Senior Innovation Designer Jobs

[PLEASE NOTE: This posting will remain open until June 10, 2023. To ensure equal opportunity for applicants, we will review candidate materials starting on June 11, 2023. Submit your CV and cover letter to [email protected]. We look forward to hearing from you!]

// About Us

We are a team of urbanists and strategists creating solutions to foster community inclusion and housing opportunities for all.We have a long history of helping communities reach their housing and community development goals. SHS Consulting is a Canadian consulting firm dedicated to delivering excellence in housing policy and research, affordable housing development, and business innovation.

Since 1999, SHS Consulting has played a critical role in working with governments in every corner of the country to evolve their role in the housing system and guide non-profit organizations to reimagine their businesses, build new social purpose real estate, and launch impactful programs and services. The SHS team has prepared more than 250 housing-related studies, strategies, action plans and evaluations; conceived new business models to increase the development of affordable housing; been involved in over $1 billion in social purpose real estate development; and engaged with a broad range of stakeholders including elected officials, government representatives, non-profit support agencies and housing providers, the private sector, and people with lived experience.

We combine deep subject matter knowledge and training across the housing system with our extensive experience as consultants, strategists, and researchers. This unique combination of subject matter and process expertise yields plans and strategies that are thorough, grounded in evidence, and address each community’s individual needs.

// The Opportunity

SHS Consulting is looking to grow our team with the addition of a Senior Innovation Designer. This position is an exciting opportunity to play a lead role in systems change and innovation projects in the housing and homelessness-serving sectors. The Senior Innovation Designer will work primarily with the Business Innovation practice area at SHS Consulting, acting as a key client-facing team member. Your work will span from designing new processes for democratizing the real estate development process to creating new housing models to support households in core housing need and people with disabilities. In addition, you will have the opportunity to work both at the local grassroots level with non-profit organizations and agencies delivering housing and homelessness services, and at the national level with all levels of government. Specific projects will be dependent on the clients we are working with during your employment term.

The primary role of the Senior Innovation Designer is to work with your fellow SHS Team members in connecting the policies, business models, and programs we work on to the clients and people we seek to serve. This work includes designing, planning, and executing qualitative research with target populations (in many cases, vulnerable groups seeking affordable housing, and other special interest groups), government officials, and housing and homelessness sector leaders; conducting analysis and synthesis to turn insights from research into solutions to business and social challenges; and educating clients on human-centred design research and innovation methodologies, bringing our clients along the journey.

What You’ll Do

1.Project strategy and business development

• Play a key role in working with the Partner(s), Principal(s), and our clients to develop and shape your project’s strategic directions, intent, and desired impact to support housing opportunities for all in Canada
• Play an active role in SHS’s business development activities, including proposal writing, workplan and budget development, seeking out new clients and opportunities, and liaising with potential project partners and associates
• Provide strategic advice to other SHS practice areas and team members looking to infuse innovation methodologies into their proposals, workplans, or project approaches

2.Qualitative research, co-design, and community engagement

• Design and deliver the appropriate materials to undertake the primary research and engagement activities (e.g., workshop materials, interview guides, lines of inquiry, design probes, etc.) to uncover fundamental needs, dynamics, and other research elements with participants
• Lead in shaping the overall project design and innovation methodology, including identifying key system actors to participate in the project, their roles, and the “journey” of qualitative research or engagement activities to undertake (e.g., selecting methods such as survey tools, focus groups, workshops, design probes, etc.)
• Work with your team to arrange the logistics of engagement activities such as preparing required participant communications, invitations, and recruitment, pre-read materials, and in-workshop materials

3.Secondary research: environmental scans, foresight scans, and literature reviews

• Conduct foresight scans of signals and trends; pull out critical drivers of change affecting the future of housing and social services
• Identify, gather, and analyze demographic, economic, financial, market or housing sector data or information required to inform or evaluate public policy initiatives, new programs or services, or systems change efforts
• Prepare a plan to undertake secondary research to support the primary research and community engagement conducted as part of your project; identify relevant sources and lines of inquiry to framework secondary research activities

4.Synthesis and development of strategic design recommendations and insights

• Lead the synthesis of both primary and secondary research activities (quantitative and qualitative data), including coding data, pattern-finding, and clustering, and drawing out key insights and implications to inform business decisions and strategic directions
• Represent your key insights and findings using visual representations, frameworks, or conceptual models to communicate complex concepts and dynamics to a range of audiences

5.Service design, program development, and low-fidelity prototyping

• Conduct solution-testing activities such as key informant interviews or focus groups to test, evaluate, and refine your models or prototypes
• Bring your research to life by translating key insights and findings into service design blueprints, program delivery models, business models, or low-fidelity prototypes to be presented to key stakeholders

6.Project Management and Communications

• Act as a primary client-facing project team member, providing project management updates and communications to the project client
• Work with your project team to keep track of key project milestones, work plan status, and project tasks

7.Training and Mentorship

• Provide human-centred design, systemic design, and innovation expertise to other SHS practice areas and team members when needed
• Oversee the work of others, including providing written feedback, support, and mentorship

What it Takes to Thrive

At SHS, we pride ourselves on providing team members with the opportunity to work on a range of projects, all aimed at creating housing opportunities for all across Canada. This position would be a great fit for you if you…

• Have experience working within the ambiguity of new projects and spaces, guiding your project team and clients through the design process towards meaningful impact and outcomes
• Have a desire to create compelling written and spoken communication to drive change in the housing system in Canada
• Have a passion for exploring the housing and economic systems in Canada and beyond, with a curiosity to uncover dynamics or perspectives that may lie beneath the surface
• Have a keen interest in working client-facing, providing excellent customer service and project management to a range of housing and homelessness-serving sector clients
• Are motivated by working in dynamic conditions where you may transition from working collaboratively with your project team to working independently
• Have a love for facilitating, getting “out into the field” to speak with stakeholders, and navigating the difficult conversations required for systems change

A great SHS team member embodies the principles of being inclusive of people and diverse ideas, being externally focused to deliver great value to the people we serve, being accountable to your team, being collaborative and finding avenues to help others excel, being innovative to solve problems by challenging the status quo, and embracing a spirit of continuous learning to raise expectations for yourself and others by broadening and deepening your skills and learning from past experiences. Some of your experience and qualifications may include:

• Strong interpersonal skills, with the ability to create spaces for marginalized groups and populations to participate in co-design or research activities
• Sound analytical thinking, problem-solving, planning, prioritization, project management, and execution skills
• 5+ years’ work experience in human-centred design or innovation, preferably in a social purpose, public policy, or housing context
• Knowledge of the affordable housing sector in Canada
• Post-secondary degree in strategic foresight, innovation, business, design thinking, social sciences, or another related field, or equivalent work experience
• Demonstrable experience leading design or innovation methodologies from problem finding and framing to solution development, prototyping, and road mapping for implementation

// Our Hiring Practices

SHS Consulting is an equal opportunity employer committed to nurturing an inclusive and accessible environment. We are dedicated to building a team that reflects the diversity of our community, including those with disabilities. Should you require accommodation or support in any aspect of our recruitment and selection process, we will work with you to meet your needs.