Senior Design Strategist - Essentials and Beauty

About us: 

Working at Target means helping all families discover the joy of everyday life. We bring that vision to life through our values and culture. Learn more about Target here. 

Team Overview: 

A team within our Essentials & Beauty business leading trend forecasting and driving bold strategies across categories and the enterprise. We seek diverse skill sets and experiences to create compelling and differentiated strategies that shape future business, brand, and product vision, connect to enterprise strategic initiatives, and uncover new opportunities for long-term growth. 

Position Overview: 

As a Sr. Design Strategist in Essentials & Beauty you will lead and navigate work building concepts and developing strategic vision across a multitude of areas, such as team capabilities, strategic initiatives, process and roadmaps, and synthesizing data and research through clear, compelling methods. You will be a part of a team of highly collaborative and creative strategic thinkers who bring to life a unique vision. This will be accomplished by problem solving with partners, building unique frameworks, driving deep research to provoke innovation and potential– especially in support of growth and differentiation. Your collaboration with partners across our teams will result in identifying opportunities and bringing the ideas and strategy to life. 

You will be accountable for executing compelling vision, building strong partnerships and working as a team to identify the greatest potential within our businesses. This will be accomplished through: 

CONCEPT AND VISION 

• Lead synthesis and analysis of diverse and complex information into a clear vision or concept using multiple sources of input (trend forecasting, insight collection, data analysis) and framing opportunities in a way that is inspirational to teams and tangible to businesses. 

• Exceptional visual design and storytelling skills, translating strategic concepts into compelling, polished outputs that bring ideas to life and drive clarity and alignment across stakeholders 

• Strong ability to identify opportunities for growth for business advancement shown in a clear and compelling presentation 

• Ability to drive deep industry research across categories; able to forecast category, brand, business or guest segment trends to advance long-term strategic efforts. 

• Willingness to experiment with new approaches, build innovative frameworks and challenge ways of working to advance strategic goals and vision  

PARTNERSHIP AND INFLUENCE 

• Build trusted relationships and collaborate with partners across skillsets and teams 

• Coordinate and collaborate effectively with partners across product categories, brands, and merchandising to maximize strategic impact of work 

• Influence leadership discussions and navigate conversations with teams, partners and leaders to advance strategic vision. 

• Leverage own experience and knowledge bringing a new and fresh perspective on creative and critical thinking. 

TEAM AND VALUES 

• A mentor to team members fostering inclusion, engaging in positive team culture and modeling collaboration 

• Lead with curiosity—continuously exploring trends, culture, design, emerging technologies, and new ways of thinking to inspire fresh ideas, challenge assumptions, and elevate creative outcomes 

• Consistently engages, inspires and builds trust with team and partners 

• Consistent champion of Target values of inclusivity, connection and drive 

• Seek feedback, continually refine your craft, and contribute to raising the creative standard across the team 

• This team works on-site 4 days/week from our Downtown MN campus

About you:  

• 6+ years experience in Design Strategy, Concept Design, or similar area. 

• MBA, Agency or Consultant experience desired but not required. 

• Exceptional aesthetic sensibility with the ability to craft visually compelling narratives through graphic layout, information design, content organization, and strategic storytelling. 

• Strong abilities in brand building acumen and fluency with connection to broader strategic initiatives  

• Exceptional at developing partnerships and working in a team environment 

• Key strength in problem solving and innovation and comfortable with ambiguity and open-ended opportunities. 

• Exceptional communicator with ability to advance vision via visual, written and verbal skillsets 

• Advanced proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign), Microsoft PowerPoint, and Excel, with the ability to create executive-level presentations, strategic frameworks, infographics, and polished visual communications. Experience with Adobe XD or similar experience design tools is a plus. 

• Ability to influence at all levels to deliver clear strategy and vision 

• Business acumen, market knowledge, ability to research and translate market/trend/data information into clear vision 

• Demonstrated ability to work independently with minimal supervision 

• Ability to successfully work in a team environment 

• Ability to respond to business objectives with creative, innovative, and cost-effective design solutions 

• Knowledge of product development, strategy or concepting processes 

This position will operate as a Hybrid/in office work arrangement based on Target’s needs. A Hybrid/in office work arrangement means the team member’s core role will need to be performed both onsite at the Target HQ MN location the role is assigned to and virtually, depending upon what your role, team and tasks require for that day. Work duties cannot be performed outside of the country of the primary work location, unless otherwise prescribed by Target. Click here if you are curious to learn more about Minnesota https://corporate.target.com/about/purpose-history/communities/grants-corporate-giving/twin-cities-market