Think Company operates in the United States as a fully remote company. As such, please consider this a remote (work from home) position. Please note that Thinkers are expected to operate within Eastern Standard Time Zone business hours.FLSA Status: Exempt
Annual Base Salary: $104,040 - $139,310 

Think Company is looking for a Design Research Manager to support our growing team—come and think with us! 

Think Company’s Design Research Team Philosophy: Think Company's Design Discipline encompasses product designers, ux strategists, content strategists, design researchers and service designers. Our project teams focus on creating bespoke cutting-edge digital products, as well as streamlining the services within which these digital products live. Whether it be through research, content, or design, our teams help our clients understand and meet user needs by prioritizing function and clarity of communication— taking on projects that span a wide array of industries and settings, from outcome-based projects for organizations in growth mode to dedicated teams helping Fortune 50 companies transform and evolve.

Design Research Management at Think: The Design Research Manager is entrusted with the care and support of a team of talented researchers aligning with their own area of expertise (8-12 people). We’re looking for someone who is comfortable coaching and mentoring people to help them grow as both researchers and consultants. The ideal candidate has experience cultivating a team by hiring the right people, creating community and belonging, advocating for needs, providing project support, enabling personal growth, and spotlighting purpose and impact. In doing so, the ideal candidate enables our teams to deliver high quality work that aligns with our vision & strategy and meets our clients' needs. We’re looking for someone who’s able to continuously improve our standards, practices, and delivery outcomes, and who understands the process and partnership needed to consult in the service and product space.

Key Responsibilities

Managers play a crucial role in contributing to the day-to-day operations and strategic initiatives within the department. They focus on maintaining organizational consistency and ensuring balanced workloads across our delivery management teams.

• Live our Core Values and encourage others to do the same
• Provide consistent, valuable feedback to direct reports, maintaining high performance and morale; ensure direct reports keep current with trends and advancements in the industry
• Exhibit a level of expertise within own discipline domain to provide meaningful guidance and mentorship on deliverables and interactions with clients and peers
• Conduct regular performance management duties; performance reviews, career pathing, goal setting, performance improvement issue escalation
• Serve as senior-level advisor to project teams on billable client projects
• Participate in departmental recruiting, hiring, and onboarding activities
• Work with Department leadership and project team leaders to ensure projects are appropriately staffed to leverage our team's bandwidth and skillset
• Collaborate with department leaderships to find ways of maintaining and improving departmental performance and delivery
• Lead or participate in department strategic initiatives, organizational internal initiatives, sales activities, etc — collaborating closely with management team to push internal efforts forward to completion

Required Skills and Qualifications

• At least 2-3 years prior people management experience leading a team of direct reports through career pathing, growth opportunities and performance evaluation
• Prior experience mentoring, building skills and identifying desired career paths
• Prior experience as a research team leader with hands-on experience leading projects
• Patient and empathetic in dealing with people; possess excellent written and verbal communication skills
• Able to build positive working relationships with direct reports, as well as others throughout the organization; comfortable working with cross-disciplinary teams and with organizations of various sizes
• Displays good judgment and efficient decision-making; knows when to call out and/or escalate concerns and risks, and accompanies those with potential solutions
• Understands the modern design research landscape; able to actively participate in research activities as needed, as well as able to assist direct reports with problem-solving and approach

Preferred Skills and Qualifications

• Prior experience as a research team leader in a consultancy or agency, with hands-on experience leading client-facing projects 
• Ability to discern future growth paths for individuals and provide mentorship and guidance to achieve stated and latent goals

Who we are

Think Company defines and solves business problems for companies across a wide range of industries, from start-ups to Fortune 50 organizations. Our environment is dynamic and highly matrixed, involving design, development, and project management. We do more than production—we conduct discovery, research, ideation, prototyping, testing, and implementation.

Our employees—Thinkers—present concepts to executive-level stakeholders, answer hard questions, and use evidence to make recommendations. Our solutions often solve the challenges of modern companies—integrating multiple systems, breaking down organizational silos, and creating more holistic service experiences. See examples of our typical projects.

We are a design firm that encourages fun, creativity, and relationship building. Check out Think Company's Core Values.

Think Company is dedicated to greater diversity and inclusion within our organization and provides equal opportunity to people of all races, ethnicities, religions, genders, sexual orientations, gender identifications, abilities, income, marital status, ages, philosophies, disabilities, and veteran status.

Recruiters and staffing companies need not contact us and do not have permission to contact people on our behalf.