosity. You want to blur the edges of your craft in an environment where you will constantly be learning from others and doing work that will have real impact in the world.
• Culture: you are comfortable working in an ambiguous and dynamic environment and comfortable with non- hierarchical organizations.
• Language: you are fluent in both Mandarin and English.

Application requirements and instructions:

Is this you? If so, please apply with your CV, portfolio and a cover letter, to help us understand why this role is the right one for you.

In a nutshell:

IDEO (Shanghai) is in search of a Senior Industrial Designer who will create product designs and experiences that have a genuine impact on people’s lives, can generate ideas quickly without a lot of parameters, and lead clients and teams through the industrial design phase of a project.

Why is this role important for IDEO’s work?

A Senior Industrial Designer makes the biggest impact by strengthening the Industrial Design point of view at IDEO through work across a range of projects, from product interaction to software tools and applications to the web. Their skillset is critical to our business because they are able to work across disciplines, bringing their perspective to every project.  We count on them to create tangible design expressions, and communicate the essence of these ideas.

Once here you will:

•     Work with people that come from diverse backgrounds (like design researchers, communication designers, business designers, and interaction designers)
•     Get exposure to and involved with all aspects of the design process: user research, brainstorming, concept development, prototyping, working with engineers and manufacturers and design stewardship
•     Go out in the field and build empathy with a user through activities
•     Become a part of a culture that lets you both learn and teach while working with people outside of your immediate area of expertise

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.

Some previous projects to check out:

Kobo Aura: Designed two new eReaders that would exceed the expectations of readers who are truly passionate about the written word.  Both eReaders build on a strong, tactile experience, one that feels like a hardcover book.

Wayne Helix: A globally consistent design language and manufacturing approach for a new family of fuel dispensers that positively impact the lives of distributors, retailers, service technicians, and motorists worldwide. 

Brooks Cambium: Brooks England turned to IDEO to design its first new bike saddle in decades, it was essential that the design pay respect to the company’s heritage.  The Cambium C17 won a Eurobike Gold Award upon launch in 2013.

Node Chair: A reconfigurable, mobile swivel chair designed for today’s high-density classrooms, the Node was created in collaboration with Steelcase as part of their effort to bring campus classrooms up to speed with current teaching and learning styles.

Relevant experience and mindset:

•     You have knowledge of manufacturing processes and working closely with engineers, delivering engineering drawings and specifying CMF (colors, material, and finishes)
•     You have excellent storytelling and narrative skills especially around your craft as well as outstanding communication, presentation, and design team collaboration skill
•     You have strong visualization skills: from quick concept sketching to complete presentation sketches, 3D CAD modeling (Solidworks, Rhino, Fusion 360 or similar programs) to rendering (Keyshot, Cinema 4D or other similar programs).
•     Experience using Adobe Suite, CAD, and Grasshopper for Rhino or equivalent would be a plus.

Pop quiz, Hot Shot:

Please include your answer to the following question in your cover letter.

If you could redesign any object or experience: what would it be, why should it be redesigned, how might you make it better, what would be your design approach?

Application requirements and instructions:

To apply, please submit your resume, cover letter, portfolio and pop quiz answer. Your portfolio should include at least 4 examples of work-related projects. In particular, we want to hear about the process involved in developing the design or project.  Bonus points if you include 2-3 projects you have worked on for fun.    

Business Development Director

In a nutshell:

IDEO Chicago is looking for a Director of Growth to expand our client portfolio and build a strong pipeline of ambitious, meaningful human-centered design work.

Your role is to help us win the right work, build enduring relationships, and create consistent momentum in the market. You’ll identify opportunities, develop early-stage relationships, shape them into real pursuits, and help others do the same.

This role requires both doing and enabling. You’ll personally initiate conversations and generate new business, while also strengthening the systems and habits that make growth a shared responsibility across the studio. 

We believe business development is a team sport. You’ll work closely with Chicago studio leadership, our Chicago Business Development Lead, the Global Head of Growth, and other BD leaders across IDEO. As Growth Director, you’ll help shape the future of IDEO Chicago — the clients we serve, the challenges we take on, and how we show up in the world.

Once here you will:

Set direction and drive execution

• Partner with studio and global leadership to clarify growth priorities, focus areas, and goals
• Translate strategy into a focused growth plan for the studio
• Maintain visibility into progress and adjust where needed

Generate new leads and start conversations

• Proactively identify and reach out to prospective clients in priority sectors
• Build and maintain a strong external network in Chicago and beyond
• Represent IDEO at events and conferences — and create opportunities for others to do the same
• Turn informal conversations into qualified early-stage opportunities
• Activate the broader studio — equipping design and portfolio leaders with tools, messaging, and systems that support proactive growth

Developing and landing new business

• Partner closely with design leaders to shape opportunities from first conversation through signed contract
• Help determine where to invest energy for the highest impact

Strengthen key client relationships

• Partner with Client Relationship Leads to develop account plans that deepen trust and surface new opportunities
• Maintain a clear view of early-stage relationships and ensure consistent follow-up
• Support Directors in reconnecting with former clients or reframing stalled relationships
• Identify whitespace within existing accounts and help turn it into new work

Build growth capability in the studio

• Model effective growth behaviors and coach others to do the same
• Strengthen the systems and rhythms that support proactive business development
• Foster a culture of proactivity, curiosity, and follow-through

Relevant Experiences + Skills:

• Demonstrated experience leading business development, growth, or client partnerships within consulting, design, innovation, or adjacent industries
• A strong ability to identify opportunities, build relationships, and translate early conversations into meaningful work
• Experience developing and managing a pipeline from early outreach through proposal and contract
• Confidence partnering with senior leaders and cross-disciplinary teams to shape pursuits and close new business
• A well-developed professional network, ideally within Chicago and/or priority industry sectors
• Skill in communicating complex ideas clearly, crafting compelling narratives, and positioning creative work with clients
• Experience supporting account growth and long-term client relationships, including identifying new opportunities within existing partnerships
• Comfort operating both strategically and tactically, setting direction while also executing day-to-day outreach and relationship building
• A collaborative mindset and the ability to activate others around growth, coaching teams and building shared ownership of business development
• Curiosity about human-centered design and innovation, and excitement about bringing these approaches to organizations tackling meaningful challenges

Some previous projects to check out:

• Introducing LA’s mental health crisis first responders
• Disrupting the beauty goliaths
• Culture as catalyst
• Reintroducing The Lawrence Hall of Science
• Transforming sick days with play

What does IDEO offer you?

IDEO is a place where you can solve diverse, complex challenges for our clients and their organizations, alongside thoughtful, intelligent individuals who lead with curiosity, empathy, and humility. We 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.

Payscale & Benefits

IDEO is committed to paying its employees, contractors & vendors equitably, regardless of gender identity or race/ethnicity/cultural identity.

The salary range for this role is $130,000–$180,000 USD. Final offers may vary based on candidate experience, location, and other factors. As a full-time position, this role is eligible for employee benefits.

Payroll & Benefits Administrator

In a nutshell:

At IDEO, we use design to create new products, services, experiences, tangible strategies, and creative capabilities. As the Payroll & Benefits Administrator on our Talent team, you will be a steady engine behind the employee experience. In this role, you will ensure our payroll, retirement, and benefits programs run accurately, compliantly, and with care. You will partner closely with People and Finance to manage biweekly payroll, 401(k) administration, open enrollment, reporting, and global mobility logistics—bringing both rigor and empathy to the details that matter most.

Once here you will:

• Manage biweekly payroll processing, ensuring accuracy and timeliness within ADP
• Oversee W2 preparation and year-end payroll activities
• Conduct NDX testing and support payroll compliance audits
• Execute and review quarterly payroll adjustments
• Administer our 401k program, including enrollments, compliance testing, and vendor coordination
• Lead operational execution of open enrollment, partnering on communications and education
• Support global mobility processes for employees relocating across markets
• Partner with the Finance team on payroll-related financial reporting, reconciliations, and forecasting inputs
• Identify opportunities to streamline systems and improve clarity across compensation and benefits processes
• Monthly benefits billing reconciliation
• Manage expense report approvals 
• Ad hoc projects as needed

Relevant experiences/skills:

• Experience managing biweekly payroll with accuracy and care, ideally using ADP or a similar system
• Working knowledge of U.S. payroll compliance, including W-2 preparation and year-end activities
• Experience administering 401(k) and employee benefits programs, including enrollments and vendor coordination
• Comfort supporting open enrollment operations and benefits billing reconciliation
• Ability to partner with Talent and Finance on payroll reporting, reconciliations, and adjustments
• Experience maintaining audit readiness and payroll compliance processes
• Strong attention to detail and the ability to manage multiple operational workflows simultaneously
• A collaborative, service-oriented approach when working across People, Finance, and external partners
• Curiosity and initiative to improve systems and streamline payroll and benefits processes

Key mindsets:

• Detail as craft — You understand that precision builds trust.
• Systems thinker — You see payroll and benefits as interconnected ecosystems, not transactions.
• Calm under deadlines — Quarter-end and year-end moments don’t rattle you.
• Human-centered operator — You balance compliance with empathy.
• Collaborative partner — You move fluidly between People, Finance, and external vendors.

What does IDEO offer you?

IDEO is a place where you can solve diverse, complex challenges for our clients and their organizations, alongside thoughtful, intelligent individuals who lead with curiosity, empathy, and humility. We 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.

Payscale & Benefits

IDEO is committed to paying its employees, contractors & vendors equitably, regardless of gender identity or race/ethnicity/cultural identity.

The salary range for this role is $80,000–$90,000 USD. Final offers may vary based on candidate experience, location, and other factors. As a full-time position, this role is eligible for employee benefits.

Senior Visual Communication Designer

In a nutshell:

Visual Communication Designers at IDEO make the biggest impact through visual storytelling. They work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams to bring ideas, research, strategy, and stories to life through strong craft execution.

The ideal candidate has a strong foundation in graphic design and experience applying practical and conceptual design principles across brand expression, interaction and digital product experiences, motion, and storytelling. We’re looking for designers who bring a distinct visual voice, curiosity, and a commitment to craft excellence.

In this role, you will… 

In this role, you’ll work you'll work on a single multidisciplinary team that focuses on Entertainment and Technology and tackle all aspects of the design process from user research to physical prototyping and communicating the overall project story to the client team.You’ll have the opportunity to work on projects that span data, experience, interaction, digital product, and service design. Your contributions may take on a variety of forms including brand expression, storytelling, information, motion, packaging, interface, wayfinding, and environmental design. You will work closely on strategic communications helping transform complex data, systems, and ideas into visuals and narratives that are intuitive, engaging, and actionable. 

Relevant experiences/skills:

• Relevant experience and/or educational background required in communications design, graphic design, or a closely related discipline, gained in a studio, agency, or in-house environment
• A strong foundation in visual design craft, including typography, layout, composition, color, and systems thinking
• Experience designing across multiple mediums, such as brand and brand expression, information design, digital and interactive experiences, motion, and presentation design
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex ideas, data, and strategies into clear, compelling visual narratives
• Comfort working from early concepting and synthesis through execution, refinement, and delivery
• Experience collaborating closely with multidisciplinary teams
• Confidence in explaining design decisions, and using storytelling to align teams and move projects forward
• High level of self-direction, organization, and accountability

Once here you will:

• Partner closely with a single, long-term Entertainment and Technology client, contributing to the ongoing evolution of their brand, platforms, and experiences over time
• Set the visual design direction of projects through exploration, strategy, graphic design, and storytelling
• Design environments, experiences, websites, apps, and combined digital and physical experiences with the end user in mind
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary designers with backgrounds such as industrial design, interaction design, business design, and mechanical engineering to solve problems
• Work through all phases of a project, from translating verbal ideas into rough visual concepts to creating production-ready artwork, to create looks like/works like prototypes of different levels of fidelity to help teams determine design direction
• Create compelling visual narratives that communicate user stories and our strategic solutions
• Be an advocate for exceptional visual design elevating craft, clarity, and coherence while working within complex systems, constraints, and timelines

Some previous projects to check out: 

• Enhancing garment worker well-being with AI
• Redefining retail in Mexico
• Teaching robots to dance
• Hot Sauce Success

Key mindsets:

• Collaborative and adaptable: able to navigate team dynamics, timelines, and client contexts while delivering exceptional design
• Growth oriented and resilient: open to feedback, eager to iterate, and comfortable learning through experimentation and critique
• Curious and proactive: able to generate ideas, take initiative, and contribute wherever needed, from early exploration to final delivery

What does IDEO offer you?

IDEO is a place where you can solve diverse, complex challenges for our clients and their organizations, alongside thoughtful, intelligent individuals who lead with curiosity, empathy, and humility. We 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. 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. 

In this role, you’ll have the opportunity to work deeply with a single Entertainment and Technology client over time. Rather than moving quickly between projects, you’ll build sustained context, developing a nuanced understanding of the client’s strategy, systems, audiences, and organizational dynamics. This depth will enable you to contribute not just to design outcomes, but to strategic thinking, long-term vision, and the evolution of ideas as they move from concept to reality.

Payscale & Benefits

IDEO is committed to paying its employees, contractors & vendors equitably, regardless of gender identity or race/ethnicity/cultural identity.

The salary range for this role is $80,000–$100,000 USD. Final offers may vary based on candidate experience, location, and other factors. As a full-time position, this role is eligible for employee benefits.

SF Organizational Design Lead

When organizations decide to do something they’ve never done before — develop a new offer, integrate emerging technology, reinvent their operating model, redefine leadership expectations, or shift long-standing mindsets and norms — they rarely need more slides. They need the confidence to act that comes from a clear plan and shared momentum.

At IDEO, we help our clients navigate toward action when they’re doing something new. We work at the messy, high-stakes intersection of ambition and reality — translating bold strategy into tangible structures, rituals, behaviors, and systems that actually work in the day-to-day.

As an Organizational Design Lead, you’ll help organizations activate their purpose, shift behaviors, and deliver meaningful results — from the boardroom to the break room to the front line. The right person for this role has led large-scale transformation from within an organization, believes in fit-for-purpose organizational design and exceptional employee experiences as drivers of business impact, and can turn workforce insights and future signals into tangible organizational prototypes that spark real change. They quickly understand what makes an organization unique — and know how to pull the right structural, cultural, and talent levers to make change real and successful.

This role is a rare blend of systems thinker, change catalyst, and grounded operator. You’ll help organizations redesign how work gets done — aligning strategy, structure, talent, and culture so people can move forward with clarity, confidence, and shared purpose. You’ll do this as part of a deeply multidisciplinary team — partnering with experts in areas like design research, visual communication, experience design, and beyond — giving you creative leverage and problem-solving range that simply isn’t possible elsewhere.

In a nutshell:

Organizational Designers help IDEO’s clients turn business ambition into organizational reality. We assess the gap between where an organization is today and the outcomes it aims to achieve — then design the necessary shifts in strategy, structure, processes, culture, incentives, and talent to close that gap. What makes IDEO different is that our work doesn’t end in a deck. We prototype the future with our clients — testing ideas in action, learning quickly, iterating deliberately, and building the confidence needed to scale change.

The following are examples of what this has looked like in the recent past:

• Identifying and testing key strategic assumptions in practice to validate and iterate before scaling
• Crafting tangible futures and implementation roadmaps that turn ambition into action
• Redefining how teams work together in the AI era
• Co-creating operating models and ways of working aligned to new business realities
• Building onboarding and learning experiences that more quickly unlock new mindsets and skills
• Prototyping talent systems like new career pathways, innovation functions, and cross-functional collaboration models
• Building a new innovation function from the ground up and measuring its success as innovation projects run through it

Once here you will:

Lead complex client work with craft and care

You'll serve as a designer and consultant, fully deployed to lead multidisciplinary projects that deliver bold organizational outcomes. You’ll lead teams and clients through ambiguity with clarity, while holding a high bar for creative excellence. 

Stay on the edge of your craft

Through the work, internal and external learning opportunities, and your own initiative, you’ll continue to grow your own and IDEO’s thought leadership on the next evolution of must-have innovation capabilities and the future of creative teams and leadership.

Project lead with confidence

Design Leads at IDEO frequently lead one client relationship and project at a time, steering interdisciplinary teams through all phases of work — from research and synthesis to prototyping and implementation. You’ll manage scope, timelines, budgets, and stakeholder relationships with transparency and rigor.

Build trusted client relationships

You’ll show up as a trusted advisor alongside other client relationship leaders, helping clients make sense of complexity, align in direction, and take action toward lasting change.

Design the systems that shape behaviors and bring strategy to life

You’ll design tangible organizational components such as:

• Org and people strategy aligned to business ambition
• Operating models, team structures, governance, and workflows
• Roles, rituals, and ways-of-working that shape culture
• Capability frameworks, learning experiences, and employee programs
• Change activators — from communication strategies to adoption tools
• Metrics and measurement systems that ensure change sticks

Mentor and elevate others

You’ll mentor emerging talent, foster inclusive team cultures, and help IDEO’s organizational design practice grow stronger through shared learning, critique, and collaboration.

Contribute to IDEO’s growth

You’ll support business development by shaping proposals, joining client conversations, and helping build lasting partnerships.

Relevant experiences/skills:

We’d love to meet you if you bring: 

• Relevant experience and/or educational background designing, activating, and leading change initiatives at scale, ideally within healthcare or technology organizations.
• Experience designing world-class talent initiatives or employee experiences that drive measurable business impact
• Experience leading complex, interdisciplinary projects
• Experience advising, coaching, or facilitating learning for senior leadership
• Experience with a human-centered design approach to work, including organizational prototyping to learn and iterate
• Strength across areas like:
• AI-enabled ways of working
• Org purpose, mission, and values activation
• Organizational structures, roles, and operating models
• Culture creation and behavior change
• Employee lifecycle design (hiring, onboarding, development)
• Learning experience and capability design
• Leading change, measurement, and storytelling
• Organizational or behavioral psychology

Key mindsets:

IDEO Org Design Leads are people who:

• Lead with curiosity and optimism
• Hold space for authenticity and psychological safety
• Embrace ambiguity (and still ship)
• Collaborate generously across disciplines
• Learn from failure and iterate forward
• Take ownership and make others successful

Some previous projects to check out:

• Moderna defines its mindsets to preserve its future.
• Ascend Public Charter Schools designs a “grown-up” vision for its young educational network.
• Intercorp launches an innovation lab to benefit Peruvians.
• How an organizational culture change is helping newbies at NYU navigate campus life.

What does IDEO offer you?

IDEO is a place where you can solve diverse, complex challenges for our clients and their organizations, alongside thoughtful, intelligent individuals who lead with curiosity, empathy, and humility. We 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.

Payscale & Benefits

IDEO is committed to paying its employees, contractors & vendors equitably, regardless of gender identity or race/ethnicity/cultural identity.

The salary range for this role is $115,000–$135,000 USD. Final offers may vary based on candidate experience, location, and other factors. As a full-time position, this role is eligible for employee benefits.

Senior Visual Communication Designer

In a nutshell:

Visual Communication Designers at IDEO make the biggest impact through visual storytelling. They work collaboratively with multidisciplinary teams to bring ideas, research, strategy, and stories to life through strong craft execution.

The ideal candidate has a strong foundation in graphic design and experience applying practical and conceptual design principles across brand expression, interaction and digital product experiences, motion, and storytelling. We’re looking for designers who bring a distinct visual voice, curiosity, and a commitment to craft excellence. 

In this role, you will… 

You’ll work as a key contributor on project teams, supporting all phases of the design process—from early exploration and prototyping through to polished, client-facing deliverables. Your work may span brand, storytelling, motion, interaction and digital product, information design, packaging, and environmental expression.

Once here you will:

• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to translate research and strategy into compelling visual narratives
• Contribute to the development and expression of brand identities across mediums
• Create looks-like/works-like prototypes at varying levels of fidelity to explore and communicate design directions
• Design thoughtful experiences across digital, physical, and hybrid touchpoints with the end user in mind
• Produce high-quality visual deliverables that communicate user stories and strategic intent working across a variety of industries (health, financial services, consumer products, etc.)
• Advocate for exceptional visual craft through making, iteration, and collaboration

Some previous projects to check out:

• Cornell Lab of Ornithology Brand
• Los Angeles County Department of Mental Health
• The Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California Berkeley
• Cities United Rebrand

Design Craft:

• Relevant experience and/or educational background required in interactive/graphic design across a variety of applications and media
• Strong portfolio demonstrating elevated design craft, typography, layout, and visual storytelling
• Extensive experience with tools such as Adobe Creative Suite and Figma
• Familiarity with motion and interaction tools (After Effects, prototyping platforms, etc.)
• Comfort collaborating in client-facing presentation environments such as Google Slides and FigJam/Figma Slides
• Curiosity and openness to experimenting with emerging mediums including 3D, motion, and AI-assisted design

Diverse Experience:

• Experience establishing and expressing brand identity, from understanding strategy through creative interpretation and execution, including: visual identities, brand systems, and guidelines for implementation
• Experience in concept ideation, design research, and prototyping, with a curiosity for learning and experimenting across visual, digital, and experiential mediums
• Ability to work across a wide range of design challenges, recognizing patterns, and translating insights into thoughtful visual solutions
• Comfort moving between exploratory and polished work, helping teams bring ideas to life through strong craft and storytelling

Key Mindsets:

• Collaborative and adaptable: able to navigate team dynamics,timelines, and client contexts while delivering exceptional design. 
• Growth oriented and resilient: open to feedback, eager to iterate, and comfortable learning through experimentation and critique
• Curious and proactive: able to generate ideas, take initiative, and contribute wherever needed, from early exploration to final delivery. 

What does IDEO offer you?

IDEO is a place where you can solve diverse, complex challenges for our clients and their organizations, alongside thoughtful, intelligent individuals who lead with curiosity, empathy, and humility. We 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.

Payscale & Benefits

IDEO is committed to paying its employees, contractors & vendors equitably, regardless of gender identity or race/ethnicity/cultural identity.

The salary range for this role is $80,000–$100,000 USD. Final offers may vary based on candidate experience, location, and other factors. As a full-time position, this role is eligible for employee benefits.

In a nutshell:

IDEO Shanghai is in search of a Visual Communication Designer/Graphic Designer who will guide, inspire and move both teams and clients using the craft of Graphic Design. 

Why is this role important for IDEO’s work?

Graphic Designer makes the biggest impact to solving complex challenges by helping to bring ideas to life visually. We count on them to art direct and deliver good design. 

Once here you will:

• Be called upon to work on a wide range of things: brand identities and full brand implementation, graphics for retail spaces, packaging, workbooks and publications, rapid prototypes for consumer testing, illustrations of business ecosystems, exhibition graphics, user interfaces and even rolling your sleeves up to help create beautiful presentation decks.
• Work seamlessly with people come from diverse backgrounds to tackle complex challenge (including but not limited to Industrial Designer, Design Researcher, Business designer and Interaction Designer); 
• Go out in the field and build empathy with users through activities like observing the life of a cosplay model and riding a car with a professional race car driver;

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.

IDEO has been in China for over a decade and our mission is to create new value by enabling enlightened leaders to answer the right questions and to tackle systemic challenges. These can range from working with ambitious Chinese enterprises, multinationals and enterprising entrepreneurs on challenges to do with healthcare, mobility, education or food safety. Over the years, we have grown in the scale of our influence and impact, and we are now looking for talented individuals who share our mission and sense of purpose to join our vibrant and dynamic Shanghai location.

Relevant experience and mindset:

• Design craft: successful candidates will bring a wide range of experiences in multiple fields within communication design including: Brand Identity, Editorial Design, Information Graphics, Typography, Packaging Design, Exhibition Design.
• Diverse experience: You have worked on a variety of industries and projects, preferably had experience in different international markets.
• Career Aspirations: You’re looking for a place that will challenge your curiosity. You want to blur the edges of your craft in an environment where you will constantly be learning from others and pushing the edge of your craft.
• Culture: you are comfortable working in an ambiguous and dynamic environment and comfortable with non- hierarchical organizations.
• Language: you are fluent in both Mandarin and English.

Application requirements and instructions:

Is this you? If so, please apply with your CV, portfolio and a cover letter, to help us understand why this role is the right one for you.