Senior Industrial Designer-Front End Innovation

Milwaukee Tool • Brookfield, MT

2d

About The Position

The Senior Industrial Designer-Front End Innovation helps define future products for Milwaukee Tool by using a user-centered approach to address challenging and ambiguous problems. The role collaborates with teams and strategic leaders to research problems, generate ideas, define opportunities, and prototype concepts and new solutions. The designer champions design thinking, shares a passion for storytelling, and brings ideas from inception toward market-ready solutions.

As a key member of a collaborative, cross-disciplinary team, the designer leads front-end design efforts ranging from discovering new areas for exploration to solving specific problems. The role uses research and design insights to shape opportunities, concepts, and experiences across digital and physical tools and business strategies. It also helps communicate project progress and design intent, gathers feedback through prototypes, and identifies project dependencies and impacts across the organization.

Requirements

• At least 5 years of consultancy or corporate experience working in Design or Innovation teams.
• Bachelor of Science (BS) or Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Industrial Design, Visual Design, Experience Design, or Service Design.
• Advanced experience with user-centered design and innovation mindsets, tools, and techniques.
• Behavioral research practices.
• Strategic thinking, problem solving, and connecting disparate information.
• Ability to use 2D and 3D design tools to create concepts.
• Communication skills and ability to craft compelling stories.
• Ability to translate user research into design principles and product criteria.
• Ability to communicate effectively with stakeholders from recent graduates to senior leaders.
• Ability to bring ideas to life through model making and rapid prototyping.
• Ability to use Adobe Creative Cloud and Microsoft Office Suite.
• Collaborative team skills and ability to work with Engineering, Product Management, and Design Research.

Nice To Haves

• Experience with design thinking methods, processes, tools, and execution.
• Familiarity with generative AI visualization software.
• Business consulting or strategy experience.
• Ethnographic user research experience.
• Advanced functional prototyping experience.
• Mechanical and manufacturing understanding, including awareness of industry, material, and process trends.

Responsibilities

• Lead design efforts on front-end projects, from discovery of new opportunity areas to solving specific problems.
• Teach and coach others in human-centered design methods.
• Conduct ethnographic field research to uncover the reasons behind problems and identify insights and opportunity areas.
• Translate research and design insights into visual models and frameworks.
• Lead or design concept workshops using brainstorming methodologies to develop product solutions with the team.
• Envision ideas across digital and physical experiences, tools, and business strategies.
• Help develop presentations that communicate project progress and design intent.
• Create storyboards, user experience journeys, and system maps for research, synthesis, workshops, and prototype testing.
• Create prototype stimulus to gather feedback on design concepts from varied audiences.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary leads, including machine learning, advanced development, technology, and marketing.
• Identify project dependencies and impacts on the broader organization.

What This Job Offers

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