Lead Experience Strategist​/Strategy Lead - GB; Evanston, IL

Lead Experience Strategist / Experience Strategy Lead - GB26 (Evanston, IL)

Salary: $154,500 - $180,000 per year

Location:

Evanston, IL and various, unanticipated locations throughout the United States.

Benefits:
Comp package offers min/max salary + COLA, leave policies, bonus incentives, relocation, medical/dental/life insurance, retirement benefits.

ZS’s Digital Experience & Design EC focuses on design strategy and research. The role will design and deliver new services, products, and brand experiences that solve customer problems, increase brand value, and inspire people (10%). Create best‑in‑class design deliverables to articulate customer research insights and strategies and craft a broad range of design artifacts including experience maps, user journeys, service blueprints, and personas (15%).

Ability to boundary‑span into visual design deliverables including wireframes, high‑fidelity design and design systems is a distinct advantage (10%). Partner and collaborate with cross‑disciplinary teams through all phases of design process including alignment with client, understanding context, developing insights, exploring and defining opportunities, setting strategy, creating actionable/tangible design expressions and concepts, communicating vision, and guiding go‑to‑market strategies (15%). Execute qualitative customer research using design, behavioral, ethnographic, and market research techniques and apply insights to inform design decisions (15%).

Elicit requirements through a range of activities from planning and leading stakeholder interviews, working from problem statements, articulating business objectives, and asking the right questions in the right ways to inform design thinking processes (5%). Lead cycles of rapid iteration/design sprints to prototype experiences across mediums and realize a final solution (10%). Present design solutions with precision and personality to a variety of business stakeholders, clients, and internal colleagues with a polished mix of verbal and visual communication (5%).

Plan and facilitate Design Thinking workshops to support creative collaboration and evangelize customer centricity with clients and colleagues (5%). Translate requirements into initial concepts, visual artifacts and designs using existing or net new design system thinking and development (5%). Collaborate with designers and developers to ‘tell the design story’ from concepting to initial prototype to dev‑ready design translation (5%). May work in various, unanticipated locations throughout the United States.

Position may require up to 25% domestic travel.

Master’s degree, or foreign degree equivalent, in Human Centered Design, Industrial Design, Design, or related field and 3 years of experience in the job offered or in a design or analyst role. Alternatively, a Bachelor’s degree, or foreign degree equivalent, in the same fields and five (5) years of progressive post‑baccalaureate experience in the job offered or in a design or analyst role.

With either combination of education and experience, position requires experience with the following:

• Managing end‑to‑end projects
• Client‑facing experience
• JIRA
• AI Technologies
• Qualitative Research
• Quantitative Research
• Communicating to senior‑level stakeholders
• Storyboards
• UX Writing
• Agile Methodology
• Heuristic Evaluation
• Figma

• Cross‑functional skills development & custom learning pathways
• Milestone training programs aligned to career progression opportunities
• Internal mobility paths that empower growth via s‑curves, individual contribution and role expansions

At ZS, your growth matters. We offer a comprehensive total rewards package that supports your health and well‑being, financial future, time away, and professional development. With robust skills‑building programs, multiple career progression paths, internal mobility, and a deeply collaborative culture, you’ll have the opportunity to do meaningful work, expand your capabilities, and thrive as part of a global community.

We are committed to giving our employees a flexible and connected way of working. A flexible and connected ZS allows us to combine work from home and on‑site presence at clients/ZS offices for the majority of our week. The culture and innovation thrives in both planned and spontaneous face‑to‑face connections.

Travel is a requirement for client‑facing ZSers; business needs of your project and client are the priority. While some projects may be local, all client‑facing ZSers should be prepared to travel as needed.

ZS is an equal‑opportunity employer and is committed to providing equal employment and advancement opportunities without regard to any class protected by applicable law.