Business Development Associate

IDEO • San Francisco, CA

9h • $80,000 - $90,000

About The Position

IDEO San Francisco is in search of a Business Development Associate for our location. This person is a Producer—someone who works closely with IDEO leaders to respond to client demand and who makes our business development systems run. The ideal person demonstrates a combination of business savvy, creativity, and relationship-building skills with both internal stakeholders and clients.

Requirements

• Undergraduate degree preferred
• Minimum of 2 years of professional experience in a dynamic environment, preferably in a client-facing consulting or marketing role
• Strong project management skills with proven ability to prioritize tasks, keep momentum and develop timelines, involve and engage stakeholders, and maintain empathy for both internal and client teams.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills both internally and externally including experience telling compelling stories. Strong presentation skills are a plus.
• The ability to create and deliver presentations, proposals, and other assets that clearly communicate an understanding of our clients, and IDEO’s values.
• Strong critical thinking skills, including the passion for asking good questions, gathering insights, and interpreting information into meaningful and relevant internal and client communications.
• The ability to multi-task and work efficiently and effectively in a dynamic, fast-paced environment
• Self-starter who is open, curious, and passionate about engaging with new challenges
• Collaborative and adaptable: able to handle several simultaneous initiatives at a given time, and can navigate team dynamics, differing timelines, and a variety of client contexts while delivering consistent partnership to our team and clients. Most interested in landing at a great end result; less precious about how we get there.
• Curious and energized by variety: excited by the diversity of client challenges that come our way and eager to explore different ways of responding to them.
• Proactive and growth-oriented: able to generate ideas, take initiative, and contribute wherever needed
• Generous and helpful: consistently looking for opportunities to help, improve the ways we do things, and expand how our team contributes to IDEO more broadly

Nice To Haves

• Experience developing AI-powered workflows
• Expertise in human-centered design methodologies
• Empathy for design, and interest in finding creative ways for design thinking to solve complex business challenges.

Responsibilities

• Design and express compelling presentations and proposals, helping IDEO express our value to our client organizations and the world
• Coordinate our interactions with clients (scheduling meetings, steward the signing of legal documents, etc.)
• Helping senior BD leaders build systems that support lightweight, scalable BD within our SF studio
• Work with a leadership team to experiment with new ways of creating and building client relationships, and delivering value to clients.
• Maintaining knowledge management systems (case studies, etc.)
• Identify signals in the market, analyzing news and LinkedIn Sales Navigator data to spot opportunities for our BD activities.

Benefits

• IDEO is a place where you can solve diverse, complex challenges for our clients and their organizations, alongside thoughtful, intelligent individuals who lead with curiosity, empathy, and humility.
• We intentionally craft moments that allow our community to pause, create, and connect.
• We encourage our community to bring their whole selves to work, respect the need for work-life balance, and allow for autonomy in the design process and your career.

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Entry Level