Strategic Portfolio Designer- Maternity cover

Climate KIC

7d•Remote

About The Position

Climate KIC is seeking a Strategic Designer to strengthen systems thinking, strategic alignment, and the design of collaborative work across its portfolios. This role will help Clusters make sense of complexity, connect their work to broader strategic goals, and translate insights into actionable, visual, and practical ways of working that drive systemic change in addressing climate challenges. The Portfolio Strategic Designer will work at the intersection of strategy, innovation, facilitation, and visual communication. You will help ensure portfolio/s are coherent, data-informed, and designed to generate meaningful impact within the climate innovation landscape.

Requirements

Systems expertise: Demonstrated capability in systems thinking, pattern finding, and complexity analysis in multi-stakeholder environments.
Strategic design experience: Demonstrated ability to design strategies, structures, and processes that align initiatives with wider systems goals.
Visual communication: Ability to turn complex information into clear, compelling visual artifacts and frameworks.
Facilitation: Experience designing and facilitating workshops, collaboration sessions, and sensemaking processes.
Work design: Ability to shape collaborative workflows, meeting formats, decision-making processes, and team interfaces.
Insight-led practice: Demonstrated ability to synthesize diverse data and perspectives into actionable recommendations.
Storytelling: Ability to craft narratives that communicate systemic impact and strategic direction.
Fluent in English.
Experience or willingness to work with collaborative tools such as Office 365, Microsoft Teams, Miro, Zoom, and Mentimeter.
Systems thinking and pattern finding.
Visual design and visualization of complexity.
Innovation leadership.
Facilitation and collaborative workshop design.
Work design and process design.
Storytelling and communication for systemic narratives.
Change management.

Nice To Haves

Climate innovation: Knowledge of climate innovation or systemic transformation in sustainability is highly desirable.

Responsibilities

Systems-driven sensemaking and pattern finding: Design frameworks and visual tools to synthesize complex data streams from projects and portfolios. Identify systemic patterns, interdependencies, leverage points, and emerging opportunities. Translate complexity into clear visual maps, narratives, and decision-making tools. Design and facilitate sensemaking sessions and workshops that help stakeholders interpret signals, spot patterns, and align on priorities.
Portfolio alignment and system design: Develop a systems narrative for portfolios, linking individual projects to Climate-KIC’s broader mission and systemic impact goals. Map relationships, flows, dependencies, and gaps across portfolios to improve coherence, synergy, and resource use. Design portfolio-level structures, interfaces, and working rhythms that support strategic alignment and collective impact. Provide actionable recommendations to prioritize initiatives that strengthen systemic outcomes and long-term strategic value.
Visual design and communication: Turn complex ideas, relationships, and insights into compelling visual artifacts such as systems maps, frameworks, canvases, journey maps, and portfolio overviews. Create shared visual languages and communication tools that help teams understand how their work fits into the wider system. Collaborate with communications and leadership teams to make strategic messages more accessible, engaging, and actionable. Use design to support decision-making, learning, alignment, and organizational sensemaking.
Work design and facilitation: Design and facilitate workshops, working sessions, and collaborative processes that support cross-functional alignment and action. Shape meeting formats, decision-making processes, and collaborative workflows so teams can work more effectively in complexity. Support teams in framing problems, generating options, testing ideas, and moving from insight to action. Act as a facilitator across functions to connect operational teams, research, leadership, and delivery partners.
Innovation through systems insight: Lead research to identify emerging systemic challenges and opportunities, and connect these to new pathways for climate action. Translate insights into prototypes, pilots, and experiments that help Climate-KIC respond to evolving system needs. Work with the Learning Designers and MEL Orchestrator to build an insights pipeline that informs iterative strategy refinement and programme innovation.
Cross-functional collaboration in complex systems: Bridge operational teams, research, and leadership to ensure systemic alignment across organizational interfaces. Support collaboration across campaigns, fundraising, policy, delivery, portfolio, learning, and community functions. Help teams build a shared understanding of priorities, trade-offs, and opportunities through structured facilitation and visual sensemaking tools.