Strategy Lead, UX

Instrument is a remote-first digital product and brand experience agency with a team of over 200 talented individuals, organized across four specialized teams. Each team brings its expertise to life through best-in-class work, crafting transformative experiences for our clients. Our shift to a fully remote model has opened new doors for creativity, flexibility, and stronger client relationships. This approach not only strengthens our culture but also allows us to embrace diverse voices, perspectives, and ideas.

We’re passionate about career growth, personal support, and work-life balance—values that are central to everything we do. At Instrument, we foster a culture of safety and belonging that empowers people, celebrates their unique talents, and fuels innovation. We believe our differences make us stronger, and we’re dedicated to cultivating a workplace that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve. Instrument is an equal opportunity workplace - we are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity/expression, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We also consider qualified applicants regardless of criminal histories, consistent with legal requirements.

We will work to ensure individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation throughout the hiring process and in the workplace. These adjustments ensure that individuals with disabilities have an equal opportunity not only to get a job, but successfully perform their job tasks to the same extent as people without disabilities.

Here, we strive to provide the support, connections, and encouragement to do your best work. Come join us and help create the future!

You are an experienced lead strategist that enjoys leveraging well-informed brand and consumer insights to create compelling and channel-right strategies for brands you are passionate about. From discovering opportunity spaces through audience research and competitive audits to developing brand frameworks and customer journeys, you understand how to create consumer value across the digital landscape. You are able to quickly understand a brand’s digital ecosystem and can balance being an advocate for the audience you’re trying to reach with the business goals that have been identified. You’re an excellent communicator and influencer that thrives in a fast-paced, highly-collaborative and multi-disciplinary team. You know your client’s business as well as, or better than they do - and know how to maintain vibrant client relationships that contribute to the bottom line.

What You'll Do

• Report to the Strategy Director
• Partner with the Strategy Director on your team to contribute to the broader strategic direction across the team, including creating case studies and sharing internal knowledge, mentoring less senior strategists and creating deeper relationships with clients
• Lead the strategy process on 1- 2 client projects within an integrated client teamWork with the team, but also operate autonomously and provide value throughout the entire project cycle
• Partner with the account leadership team to build and deepen trusted relationships with clients
• Advocate for putting humans at the center of the digital experiences that we design for clients
• Navigate the balance of user needs, client goals and the requirements of the team throughout a project
• Present approaches and recommendations in a compelling way to our teams and clients
• Design and facilitate client workshops, stakeholder and consumer interviews
• Lead the research into industry trends, competitive information, along with consumer insights to create and present concepts and recommendations in an impactful way to our teams and senior-level clients
• Partner with Research & Testing Team to conduct and sometimes lead research and user-testing activities, and produce meaningful and insights to guide the user experience
• Establish interaction models, user task flows and user interface specifications
• When necessary, lead the design of journey maps, navigation design, sitemaps, information architecture, detailed wireframes and more to support the end-to-end user experience

What You'll Bring

• 7+ years of experience in user experience, information architecture, digital narrative development and brand foundations, including projects for large and small brands
• Comfort working on a singular account and or iterative project for 1+ years in addition to intermittent shorter term engagements
• Ability to contribute to the work, from concept to completion, with an understanding of the design, technical and business effects associated with user-centered strategic recommendations
• Experience designing and defining documentation for digital experiences and products, such as functional requirements, experience maps, wireframes, personas, user flows, and other UX artifacts
• A demonstrated ability to think strategically across a range of projects and industries. In addition to UX, experience could include digital brand, digital content and information architecture, digital user experience and interaction design, mobile applications, digital marketing, social media and campaigns, and digital transformation 
• Experience leading and supporting workshops with mid-senior level clients applying Design Thinking frameworks
• Experience with user testing tools, to conduct research and determine informed insights to guide the refinement of digital products and experiences
• Success partnering with and presenting to clients, managing their requests and implementing feedback
• Experience working closely with creative and technical partners
• Experience mentoring less senior strategists in the craft

Pay Range

• The expected pay range for this position is $110,00 - $135,000 for our base US Region 3*. We have three regional pay ranges that are adjusted for cost of living (US1 +15%, US2 +7.5%, US3 Base), *learn more about our pay philosophy and cost of living adjustments.

What We Offer

Flexible, Hybrid Work Environment

Great Compensation with Annual Reviews (Learn more about our Pay Philosophy)

Annual Profit Sharing

401(k) Matching with Immediate Vesting

Robust Medical, Vision, and Accident Insurance

Generous Paid Holidays and unlimited PTO

Sabbaticals

Monthly Wellbeing Stipend

Career Management and Leadership Training