USAC Design Principal

USAC Design Principal

Apply for the USAC Design Principal role at 3M in Minneapolis, MN. Join a global team of innovative 3

Mers and shape brand design strategy across multiple touchpoints.

This position provides an opportunity to transition from other private, public, government or military experience to a 3M career. The USAC Design Principal is a design leader over one of our iconic 3M brands, setting mid‑term to long‑term brand design strategy, governing visual identity and brand standards, and ensuring creative excellence across the full customer journey.

As Design Principal, you will lead brand design systems that create emotional connection, translate consumer insights into differentiated brand experiences, govern brand standards globally, and partner with business leaders to align design strategy with growth objectives. You will drive design strategy integration, systematize best practices, and deliver high‑quality, culturally relevant experiences worldwide.

• Lead the development and stewardship of brand design systems that create emotional connection and meet functional needs.
• Translate consumer insights into differentiated brand experiences across packaging, product, digital, retail, and communications.
• Govern brand standards globally to ensure consistency, relevance, and effectiveness across markets and categories.
• Partner with business leaders to align design strategy to growth objectives, new product innovation, and commercialization.
• Define and lead long‑term brand design strategy, including visual brand identity, brand architecture, design principles, and multi‑touchpoint experience frameworks.
• Establish and oversee brand governance, standards, and toolkits; ensure adherence across internal teams and external partners.
• Serve as brand steward—owning and evolving the brand system to support new product innovations, portfolio extensions, and entry into new categories.
• Drive design strategy integration into business planning, category roadmaps, and go‑to‑market activities.
• Provide global support and partnership with regional/country teams; adapt brand programs to local market needs and cultural nuances.
• Build scalable design systems and toolkits that enable effective localization while maintaining brand integrity.
• Explore future trends in industry, technology, socio‑economic and demographic shifts to inform strategy for growth.
• Own the design budget for assigned brand(s) or portfolios; forecast annually and manage monthly tracking to the Design Operating Plan.
• Open and manage purchase orders, calibrate spend vs. OP, and ensure fiscal discipline and transparency.
• Balance internal and external resourcing; scope and negotiate agency SOWs; manage vendor performance.
• Cultivate trusted, long‑term partnerships with external agencies—translating business objectives and consumer insight into inspiring briefs; setting clear creative guardrails; and leading incisive reviews that elevate the work while honoring brand intent.
• Champion consumer centricity; translate ethnographic research, segmentation, and behavioral insights into actionable design strategies.
• Partner with insights teams to frame hypotheses, define learning plans, and validate concepts through qualitative/quantitative methods.
• Establish metrics/KPIs for brand experience performance and tie design outcomes to business results.
• Elevate creative craft and design intent across all touchpoints—packaging, product, digital, retail, and marketing communications.
• Guide and partner with CX on creative execution for campaigns, photoshoots, commercials, photography, and styling—ensuring brand coherence and quality.
• Maintain a high level of design expertise; push boundaries through thought leadership, trend scanning, and prototyping.
• Champion the end‑to‑end experience—from strategy and concept through commercialization and post‑launch optimization.
• Partner with Marketing, R&D, Brand Communications, and Sales to align design goals to business goals across complex portfolios.
• Mentor and coach designers; lead critiques that elevate quality and consistency.
• Model a culture of curiosity, collaboration,…