Future Arc
At Future Arc we are on a mission to tackle some of the world's biggest problems by challenging the norm and delivering a paradigm shift in innovation through the work we do. We are growing our innovation and venturing capability and we are now excited to be looking for a Design Strategist to help mature this part of our business. This is a great opportunity for you to define this part of our capability and scope of our future ventures working in a multi-disciplined team to identify concepts.
While we’re still a small company (not quite a start-up anymore!) there are lots of opportunities to work across a range of projects from private sector energy companies to government departments, some amazing charities and groundbreaking startups. To give you an idea of what we do, here are some of the projects we’ve worked on recently;
- Undertaken user research & delivered design recommendations and concepts for a major UK energy supplier
- Conducted and facilitated a series of design sprints for a leading UK palliative care charity with heads of departments creating a trio of digital concepts
- Created and designed an innovative business and technology stack for our venture wve.money, crypto start-up continuing to be supported by the team.
- Designed and built the first-of-its-kind care IOS & Android application for a leading palliative care charity in just twelve weeks!
- Supported the design & development of Cimple, a procurement platform aiming to make procurement in the public sector simple! (This one’s our venture too!)
- Conducted user research in partnership with the Welsh Government to understand the problems they face and how a digital system might help them. Produced high-fidelity rapid prototypes to help guide them to a product solution.
- Developed start-up businesses for partners across food, energy and many more.
What we are looking for:
We’re looking for a creative, entrepreneurial Design Strategist to play a key part in our innovation and venturing activity. We’re looking for someone with the ability to apply design thinking & human-centred methodologies to both business challenges and startups through discovery processes, synthesis of findings, ideation, design and testing. This role has a focus on creating new insight-driven innovations and venture concepts with the ability to lead projects and input into our broader venturing strategy communicated in creative ways.
You should be self-propelled by a relentless curiosity, resourceful in scouring the world for insight and comfortable in a fast-paced environment.
You need to be a team player, happy with a changing environment with aspirations of helping to develop ventures to launch and beyond.
You care about the impact your work has on the world and have been looking for a career path that is both high-performance and high-impact.
You are passionate about working at the intersection of new technologies and the problems that matter along with working in some exciting and emerging markets. You also have a very entrepreneurial mindset, driven to find new problems and concepts with a motivating work ethic.
Responsibilities:
- Lead discovery research both primary and secondary to uncover needs, and identify opportunities and pain points that generate insights and hypotheses with the goal of leading to future ventures.
- Provide analysis on strategic markets, and identify trends, technologies and competitive landscapes.
- Frame and identify problems and opportunities, that create a clear direction for innovation
- Communicating research discoveries through compelling narratives and visualisations
- Working with a multidisciplinary team to communicate and develop ideas into venture concepts.
- Plan, prepare and support the facilitation of stakeholder interviews and engaging workshops that support research, problem-solving and hypothesis development.
- Maintain up-to-date knowledge of emerging startups, technologies and innovation processes
- Support wider business development and consulting projects as required.
- Build a professional network and represent the company externally.
Requirements:
- Minimum 3 - 5 years working in Research, Design or associated functions
- Have a good portfolio of past work that demonstrates your skills to the best of your ability
- Thrives in a fast-paced and dynamic environment
- A strong grounding in human-centred design and empathetic design thinking methodology and experience applying these methodologies to research and workshops
- Outstanding experience with ethnographic research that feeds into ideation, divergent exploration, conceptual development and design.
- Ability to organise and simplify complex concepts and research using a range of frameworks and visual structures
- Experience with and interest in a range of design disciplines
- Superior attention to detail
Company Benefits:
Future Arc aims to create a leading people agenda and reward structure. The role is part of a broader benefits package that includes:
- Inclusive and supportive working environment so you can have autonomy, and make a real impact
- Enhanced parental leave offerings
- Company pension scheme
- Discretionary bonus scheme
- Eligibility for an Employee Benefits Trust
- Bike to work scheme
- Bring your dog to work
- A commitment to your individual well-being, with access to our well-being initiatives
- Learning and development opportunities
- 26 days holiday (excl. bank holidays)
- Home office budget to get you set up for remote working
- Volunteer days
- Flexible working hours
- Bonus days leave - (birthday off, moving house)
