PA Consulting is an innovation and transformation consultancy that believes in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future in a technology-driven world. Our diverse teams of experts combine innovative thinking and breakthrough use of technologies to progress further, faster. 

Essential Design, part of PA Consulting, is a multidisciplinary design, development, and innovation studio based in Boston, MA. We bring human insight to client teams and develop physical products, digital experiences, and new services. Our clients are agents of change at the world’s leading brands in consumer, tech, healthcare, and industrial sectors. Founded in 2000, Essential Design is based in Fort Point Channel, adjacent to the Seaport District and the heart of Boston’s Innovation Economy.

As of 2018, Essential is now part of PA Consulting, a 3500-person, UK-based global innovation and transformation organization with expertise in technology development, applied science, manufacturing and supply chain, business strategy, and other skills and domains complementary to Essential’s. The PA global organization now includes Astro, Cooper Perkins, Sparkler, and other leading design and insights studios across the globe. Together, Essential, PA, and PA’s studio network tackle large, ambitious, end-to-end strategy, design, development, and implementation challenges, by harnessing the skills and creativity of distributed teams around the globe.

Your day to day 

As a Principal Design Strategist at Essential you will lead interdisciplinary teams to bring innovative products and services to market for a diverse set of clients in consumer, life science, and other sectors. Working across our industrial design, UX, research, and engineering teams, you’ll shape the front-end of the product development process to define value propositions, feature sets, product architectures, and design attributes. Skilled in design thinking and lean methods, you’ll help clients define their long-term product/service/brand vision and guide them through prioritization of a strategic roadmap to get there.

With a home base in the Essential Design studio and sitting within the Innovation Strategy team, you’ll tap into network of skilled collaborators and resources across PA (our parent company) and their growing network of capabilities, including the Global Technology and Innovation Centre just outside Cambridge UK, the Astro studio in San Francisco, and the Silicon Valley and Lexington offices of Cooper Perkins.

The Candidate:

You operate at the cutting-edge of current design industry trends, capabilities, methods and tools. You are a strong client relationship builder who understands and frames design as a strategic advantage. You are fluent at interpreting primary design research and familiar with quantitative and qualitative methods. Importantly you also understand how to carry insights through the design and development process, integrating wider engineering and scientific capabilities necessary to deliver holistic end-to-end innovation. Furthermore, you are comfortable working with and leading interdisciplinary teams; from insights and strategy, physical and digital product design to service design and engineering.

You will help to create a world-class design environment, contributing to the quality of our interdisciplinary design offer by bringing positive energy to the dynamic of the team, and by helping make our design process fun, engaging and rewarding.

General Responsibilities:

·       Plans and leads all project activities

·       Able to build and lead interdisciplinary design teams of researchers, designers and technologists

·       Proficient in speaking to program details and presenting work to clients and the project team

·       Structuring and leading secondary research: trends, technology and competitive landscape

·       Able to confidently navigate and manage ambiguity to deliver high quality strategies and designs to clients

·       Ability to translate role of requirements from Technology, Business and User needs into design solutions

·       Development of high-quality strategic design deliverables, meeting agendas, workshops and presentations

·       Ability to understand the role of the brand in developing a look and feel

·       Ear-to-the-ground on emerging methods, technologies; shares personal perspectives

·       Performs as an assignment manager and is able to effectively monitor budget across the project and team

·       Monitors and mentors junior team members

·       Helps identify and pursue appropriate professional development

·       Continues education in domain knowledge through community involvement, other modes of learning

·       Develops individual interests and perspectives; cultivates areas of expertise

·       Develops thought leadership and proactively shares internally and externally to raise our profile

·       Supports business development through cost estimation, proposal-writing, refinement, and presentation

·       Effectively represents PA in client, partner and prospective relationships

·       Builds networks of professional colleagues, acting as an ambassador of the company

What you bring

Basic Qualifications:

·       Bachelor’s degree in design or design-related field from an accredited college or university

·       At least 7 years of experience in design, design strategy, or product development

Preferred Qualifications:

·       7+ years of experience with a design consultancy or in-house design or product development team

·       Experience with both physical products and software applications. Bonus for experience with embedded interfaces and physical/digital product development

All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.