Senior Design Strategist

About Pilot44

Pilot44 is a brand innovation and venture building studio that partners with the world's leading consumer brands to identify, incubate, and scale what's next. We work with Fortune 500 CPG companies, global retailers, and ambitious startups across 150+ categories, from food and beverage to personal care, pharmaceuticals to consumer electronics.

Our services span the full innovation lifecycle: from insights and growth strategy, to venture development and product commercialization, to GTM activation and in-market incubation. We've executed hundreds of innovation pilots and brought 40+ new brands and businesses to market. We turn insight into action through research, experimentation, and hands-on execution.

About the Role

We’re looking for a Senior Design Strategist who can lead the full journey from research to insight to concept. This role is for a strategic and creative human-centered thinker who knows how to deeply synthesize complexity and turn insight into clear, compelling, and innovative concepts for new products, services, and experiences that push the boundaries. You’ll work closely with strategists, designers, and venture leadership to shape early-stage ideas that can move forward into validation and incubation.

YOUR ROLE & RESPONSIBILITIES

• Lead the creation of new products, services, and brand experience concepts, translating insight into clear, compelling and differentiated ideas.
• Develop and visualize concepts through storytelling, prototypes, and visual artifacts that bring ideas to life and support decision-making.
• Apply design thinking methodologies to move from ambiguity to opportunity, shaping concepts that balance consumer needs, brand identity, and business viability.
• Integrate brand strategy and business strategy into the concept development work, ensuring ideas are aligned with brand positioning and commercial objectives.
• Design and facilitate workshops and collaborative working sessions for clients that drive alignment, ideation, and concept development with internal teams and client stakeholders.
• Support concept validation through rapid testing, feedback loops, and iteration, refining ideas based on real-world signals, qualitative, and quantitative feedback.
• Lead consumer research and discovery efforts to uncover behaviors, motivations, and Jobs-To-Be-Done that inform opportunity areas.
• Design and execute qualitative and quantitative research to frame, validate, or challenge assumptions and concepts.
• Synthesize research into insights, opportunity spaces, personas, and journeys that fuel strong concept development.
• Contribute to the evolution of Pilot44’s design strategy and concept development methodologies.

ABOUT YOU

• 8-10+ years of experience in design strategy, consumer research, innovation, or related in CPG.
• Strong grounding in human-centered design and research-led concept development.
• Proven ability to move from ambiguity to clarity — turning insight into ideas.
• Excellent synthesis, storytelling, and visual communication skills.
• Comfortable managing multiple projects in fast-paced, collaborative environments.
• Experience working in consulting, agencies, startups, or innovation teams.

Why Pilot44

• Work on early-stage innovation and concept creation for leading global brands.
• Work at the intersection of Fortune 500 brands and startup agility, helping bring new ventures from concept to market.
• High ownership and visibility, often leading client engagements directly.
• A team of entrepreneurs, operators, and strategists with backgrounds spanning P&G, Google, TikTok, Havas, Chobani, and high-growth startups.
• A culture rooted in curiosity, integrity, and startup grit. We go deep, challenge the status quo, and support each other along the way.
• Accelerated professional growth through hands-on exposure to diverse industries, emerging platforms, and end-to-end GTM execution.
• Flexible, remote-first environment.