Creative Strategy & Product Design Lead - Lab49 (New York)

ION Group

  • New York City, NY
  • Permanent
  • Full-time
  • 1 month ago
LAB49 is a strategic consulting firm that designs and builds digital products for the world's leading investment banks, hedge funds, asset managers, and fintech startups. We're seeking a strategic but entrepreneurial Creative Strategy & Product Design Lead to sit at the at the intersection of pitch development, creative concepting, and client-facing delivery.This is a hybrid role: you'll lead the creative charge on new business pursuits while also delivering high-value product design work for clients. You'll work across functions to craft narratives, prototypes, and concepts that win work - then help shape and deliver the strategic phases of engagements that reflect that same bold thinking. We're looking for someone who is energized by sales-stage ambiguity, excels at executive-level storytelling, and brings polish and originality to every conversation.About YouYou're a rare hybrid - part strategist, part storyteller, part product designer. You think commercially and act creatively. You're just as comfortable shaping an executive pitch as you are prototyping a new user experience - and you instinctively frame problems in ways that drive clarity and momentum.You excel in ambiguity and bring structure to open-ended challenges. Your strength lies in distilling vague ideas into clear, elegant solutions - whether crafting a product interface, building a persuasive concept deck, or shaping a go-to-market narrative. You bring a confident design voice to the room, articulating user needs in ways that resonate with both product teams and business leaders.You're energized by growth - in the business, in the work, and in your own craft. You lead by example, elevate those around you, and bring a human-centered lens to even the most technical or abstract environments. Whether you're in a design review, a strategic workshop, or a business development pitch, you deliver clarity, momentum, and measurable impact.You're not precious about where ideas come from, but you are particular about how they're expressed. You know that in high-stakes Financial Markets, how we tell the story is part of the solution - and you hold a high bar for both the craft of communicating ideas and bringing them to life.About the RoleThis is a dual-focus role that blends creative leadership in new business pursuits with high-impact delivery on product discovery engagements. You'll drive pitch development, concept creation, and early-stage storytelling - then help bring those ideas to life through product visioning, design execution, and cross-functional collaboration. Your work will span the full lifecycle of opportunity creation and delivery, shaping both how we win work and how we deliver it.Key Responsibilities
  • New Business & Strategic Growth (50%)
  • Lead creative development for GTM offerings, pursuits, and strategic pitches - crafting narratives, prototypes, and frameworks that resonate with financial services buyers.
  • Translate business and technical complexity into clear, compelling stories that showcase our strategic and product design capabilities.
  • Partner with business development, product, and design leaders to shape top-priority pursuits and sales-stage artifacts (e.g., clickable prototypes, go-to-market concepts, innovation provocations).
  • Evolve a creative sales toolkit - including evolving case studies, frameworks, and industry-specific assets.
  • Contribute to firmwide positioning, thought leadership, and market-facing materials.
Client Engagement & Product Design (50%) * Serve as a creative and design lead on strategic client engagements - shaping product vision, uncovering user needs, and guiding cross-functional teams to effective solutions.
  • Facilitate research, discovery workshops, and user-driven roadmap strategy to drive clarity and alignment across stakeholders.
  • Deliver compelling product design work - from user journeys and wireframes to polished prototypes - that aligns with business objectives and user goals.
  • Present and articulate ideas to executive stakeholders with polish and executive presence, building trust across clients and internal teams.
  • Collaborate closely with engineers and strategists to ensure feasibility and cohesion in delivery.
Performance Metrics * Revenue Contribution: minimum 50%+ billable utilization on client engagements
  • New Business Impact: Value and conversion of supported pursuits (measured quarterly)
  • Creative Throughput: Volume of creative assets, frameworks, or concepts developed
  • Stakeholder Satisfaction: Internal and client feedback on collaboration, impact, and communication.
What We're Looking For
  • 10+ years in UX/product design, innovation, or brand/creative strategy - with experience in consulting, design studios, or growth-focused environments
  • Demonstrated ability to lead all phases of the design process - from research to visioning to delivery - across complex, ambiguous problem spaces
  • Strong portfolio showcasing strategic product thinking, executive-level storytelling, and high-fidelity design work (including in fintech or financial services)
  • Skilled in turning abstract challenges into visual artifacts that drive decisions (e.g., mockups, canvases, clickable prototypes, frameworks)
  • Hands-on fluency in tools like Figma, MS365, Adobe, Miro, etc
  • Experience contributing to business development efforts - from early discovery through proposal development and pitch delivery
  • Confident communicator with excellent visual and verbal storytelling skills
  • Curious, collaborative, and comfortable working in fast-paced, consultative environments with minimal structure
  • Strongly preferred but not required: background in Financial Services, FinTech or related B2B products
Why join LAB49?At LAB49, you'll work on cutting-edge digital solutions with some of the brightest minds in the industry, and in one of the most complex and fast-moving sectors : Financial Services. You'll thrive in a fast-paced, innovative environment where your creativity and leadership make a real impact - on both our clients and our Product Design practice Whether helping win new engagements or shaping the user experience of next-gen trading platforms, you'll bring clarity, creativity, and commercial impact to every stage of the journey.The base salary range for this role is $190,000 - $240,000. Placement within the range provided above is based on the individual's relevant experience and skills for the role and level.Base salary is only one component of our total compensation package. Employees may be eligible for a discretionary bonus, which is determined upon company and individual performance.Salary range disclosure as required by S9427A when hiring in New York.Lab49/ION is committed to maintaining a supportive and inclusive environment for people with diverse backgrounds and experiences. We respect the varied identities, abilities, cultures, and traditions of the individuals who comprise our organization and recognize the value that different backgrounds and points of view bring to our business.Lab49/ION adheres to an equal employment opportunity policy that prohibits discriminatory practices or harassment against applicants or employees based on any legally impermissible factor.

ION Group