Full Time 

Surry Hills (Hybrid 3/2)

Job Overview

We are looking for an Associate Strategist to work closely alongside senior leadership and help amplify impact across client leadership, strategic framing, thought leadership, new business, and delivery.

This role is designed for someone early in their career, around two to three years in or with an equivalent self-directed track record, who brings a designer’s mindset to strategy and is already integrating AI into how they think and work.

You will take ownership of the research, synthesis, content development, information architecture, AI-assisted analysis, and early-stage problem framing that often bottlenecks senior strategic throughput. In doing so, you will raise the quality of what goes out the door while accelerating how we get there.

This is a role for someone who moves from thinking to making, and from support to meaningful contribution, quickly.

What you’ll do

• Lead and execute research, synthesis, and early-stage problem framing
• Develop strategic narratives, content, and information architecture
• Apply AI tools in practical, demonstrable ways to enhance thinking and output
• Turn ambiguity into clear points of view at pace
• Contribute to client work, new business, and thought leadership
• Move work into delivery where appropriate, not just prepare it

Key attitudes

• A genuine curiosity about how humans and machines interact, grounded in lived experience
• Action-oriented, with a bias to move once a view is formed
• Focused on outcomes over outputs, caring about what the work achieves
• Strong sense of ownership, taking responsibility for both success and failure
• Self-aware, understanding limits and asking for input when it matters
• Constantly stretching, treating “good enough” as a starting point

Key capabilities

• Demonstrable fluency with AI tools, with examples of workflows, prototypes, or work that would not exist without them
• Ability to form strategic perspectives quickly under ambiguity
• A designer’s mindset, balancing empathy and systems thinking
• Comfort moving from thinking to making without needing direction at every step
• Strong fundamentals in research, synthesis, content, and information architecture
• Ability to operate across strategy, experience, and technology conversations

Why this role matters

This role exists to create leverage. By taking ownership of high-value strategic work and elevating its quality, you enable senior leaders to focus on the areas where they can have the greatest impact.

In return, you will be trusted with real responsibility, exposed to complex problems early, and given the space to grow quickly.

Renumeration

In line with early mid-level performance salaries commensurate to level of experience and breadth of skills. 

Equality, Diversity & Inclusion

Deepend is an Equal Opportunities Employer. We believe that diversity is vital to our ability to provide our clients with the best recommendations and ideas and as a result we are committed to fostering a varied and inclusive work environment. Your race, colour, ancestry, religion, gender, gender identity, national origin, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability have no bearing on our hiring decisions. If you have a disability or special need that requires accommodation, please don’t hesitate to let us know.

Working at Deepend

You won’t find a tighter ensemble of individuals who truly value positive collaboration and the collective harnessing of our individual strengths for a greater united outcome. We are - CURIOUS, BRAVE, ENERGETIC & KIND.

Our unique, collaborative consultancy group model allows us to shape lean, purpose-fit teams to suit any brief. This sees us work on a diverse range of projects, from international product releases to bespoke technical platform developments geared at driving transformative moments for businesses.

So, if you are passionate about what you do and are looking to join a close-knit group of people working on some of the most interesting projects of your career, we’d love to hear from you.

To get a flavour of what it’s like to work with us check out our Careers page or our Social Channels.