About Northern Trust
As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing, asset management and banking services, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families, corporations and institutions.
Since 1889, we have aligned our efforts with our three guiding Principles That Endure: Service, Expertise, and Integrity. Together, they reflect the three cornerstones of business conduct which we strive to instill in our employees, whom we call partners, and to provide to our clients and the communities we serve worldwide.
With more than 135 years of financial experience and over 24,000 partners, we serve the world’s most sophisticated clients using leading technology and exceptional service.
The Principal Design Strategy and Research role is a senior practitioner role within Experience Design and Research (EDR). It helps Northern Trust make better decisions faster by using human-centered design, strategic facilitation, service design, systems thinking, and evidence-based strategy to frame the right problems, uncover meaningful opportunities, align stakeholders, and move from ambiguity to action.
This role is designed for senior human-centered design practitioners who can flex across research, strategy, facilitation, service design, product discovery, and engagement leadership while maintaining depth in at least one core capability. Based on project needs, the Principal Design Strategy and Research practitioner may lead research, drive strategy, facilitate executive alignment, shape service models, guide discovery, or manage transformation outputs, helping business, product, technology, operations, risk, and transformation partners make evidence-based decisions.
Design Strategy engagements are typically delivered through small, dedicated teams assembled around a defined strategic question, transformation objective, or opportunity area. Team composition varies based on the challenge and may require research-heavy, strategy-heavy, facilitation-heavy, or delivery-readiness leadership. The model is intentionally flexible so senior practitioners can play the highest-value role required by the engagement.
As part of Experience Design and Research (EDR), this role ensures transformation work is grounded in client, partner, employee, and stakeholder needs while connecting to broader design, product, technology, and operating model outcomes. The role directly supports our transformation initiatives while remaining anchored in EDR practice standards, methods, communities of practice, talent development, and quality expectations.
This Chicago-based role requires candidates to share work, process, and outputs during the interview process, including how they frame problems, select methods, conduct or guide research, facilitate alignment, synthesize evidence, create strategic recommendations, and influence outcomes.
Major Duties
Lead Design Strategy and Research engagements from intake through problem framing, discovery, synthesis, recommendations, delivery readiness, handoff, and organizational adoption.
Serve as a senior human-centered design practitioner who can flex across research, strategy, facilitation, service design, product discovery, and transformation leadership responsibilities based on project needs.
Partner with Transformation Office leaders, business sponsors, product teams, technology partners, operations, risk, clients, and subject matter experts to clarify objectives, define success criteria, and align decision-making.
Translate ambiguous business questions into focused learning agendas, opportunity frames, research plans, workshop designs, service design activities, and executive-ready recommendations.
Lead or guide qualitative and mixed-method research across discovery, evaluation, strategy, innovation, stakeholder understanding, and service/system mapping efforts.
Facilitate synthesis, sense-making, executive reviews, co-creation sessions, decision workshops, and stakeholder alignment activities that build shared understanding and drive action.
Synthesize business goals, client needs, operational realities, technical constraints, risk considerations, and research insights into actionable experience strategies and roadmaps.
Develop experience concepts, service models, journey maps, service blueprints, ecosystem maps, experience principles, prioritization frameworks, and decision narratives that shape future-state experiences.
Help teams understand implications, tradeoffs, dependencies, adoption needs, and implementation considerations that emerge from the work.
Build trusted relationships with senior leaders while maintaining momentum, accountability, and clarity across complex engagements.
Develop executive-ready readouts, strategic narratives, recommendations, decision frameworks, and artifacts that influence priorities, investments, and transformation outcomes.
Capture reusable methods, assets, playbooks, templates, and organizational knowledge that strengthen Experience Design & Research (EDR) and support the Transformation Office.
Mentor practitioners and elevate the quality, consistency, and impact of research, strategy, facilitation, and human-centered transformation practices across EDR.
Knowledge/Skills
Expertise in a combination of human-centered design, design thinking, qualitative and mixed-method research, service design, systems thinking, product discovery, transformation strategy, or related disciplines.
Strong facilitation, stakeholder engagement, executive alignment, and organizational navigation capabilities.
Ability to frame complex business challenges, identify strategic opportunities, and guide teams from ambiguity to action.
Strong synthesis, critical thinking, insight-generation, and problem-structuring skills.
Excellent storytelling, communication, executive presentation, and strategic narrative skills.
Ability to influence decisions and drive outcomes through evidence, facilitation, trust, and leadership rather than authority.
Experience leading multidisciplinary teams across business, design, research, product, technology, operations, risk, and transformation contexts.
Strong business acumen and ability to connect human insight to business priorities, operating realities, technical constraints, and delivery pathways.
Bias toward experimentation, learning, iterative problem solving, and pragmatic translation of strategy into action.
Ability to build trust across EDR, business sponsors, clients, product teams, and technology partners.
Ability to mentor other practitioners and strengthen methods, standards, assets, and communities of practice across EDR.
Experience Required
12+ years in experience strategy, design research, service design, product strategy, innovation, consulting, transformation, or related human-centered design disciplines.
Proven leadership of complex cross-functional initiatives with executive stakeholder engagement and measurable strategic impact.
Experience moving work from discovery through recommendations, delivery readiness, implementation planning, and organizational adoption.
Demonstrated ability to flex across research, strategy, facilitation, service design, product discovery, and transformation support based on the needs of the engagement.
Portfolio or case study body of work demonstrating process, outputs, decision-making, stakeholder leadership, and business or client impact.
Enterprise transformation, financial services, consulting, or complex regulated industry experience a plus.
Salary Range:
$137,400 - 233,600 USDSalary range is a good faith estimate of base pay. Northern Trust provides a comprehensive benefits package including retirement benefits (401k and pension), health and welfare benefits (medical, dental, vision, spending accounts and disability), paid time off, parental and caregiver leave, life & accident insurance, and other voluntary and well-being benefits. Northern Trust also provides a discretionary bonus program that may include an equity component.
Work Authorization
Applicants must be authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship now or in the future. Northern Trust will not sponsor applicants for U.S. work visa status for this opportunity (no sponsorship is available for H-1B, L-1, TN, O-1, E-3, H-1B1, F-1, J-1, OPT, CPT or any other employment-based visa).
Working with Us
As a Northern Trust partner, you will be part of a flexible and collaborative work culture, which has a strong history of financial strength and stability. Movement within the organization is encouraged, senior leaders are accessible, and you can take pride in working for a company committed to an inclusive workplace and assisting the communities we serve.
Philanthropy is deeply rooted in Northern Trust’s history and is an essential element of our culture. Employees around the world give their time and talent to work for the greater good of their communities.
Reasonable Accommodation
Northern Trust is committed to working with and providing adjustments to individuals with health conditions and disabilities. If you need a reasonable accommodation for any part of the employment process, please email our HR Service Center at [email protected], or alternatively you can discuss your individual requirements with the recruiter you are working with.
Skills Required
- 12+ years in experience strategy, design research, service design, product strategy, innovation, consulting, transformation, or related human-centered design disciplines
- Expertise in human-centered design, design thinking, qualitative and mixed-method research, service design, systems thinking, and product discovery
- Proven leadership of complex cross-functional initiatives with executive stakeholder engagement and measurable strategic impact
- Experience moving work from discovery through recommendations, delivery readiness, implementation planning, and organizational adoption
- Demonstrated ability to flex across research, strategy, facilitation, service design, product discovery, and transformation support
- Portfolio or case study body of work demonstrating process, outputs, decision-making, stakeholder leadership, and business or client impact
- Ability to share work, process, and outputs during the interview process
- Authorized to work in the U.S. without the need for employment-based visa sponsorship; employer will not sponsor
- Strong facilitation, stakeholder engagement, executive alignment, organizational navigation, synthesis, storytelling, and communication skills
- Experience in enterprise transformation, financial services, consulting, or other complex regulated industries
Northern Trust Compensation & Benefits Highlights
The following summarizes recurring compensation and benefits themes identified from responses generated by popular LLMs to common candidate questions about Northern Trust and has not been reviewed or approved by Northern Trust.
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Retirement Support — A 401(k) with company match alongside an employer‑funded defined‑benefit pension is highlighted in employer‑verified materials and filings, setting the retirement package apart from many private employers.
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Leave & Time Off Breadth — PTO is portrayed as solid overall, and two paid volunteer days per year are clearly documented across corporate materials.
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Parental & Family Support — Company sources and postings reference paid parental and caregiver leave and recent enhancements to parental benefits, indicating meaningful family support within the package.
Northern Trust Insights
What We Do
As a global leader in innovative wealth management, asset servicing and investment solutions, Northern Trust (Nasdaq: NTRS) is proud to guide the world’s most successful individuals, families and institutions by remaining true to our enduring principles of service, expertise and integrity. A globally recognized Fortune 500 Company in continuous operation since 1889, we’ve built a legacy of empowering clients to reach their goals with confidence. Since our roots as a trust bank, we’ve grown to a global presence with more than 24,000 employees in more than 20 countries and across six core business units: Wealth Management Asset Management Asset Servicing Technology Corporate Functions Enterprise Operations Join a Team That’s Achieving Greater At Northern Trust, we refer to our employees as partners – with good reason. We understand that relationships are the key to our success. Here you’ll join a diverse and inclusive team of innovators with the drive to challenge the way things have always been done. Instead of choosing between a dynamic career and work-life balance, enjoy working with a team that supports your goals in the office and at home. We’ll help you get where you want to go without sacrificing what matters most to you. Delivering value and adhering to our enduring principles What are enduring principles? Since our founding, they have guided our strategy and success. Thanks to the dedication of our partners, Northern Trust continues to thrive by adhering to three enduring principles: service, expertise and integrity . What does this mean? Service Northern Trust has a relentless drive to provide exceptional service to our clients, our partners and our communities. We set new standards and go above and beyond in our commitment to delivering greater results. Expertise Expertise is at the core of who we are. We focus sharply on what we do well. From expanding our capabilities, to hiring talented professionals to developing innovative solutions, our expertise is why we continue to be a trusted advisor for generations of families and institutions. Integrity Operating with uncompromising ethics is central to Northern Trust’s heritage. As a result, our clients, partners and communities know they can rely on us. For more than 130 years, our integrity has been our guide – and that will never change.
Why Work With Us
At Northern Trust, we go further because we go together. We embrace flexibility, encourage balance, and prioritize inclusion at all levels, working together to keep you connected. We are committed to our employees—all 24,000 of them. Whether this is a first step or a bold new leap in your career, we’re here to help you move forward.
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