We are looking for a Strategic Design Lead to join our 200+ product organization in Helsinki and Berlin. At Smartly, you help the Design and Product teams plan, test and validate near and long-term strategies across the product lifecycle.

The Strategic Design Lead will take ownership of our design strategies, combining innovative design thinking, business acumen, and technological understanding to deliver impactful and effective design solutions. The role involves leading and driving design across our various product areas, aiming for a cohesive, engaging, and user-friendly experience that aligns with our business objectives. Connecting the dots in a multi functional organization to set the direction for a holistic, high quality product user experience.

Here’s what you’ll do…

Strategic Planning: Drive the creation and execution of strategic design initiatives that meet both user needs and business goals. Contribute to the overall company strategy from a design perspective.

Team Leadership: Lead and mentor a team of designers, fostering a collaborative and innovative work environment, demonstrating the importance of taking a strategic approach to all of our initiatives.

Design Advocacy: Foster a design thinking culture within the organization and advocate for the importance and value of strategic design in all aspects of the business. Leverage a design-driven process to help Engineering and Product teams embrace design-thinking.

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Collaborate with multiple departments including product management, engineering, marketing, and sales to ensure design's role and perspective is incorporated at every stage of the product life cycle.

User Research and Operative artifacts: Collaborate with UX Research discipline and participate in user research and testing, leveraging insights to inform design strategy and decisions. Produce and facilitate creation of operative artifacts such as personas, empathy maps, user journey maps, etc. for the team's use.

Prototyping and Design Execution: Oversee the creation of prototypes and deliverables, ensuring that design solutions are scalable, sustainable, and effectively address user needs and business goals.

Here’s what we need from you…

• Proven experience in a design leadership role, including several years managing direct reports within a multi-tiered design organization.
• Extensive experience in user-centered design processes and methodologies, including user research, ideation, prototyping, testing, and implementation.
• Exceptional interpersonal and leadership skills, with the ability to effectively manage a team and collaborate cross-functionally.
• Experience in developing and implementing design strategies within an organization.
• A degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field.
• Excellent problem-solving skills and innovative thinking.
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to articulate design decisions and processes effectively.
• Familiarity with current industry trends and the latest design-related technology advancements.
• Experience in service design.
• Experience in developing and leading agile processes.
• Deep understanding of business processes and requirements, particularly those within a marketing environment.
• Availability and willingness to work in our Berlin office two days a week.

What we offer...

• A key role in operationalizing design strategy into product strategy and roadmap to improve customer experience and create world class user-loved products.
• Actively participate in shaping, developing, and defining the field and culture of product design in Smartly — by de-risking business decisions by testing product hypotheses and UX innovations.
• A team of ~20 design professionals to work with including agency designers.
• Opportunity to work with some of the most advanced online marketers out there.
• Chance to develop products in close collaboration with the leading advertising platforms such as Facebook and TicToc.
• Attractive benefits package, including 30 days of annual leave, company bonus and options.

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