Principal Experience Strategist

We are open to candidates in ET

MetaLab ships products loved by billions of people. These products shape the way we work, live, and play. We're willing to bet you use multiple products we've had a hand in. We need your help crafting the next. 

As a Principal Experience Strategist, you’ll be a key leader in helping evolve MetaLab’s strategy craft and capabilities. You’ll operate as an individual contributor, leading and executing our most complex or specialized tracks of work, while developing the skill sets of those around you through mentorship and on-project coaching. 

You’ll partner with a multi-disciplinary team and our clients to define how their products will have an impact and what their organization must do to enable this impact. You’ll ensure that MetaLab delivers a holistic POV that takes into account a client’s end users, their internal teams, and the capabilities they require to deliver value. You should be excited by shaping both the big picture and the most intricate details that are required to bring a holistic experience to fruition.

You’ll balance multiple priorities, such as finding yourself defining and developing the strategic insights to shape an experience vision on one project, helping an enterprise define the path forward for their design system or ecosystem strategy on another, while also having responsibility for business and practice development. On any given day, you’re able to step up and lead or step back and evaluate how to best support your team. 

Initially, this role will be a member of the cross-disciplinary account leadership team for a NYC-based financial services client. You will utilize your expertise to provide thought leadership and hands-on support to enable the creation of differentiated and valuable experiences, beginning with an enterprise-wide design system. Your role will be critical to helping the team navigate enterprise environments, helping the client manage and assess internal feedback and align on priorities, gaining buy-in on product direction from stakeholders of all levels and backgrounds, and shaping new opportunities for MetaLab.

Your responsibilities

• Based on your understanding of a client’s business, market trends, user needs, and technical constraints, you will lead the shaping of experience visions and strategies in partnership with project leads through the formulation and clear articulation of:
  • Outcomes and strategic objectives
  • Areas of opportunity and recommend areas of focus
  • Measures of success
  • Experience roadmaps
  • Service maps and capabilities assessments
• Build and maintain productive relationships with client stakeholders of all levels and internal project teams, setting direction for the team and keeping everyone laser-focused on solving the right problem at the right time through an outcome-driven approach to product definition, prioritization, and delivery
• Develop clear points of view on relevant topics that inform strategy development, clients’ thinking and thought leadership
• Partner with Product Leads to enable product delivery, gaining alignment on and utilizing a variety of product development methodologies
• Roll up your sleeves, get in the work, and provide guidance to several project teams simultaneously
• Serve on the leadership team for accounts and contribute to pitching and scoping of new engagements
• Travel to client sites on an as-needed basis

The must-have short list

• Experience at a digital product agency or consultancy shaping and shipping multiple concurrent products and experiences in enterprise environments (financial services experience is a massive plus)
• Experience leading the definition and rollout of design systems and the capabilities required to operationalize it (enterprise design systems is a plus)
• Experience leading ecosystem strategies and experience vision engagements, and seeing the work through to delivery of an initial release. 
• Demonstrated experience partnering with and persuading client leadership of all levels utilizing all modes of communication (narrative, visual, workshopping, etc.)
• Expertise in generating insights and POVs based on market trends, quantitative and qualitative business data, and user research
• Equal passion for both shaping and shipping products - you’re prepared to get the job done, wherever the team is in the process
• Experience leading and working with cross-functional teams in design, engineering, research, and brand
• Comfortable implementing new processes and assessing where to provide the most value on a project by project basis
• Experience in account management and growth, new business development, pitching and scope creation
• Experience managing and mentoring team members who do not directly report to you