Who we are
Catapult Design is an award-winning, independent, global, non-profit design agency. We strive to improve the quality of life of underserved populations through innovative and accessible design. With a network of passionate, resourceful, and inquisitive Design Strategists, Designers, and Client Managers, we work hard to ensure that people and the environment are central to our design process.
The following values express the importance we place on our employees and our work, and they are integral to our hiring practices, performance reviews, and promotions.
Overall Remit
As the Design Lead, you will be a driving force in shaping Catapult Design’s creative culture and ensuring our work consistently delivers meaningful impact. You will contribute to Catapult Design’s reputation for innovative ideas and award winning design and will help facilitate teamwork in order to continue Catapult Design’s vision. You will collaborate closely with the Creative Director to translate the organization’s vision into tangible design strategies and solutions. Your leadership will empower the design team to push boundaries, explore new possibilities, and create designs that are both functional and beautiful and serve our clients. You will be a champion for design, advocating for the needs and aspirations of the communities we serve at every stage of the design process and collaborating closely to support our local design partners.
Location
US: Brooklyn NY (preferred), San Francisco, Savannah GA, or remoteReporting
The Design Lead will report to the Creative Director.Description
We are seeking a full-time Design Lead with 7-10 years of design experience to spearhead design programs for socially and environmentally driven clients worldwide. The role encompasses leadership in service design, product design, human-centered design, graphics, ethnography, and innovation. The Design Lead will guide and collaborate with Catapult’s designers, program team, and local partners, to establish strategic design directions for social entrepreneurs, philanthropists, corporations, and governments. The ideal candidate possesses experience from conceptualization through to implementation.
The Design Lead will be responsible for overseeing the day-to-day of complex projects, streamlining design research, synthesis, prototyping, and insights generation, while also supporting a team of talented designers. This position demands a candidate with substantial expertise, experience, creative intuition, and fervent passion for social impact design. The chosen candidate will have the opportunity to contribute to a diverse range of projects spanning global health, education, climate, and entrepreneurship, ultimately shaping the landscape of social impact design on a global scale.
Specific Responsibilities
Creative Execution:
- Translate the creative vision into tangible design concepts and solutions, ensuring alignment with project goals and user needs.
- Lead the design team in the execution of projects, overseeing the design process from concept to completion.
- Provide hands-on design expertise and guidance to the team, ensuring high-quality and impactful deliverables.
- Collaborate with the program team to elevate bottlenecks and propose solutions.
- Collaborate with local design/tech partners closely to integrate design seamlessly into the overall project goals.
Team Collaboration & Mentorship:
- Foster a positive and collaborative team environment, encouraging open communication and knowledge sharing.
- Mentor and develop junior designers, providing constructive feedback and growth opportunities.
- Facilitate effective collaboration between the design team and other departments, ensuring smooth project execution.
- Champion design thinking and design methodologies within the team and across projects.
Design Process & Quality:
- Implement and refine design processes to ensure efficiency and effectiveness.
- Maintain high standards for design quality, ensuring deliverables meet or exceed expectations.
- Stay current on design trends and best practices, incorporating them into the team’s work.
- Contribute to the development and refinement of Catapult Design’s design toolkits and methodologies.
- Support the Creative Director with executive projects each quarter that will shape the way in which we design at Catapult Design.
Client & Community Liaison:
- Build and maintain positive relationships with clients and community partners, acting as a design advocate.
- Present design concepts and solutions clearly and persuasively, demonstrating their value and impact.
- Gather and incorporate feedback from clients and community partners throughout the design process.
- Support the Creative Director in client presentations and business development efforts.
Please contact careers@catapultdesign.org with your CV, cover letter, and portfolio link.
We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at Catapult Design. Pursuant to applicable law, we do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status.
The following values express the importance we place on our employees and our work. They are integral to our hiring practices, performance reviews, and promotions.
- Humility: We prioritize beneficiary needs and put in the work to identify and understand them.
- Collaboration: We collaborate with experts, end-users, funders, and implementers to develop solutions capable of change.
- Integrity: We are not afraid to provide constructive feedback and to protect the process in order to arrive at a better solution while ensuring a great customer experience.
- Initiative: We seek out entrepreneurial team members who have demonstrated an ability to pursue their passion. The challenges we are tasked with typically have not been solved in decades – our team members go the extra mile to initiate and own activities because they’re motivated to solve them.
- Discipline: We don’t apply band-aids to wounds that require stitches. We make the conscious effort to impose a meaningful order to our activity in order to produce our intended result.
