Organizational Design Lead

IDEO•San Francisco, CA

16h•$115,000 - $130,000

About The Position

When organizations decide to do something they’ve never done before — develop a new offer, integrate emerging technology, reinvent their operating model, redefine leadership expectations, or shift long-standing mindsets and norms — they rarely need more slides. They need the confidence to act that comes from a clear plan and shared momentum. At IDEO, we help our clients navigate toward action when they’re doing something new. We work at the messy, high-stakes intersection of ambition and reality — translating bold strategy into tangible structures, rituals, behaviors, and systems that actually work in the day-to-day. As an Organizational Design Lead, you’ll help organizations activate their purpose, shift behaviors, and deliver meaningful results — from the boardroom to the break room to the front line. The right person for this role has led large-scale transformation from within an organization, believes in fit-for-purpose organizational design and exceptional employee experiences as drivers of business impact, and can turn workforce insights and future signals into tangible organizational prototypes that spark real change. They quickly understand what makes an organization unique — and know how to pull the right structural, cultural, and talent levers to make change real and successful. This role is a rare blend of systems thinker, change catalyst, and grounded operator. You’ll help organizations redesign how work gets done — aligning strategy, structure, talent, and culture so people can move forward with clarity, confidence, and shared purpose. You’ll do this as part of a deeply multidisciplinary team — partnering with experts in areas like design research, visual communication, experience design, and beyond — giving you creative leverage and problem-solving range that simply isn’t possible elsewhere. In a nutshell: Organizational Designers help IDEO’s clients turn business ambition into organizational reality. We assess the gap between where an organization is today and the outcomes it aims to achieve — then design the necessary shifts in strategy, structure, processes, culture, incentives, and talent to close that gap. What makes IDEO different is that our work doesn’t end in a deck. We prototype the future with our clients — testing ideas in action, learning quickly, iterating deliberately, and building the confidence needed to scale change. The following are examples of what this has looked like in the recent past: Identifying and testing key strategic assumptions in practice to validate and iterate before scaling Crafting tangible futures and implementation roadmaps that turn ambition into action Redefining how teams work together in the AI era Co-creating operating models and ways of working aligned to new business realities Building onboarding and learning experiences that more quickly unlock new mindsets and skills Prototyping talent systems like new career pathways, innovation functions, and cross-functional collaboration models Building a new innovation function from the ground up and measuring its success as innovation projects run through it

Requirements

5-7+ years of experience designing, activating, and leading change initiative(s) at a large organization, ideally in healthcare or technology
Experience designing world-class talent initiatives or employee experiences that drive measurable business impact
Experience leading complex, interdisciplinary projects
Experience advising, coaching, or facilitating learning for senior leadership
Experience with a human-centered design approach to work, including organizational prototyping to learn and iterate
Strength across areas like: AI-enabled ways of working Org purpose, mission, and values activation Organizational structures, roles, and operating models Culture creation and behavior change Employee lifecycle design (hiring, onboarding, development) Learning experience and capability design Leading change, measurement, and storytelling Organizational or behavioral psychology