Content Strategy and Design Lead

We’re looking for an experienced content designer and strategist with a passion for good communication, great digital products, user-centred content models, human-centred design processes, and empowering organisations to manage and publish great content.

We are mostly based in Yálla-birr-ang (Collingwood, Melbourne). We encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people with disability, people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds, mature age workers and lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTIQA+) people.

Before explaining the role, let’s start with a bit about what content means at Today.

What is content at Today?

The content team at Today are a diverse blend of content specialists and human-centred designers who collaborate across multi-disciplinary teams.

Designers at heart, the content team use co-design, design research, prototyping, and experience design to get to human-centred outcomes. We are not writers that fill boxes. We are T-shaped designers – we have broad design knowledge and use human-centred design to solve problems creatively, yet we lean into and contribute deep specialist knowledge as content designers, content strategists, communications specialists, UX writers, copywriters, information architects, and content operations specialists.

The team work closely with and are supported by the whole design team at Today, including interaction design, experience design, technology, research, strategy, and delivery, to bring the best possible content experiences to life. We do not work in a vacuum but are always multi-disciplinary by nature.

We align to the four emerging content roles discussed in the content community: content strategy, content design, content engineering, and content operations. (See this article for a deeper definition of each of these roles). An understanding of these roles will be critical to effectively supporting a team of content specialists at Today – they are broadly representative of the types of knowledge and skillsets we utilise on a daily basis.

It’s not essential that you are an expert in all of these roles. Being expert in two or more is ideal, along with a growth mindset to learn and develop the other areas over time.

Being a lead at Today also means you have a grasp of fundamental strategic design principles and methods, such as the double-diamond framework, problem framing, visioning, facilitation, design research (research planning and synthesis), and orchestrating experiences across channels and touchpoints.

About the role

As a content strategy and design lead, you will both a) lead projects and b) support and mentor a team of content specialists.

While supporting content practitioners is a key part of the role, the majority of your time will be spent leading projects and using your experience and knowledge to achieve great human-centred outcomes for our clients.

a) What does it mean to lead projects?

Leading projects will involve directly managing client relationships, facilitating challenging conversations, developing and advocating for solutions through adversity, and getting your hands dirty making prototypes, spreadsheets, and presentations. You may often be leading multiple projects at once, and will be working with multiple multi-disciplinary teams to achieve the goals you establish together.

b) What does it mean to support and mentor a team?

Supporting a team of content specialists (1–4 people) will mean mentoring people through formal and informal moments. The team will be working on a range of projects across a broad area of content challenges and subject matters, meaning two separate projects may draw upon two completely different areas and methods of content.

Your days will be spent

No day or week is the same at Today! Broadly, however, you will juggle three key areas of focus: applying content and design expertise, supporting and mentoring a team, and contributing to business development. Some weeks may be a mix of all three of these, others may require you to focus on one over another.

• Applying Content and Design Expertise

You will be a go-to within the business for knowledge on content strategy, content design, content engineering, and content operations, and be able to confidently practice a strategic design process in projects.

• Content Strategy Expertise
  • Creating strategic frameworks for content that aligns our client’s business and focuses their teams on a goal
  • Clarifying the channels, audiences and messages that will achieve a client’s comms goals and set a roadmap for rollout
  • Designing and delivering content and tools that change the minds and behaviour of users or customers, or helps people develop knowledge and skills
• Content Design Expertise
  • Writing and designing content in a way that authentically captures an organisation’s voice and engages people in what they’re doing
  • Writing sharp and punchy copy that helps people get a job done fast, efficiently and with care
• Content Engineering Expertise
  • Creating evidence-driven navigation systems that use the language people feel most comfortable using to find the information they need
  • Building content and data models that power search engines and personalised experience to deliver on the needs of users with the right language and data structure
• Content Operations Expertise
  • Helping content teams (teams of 1, 2-5, 5-15, 15-100+) establish internal processes for managing up and publishing content
  • Helping organisations adopt and embed a new way of managing content
• Strategic Design Methods and Leadership
  • Mapping a customer’s journey, understanding the most impactful moments for content to improve their experience, and providing examples that bring those content moments to life
  • Framing problems well by collecting the right inputs and clarifying outcomes
  • Conducting research with users and stakeholders to understand needs, gather insights, and collect content requirements
  • Workshop design and facilitation using remote tools for large stakeholder groups
  • Developing strategy, design principles, and user stories to move complex problems through a process to a simple outcome
• Supporting and Mentoring a Team
  • The team feels supported to do their best work, to pursue joy in their work as much as success, and to grow in a way that is compatible with their hopes and dreams
  • The content team is pushed to consider new ways to think about and work with content
  • You work closely with the Content Director to define how the content team operates, and align the outcomes of your team members to the goals of the total content team and business as a whole
• Contributing to Business Development and the Business Broadly
  • You contribute to business development efforts, helping your business director maintain a healthy pipeline of work
  • You can define a project approach for content projects and appropriately cost it for a client’s needs

About you

You have experience in content strategy, content design, or UX on big, complex digital projects. You have a knack for engaging stakeholders in a conversation about CMSs, CRMs, UX, IA, and the power of Plain English.

You have a clear vision for what makes good content, a sound knowledge of how the digital world works, and have led projects before.

You have deep knowledge of how content management systems are developed for a website, how organisations use content management systems to publish and manage content, how taxonomies and content models power content management systems (including search and architecture), and how menus and templates work to create a consistent user experience.

You see how your work fits into a bigger picture, and have a passion for contributing to making a real difference in people’s lives. You love being part of a project team, and working with a range of other skillsets to figure out the best ways to make change.

You will be able to demonstrate:

• Content design or content strategy experience (6+ years), including information architecture and content modeling
• An ability to facilitate IA and content development workshops with clients
• Write and edit content that is simple and compelling
• Experience mentoring junior and senior team members
• An ability to thrive in a collaborative, creative team environment
• You treat others with kindness, empathy and respect
• You are optimistic and bring humour, lightness and play into your work
• You approach every moment thinking ‘how can I help?’
• You must be legally able to work in Australia

We encourage everyone at all levels to apply for this role.

If you don’t have all the experience, this is not a deterrent. Please apply anyway, then be honest about what you’ve done and what you want to learn. We are interested in growing people within the role.

Working at Today

We work on work with purpose. Our projects see us finding solutions to big, complex challenges around climate, care and communities.

Above all else we strive to protect our team’s capacity for resilience and their general wellbeing. This goes beyond our dog-friendly workplace and regular pub lunches as a team.

• We offer a compelling career framework and learning budget to support your growth
• Today is a truly flexible workplace, making space and valuing the other important parts of your life, including generous parental leave and your birthday off
• You are actively empowered to help shape the business, the work we do and the impact we create
• We have an open workplace culture that asks for everyone’s input and is constantly welcoming new ideas and ways of working
• You will work in close-knit, multi-disciplinary, self-managed project teams that make interesting, beautiful things that positively impact the community
• Everyone is equally talented and trusts each other to experiment, and suggest new ways to crack client problems, there is no hierarchy
• There are frequent and respected check-in sessions—digitally or in person—to form strong team bonds
• You will have the opportunity to develop skills on the job through collaborating with great minds on complex problems
• We aspire to create the perfect conditions for creatives to do their best work, work they are proud of, work that makes a difference

About Today

We are Australia’s most awarded social impact agency.

We use design and technology to make change happen, at pace and at scale. In the last 12 months, we’ve designed and built Australia’s first online family violence intervention order, established a new approach to co-design for the Victorian mental health sector, built a peer-to-peer product that helps people learn Auslan, and launched a campaign to shift mainstream perceptions of climate change—plus many more.

Our practice is built on strong foundations of human-centred design and digital making. There are 60 of us, based mostly in Naarm (Melbourne), working across strategy, research, design, content, delivery and a wonderful support team.

You’ll experience a welcoming environment filled with smart, fun and caring people from a wide variety of backgrounds and disciplines, who are passionate about creativity, making change, and learning from each other.

Your expertise will be appreciated while you get busy making change in sectors like:

• arts, culture and public spaces
• children, youth and families
• cities, transport and housing
• climate, nature and energy
• education
• financial wellbeing
• First Nations
• health, wellbeing and care
• justice
• public service
• rural and regional communities, and
• sustainable economy

Learn more about our values, commitment to diversity, inclusion and equality and the way we work at today.design/careers.