Creative Technology Lead

IDEO•Chicago, IL

3d•$120,000 - $140,000•Hybrid

About The Position

IDEO Chicago is seeking a Creative Technology Lead to use technology to imagine and create products, services, and experiences centered on people. The role sits at the intersection of design and technology, using software, AI, hardware, and emerging tools as creative materials for exploration, invention, and making. It is a hands-on role for a curious maker who learns quickly, experiments fearlessly, and considers both how a technology works and what it means. Projects may range from prototyping AI-powered product experiences to building interactive physical prototypes and exploring new tools or media, with technology used in service of human needs. The Creative Technology Lead brings a technologist’s perspective to clients and interdisciplinary teams, helping them navigate what is desirable and newly possible. The person may lead a team and project or contribute as a team member. They prototype products, services, and experiences; explore emerging technologies and translate their capabilities, limitations, and implications into opportunities; inspire teams through making; and help evolve IDEO’s design practice as the relationships between design, prototyping, development, and delivery change. They also participate in IDEO’s emerging technology community alongside designers, engineers, data scientists, and others. The role offers the opportunity to work on breakthrough products, services, and experiences across industries such as health, financial services, and mobility; collaborate with a multidisciplinary Chicago studio; shape innovation from early insight through market activation; and develop as a human-centered creative leader. The position is full-time and hybrid, with Chicago-based team members expected to work in the studio Tuesday through Thursday, subject to flexibility for client travel, project needs, and deliverables.

Requirements

A strong track record of experimenting, prototyping, and building with a broad range of technologies, including products or experiences where AI plays a meaningful role.
Experience shipping real products and understanding what it takes to bring technology-enabled ideas to market.
Fluency in software and digital prototyping, with the ability to move from sketches and prototypes to proofs of concept and functioning experiences.
Demonstrated curiosity and ability to acquire new skills, learn new tools, and explore emerging technologies.
Ability to balance technical rigor and imagination: understand real constraints while creatively exploring what has not yet been built.

Nice To Haves

Experience across software and hardware, including electronics, sensors, physical computing, fabrication, robotics, or connected products.
Experience in consulting, innovation, R&D, creative technology, or other environments where problems and tools change frequently.
Thoughtful perspectives on how AI is changing software design, based on hands-on experience.
A habit of building things out of curiosity about whether they can be built.

Responsibilities

Bring a technologist’s perspective to clients and interdisciplinary teams navigating the intersection of what is desirable and newly possible.
Lead a team and project or contribute as a member of a team.
Rapidly prototype products, services, and experiences using software, AI, hardware, physical computing, and other relevant tools.
Explore emerging technologies and translate their capabilities, limitations, and implications into meaningful opportunities for people and organizations.
Inspire teams through making, introducing new tools, unconventional approaches, and experiments that expand design methods and possible solutions.
Contribute to the evolution of IDEO’s design practice as technology shifts the relationships between design, prototyping, development, and delivery.
Participate in IDEO’s broader emerging technology community.