Senior Design Researcher

Senior Design Researcher and Strategist  Location: San Francisco 

Role Summary 

The Senior Design Researcher & Strategist leads the shaping of clarity from complexity, defining opportunity spaces grounded in deep user, business, and stakeholder insights. The role is accountable for problem framing, research leadership, insight synthesis, and translating findings into clear strategic direction and design outcomes. 

Anchoring the Discovery and Strategy phases of engagements, this role ensures rigor, relevance, and coherence in how research and insights inform design. Working in close collaboration with Consulting, Data Science, and Engineering teams, the Senior Design Researcher & Strategist drives integrated, feasible, and impactful solutions. 

Beyond project delivery, the role plays a client‑facing and practice‑building function leading effective workshops, contributing to sales and pursuit storytelling, and collaborating closely with offshore delivery teams to translate client intent into high‑quality execution. This is a hands‑on role for someone who thrives at the intersection of design research, business strategy, and facilitation. 

Key Responsibilities 

• Lead and architect end‑to‑end design research and strategy engagements, from problem framing and research planning through insight synthesis and opportunity definition. 

• Apply the most effective research, strategy, and sense‑making methods based on client context, industry, and maturity. 

• Partner closely with Consulting, Data Science, and Engineering counterparts to ensure tight integration across workstreams and cohesive delivery.  

• Facilitate high‑impact client workshops, including discovery, research synthesis, visioning, and opportunity framing sessions. 

• Contribute to sales and pre‑sales efforts through compelling storytelling, proposal inputs, and articulation of business value. 

Experience 

• Has 4-8 years experience as a Design Research & Strategy practitioner in leading design research / strategy projects and teams.  

• Must have demonstrable portfolio of work that reflects the breadth & depth of skills as a Design Researcher & Strategist (both hands-on and as a Strategy Lead).  

• Is highly proficient in leading and conducting workshops (client / stakeholder) to deep-dive into user research, insights & opportunities.  

• Has real-world experience in managing projects, teams & stakeholders (clients / customers).  

• Exposure and experience working with international clients / geographies will be a plus  

• Experience in consulting will be a big plus  

• Loves an entrepreneurial culture, and is excited about the challenge of building a capability (within an established organization)  

• Tech fluency - a strong understanding of how design strategy fits in with the data and AI ecosystem that Fractal enables.  

Nice to Have 

• Exposure to financial services or insurance products such as banking, lending, claims, underwriting, or customer servicing 

• Familiarity with Gen AI tools and their application in design workflows 

• Background in HCI, Service Design, or related fields