Director, Design Strategy; Competency Manager

Who We Are: LINK is a fast-growing Woman Owned Small Business (WOSB) that leverages human-centered design to support strategy, innovation, communication, change, and branding within the federal government and adjacent industry partners. At LINK, we partner with engineers, futurists, and thought leaders to untangle complexity, discover opportunity, and communicate clearly with visual stories.

Let us be your partners in change.

About the Opportunity

The Director, Design Strategy; Competency Manager (CM) is responsible for the overall health, growth, and performance of the LINK Design Strategy competency. The CM directly manages a group of LINKmates while providing leadership for competency standards, capability development, workforce planning, talent acquisition, and employee experience across the competency. Working closely with Deputy Competency Managers, Project Team Leadership, and the Operations team, the CM helps ensure LINKmates are supported, developed, and positioned for success while maintaining a high-performing, collaborative culture aligned with LINK’s values. The CM provides leadership for competency-related priorities and initiatives while partnering with senior leadership to address opportunities, challenges, and organizational needs.

In addition to fulfilling the responsibilities of the Competency Manager, this role is expected to operate as an accomplished Design Strategy practitioner at the Director level. Maintaining deep expertise in the Design Strategy competency is essential to effectively coach and develop Design Strategists, contribute to competency standards and growth, and provide credible guidance on client work and professional practice.

The Design Strategy competency helps organizations solve complex challenges by applying human-centered design, design thinking, user research, facilitation, systems thinking, and strategic visualization to drive informed decision-making and organizational change. Design Strategists partner with clients to understand user needs, align diverse stakeholders, uncover insights, and co-create solutions that balance mission objectives, business priorities, and human outcomes. Through research, facilitation, visual thinking, and rapid prototyping, the Design Strategy competency transforms complexity into actionable strategies, experiences, and implementation approaches that enable lasting impact.

Responsibilities

Talent Management & Employee Development

• Directly manage assigned employees within the competency.
• Lead performance management activities, including coaching, feedback, development planning, performance reviews, and promotion recommendations.
• Support employee engagement, retention, career growth, and professional development.
• Foster a collaborative, inclusive culture aligned with LINK's values.
• Support onboarding and integration of new employees into the competency and broader organization.
• Address employee concerns, performance issues, and challenging personnel situations in partnership with leadership as needed.

Talent Acquisition & Workforce Planning

• Partner with Talent and Leadership teams to shape recruiting priorities, workforce plans, and hiring strategies that support competency growth.
• Participate in recruiting activities, including interviewing, candidate evaluation, selection, and onboarding.
• Identify capability gaps and anticipate future staffing needs to support competency growth.
• Build and maintain relationships with prospective talent and external communities that strengthen the competency talent pipeline.
• Help define role requirements, capability needs, and hiring criteria for competency-related positions.

Competency Health & Growth

• Establish and maintain competency standards, tools, frameworks, methodologies, and best practices.
• Lead competency development initiatives, including learning opportunities, mentorship, knowledge sharing, and capability-building efforts.
• Monitor emerging client needs, industry trends, and capability gaps to inform competency growth and investment priorities.
• Identify and recommend investments in hiring, development, tools, and capability-building initiatives that strengthen the competency.

Leadership Partnership & Operations

• Partner with Project Team Leadership to support staffing decisions, employee development, and project success.
• Provide support to project teams on an ad hoc basis.
• Collaborate with Deputy Competency Managers to ensure consistency in employee experience and competency operations.
• Represent and advocate for competency needs, priorities, and recommendations with leadership.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Design, Communication, Sociology, Psychology, Human-Centered Design, or a related field.
• 15+ years of experience in design strategy, service design, experience design, research, consulting, communications, or a related field.
• Ability to obtain and maintain a security clearance.
• Demonstrated people management experience, including performance management, coaching, employee relations, conflict resolution, and employee development.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor senior practitioners and foster a culture of continuous learning, collaboration, and design excellence.
• Experience building high-performing teams by shaping recruiting strategies, workforce planning, competency development, and learning initiatives aligned with business objectives.
• Demonstrated ability to assess organizational capability, identify emerging skill needs, and develop strategies that advance the long-term growth and maturity of a professional practice.
• Recognized expertise applying human-centered design, design thinking, systems thinking, facilitation, and research methodologies to solve complex organizational challenges.
• Experience designing and facilitating workshops, stakeholder engagements, and collaborative working sessions that drive alignment and informed decision-making.
• Demonstrated ability to advise senior leaders, shape strategic direction, and translate ambiguity into actionable strategies that drive organizational outcomes.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills and the ability to collaborate effectively with senior leaders, clients, and cross-functional teams.
• Approaches work with optimism, curiosity, sound judgment, and a collaborative mindset.
• Portfolio that demonstrates both design execution and strategic decision-making.

Work Schedule:

• Full time, 40 hours per week
• Some travel required to attend relevant events and conferences, and participate in LINK team events

Salary: We’re committed to providing competitive compensation, including locality adjustments based on the area. The base salary range for this position is $135,000 - $195,000. Your final offer will reflect your experience, qualifications, and geographic location.

Benefits:

• $100 monthly internet/cell phone stipend
• LINK sponsored healthcare benefits including medical, dental, vision
• Company-paid Short Term Disability Insurance
• 401K with employer contribution of up to 4%
• 11 Federal Holidays per year
• 15 days of Paid Time Off (PTO) per year
• Paid Holiday Time Off (Christmas Eve through the New Year)
• Annual bonus plan participation
• Annual profit sharing participation
• $2,000 Learning and Development program reimbursement
• Technology package that includes a LINK-owned MacBook Pro, monitor, mouse and keyboard

EOE