Strategic Designer

About us

Vow is a food company - a very different one. We’re creating real meat products from animal cells instead of the animal itself. 

We’re bringing together cutting-edge innovations in science, engineering, culinary and design to make sustainable food that’s both irresistible and available to billions of people worldwide.

The role:

Vow is looking for a passionate Strategic Designer to join our future products team in Sydney.  

You'll use human-centered-design principles to develop a pipeline of exciting innovative food products and experiences that will eventually be released to customers in Singapore, Australia, Qatar and beyond, across a number of different customer facing brands.

This role would ideally suit someone who is comfortable not only guiding and conducting design strategy, in-field research and synthesizing insights, but also someone who has a desire to roll up their sleeves, and use their insights to develop real food prototypes in a fast paced environment alongside scientists, chefs, engineers and inventors.

This is a role that will require comfort with leaning into ambiguity, a desire to learn extremely fast and a passion for food, technology and the power they both have to create change.  

The experience you will bring:

• Have a passion for food, technology, the future of humanity and design thinking know-how to put you at the innovation intersection of food science and design.
• Significant experience with ethnographic research (quantitative and qualitative), divergent exploration, concept development and workshop facilitation.
• A background with product prototyping and testing, future visioning, and strategy development.
• An outstanding portfolio of work demonstrating strong human-centred design capabilities across a diverse range of projects.
• A natural ability to look at the critical path in a business that moves fast and prioritise accordingly.
• An insatiable intellectual curiosity and the ability to learn quickly in a complex space.
• You are proactive, get to work quickly and purposefully, and are biased towards action.
• A knack for translating insights into a cohesive story and an outstanding communicator. People find you engaging in person, assured and respectful in group discussions, and clear in writing. You are deeply satisfied by elegantly reflecting complexity in concise ways that captivate and inspire.
• 5+ years research and design experience within an agency or technology focused organization.=

You will:

• Use knowledge of design research methodologies to discover opportunity spaces for food product innovation, develop research approaches from a human centered perspective and then deliver insights that let us iterate on product prototypes.
• Develop creative ethnographic studies, ideating the right research materials (stimuli, interviews, kits, surveys, forms, etc.) and then executing either remotely or in-person (willing to travel internationally).
• Test our food prototypes with real people, ensuring we’re inching ever closer to irresistible products.
• Analyse qualitative and quantitative data to extract findings, and guide product prototyping.
• Work side-by-side with engineers, scientists, inventors, chefs and manufacturing teams to make incredibly compelling products.
• Evangelise design-thinking in an organisation that is super hungry to embody design principles.
• Work to build out the right team of designers.

What success looks like after 1 year:

• Explored and understood the cultural nuances of fine-dining customers in Singapore, translating this into a pipeline of products that we’re convinced about because we’ve validated them with real customers.
• After guiding the future-products team in research to uncover a number of attractive new food markets, you have worked iteratively with our engineers, scientists and food inventors to prototype new-generation food products that we’re sure once released will blows peoples minds.
• You have been able to help the team say ‘no’ to many different prototypes that aren’t good enough, based on consumer research and testing that you led.
• Provided human-centred insights that further drives the success of our first product /brand release at the end of 2022.

Vow, more than just a job. 

Who we are and why join:

• We are building a diverse, mission-led dream team of “Vowzers.” Our mission is to make food products for everyone. To do that well we need a workforce that’s representative of the people we serve. We celebrate multiple approaches and points of view - so we’re building a culture to match. Be yourself and come as you are.
• Work on cutting-edge technology. We’re bringing together cutting-edge innovations in science, engineering, and food, to recreate the world’s most tantalising and unique culinary experiences. All without compromising on ethics or our planet along the way. Since our inception in 2019, we have held the title of being the first startup to cultivate meat from the cells of an undomesticated animal, and have served up our exotic meats ranging from kangaroo dumplings to alpaca sliders in tastings with world-renowned chefs.
• Work with and learn from the best. Our team includes some of the world’s top scientists, innovators, operators, and creatives with decades of industry experience. Despite our experiences though, we all strive to build, break, learn, and repeat. We see the impossible as temporary and strive to learn and support our company and fellow Vowzers' growth as much as possible.
• We’re fully funded and ready to go. We are a growing Aussie biotech start-up backed by Square Peg Capital, Blackbird Ventures, Grok Ventures and Tenacious Ventures. Read more about why our investors are so excited about the future of Vow here.

Vow perks and benefits:

• Everyone is an owner. In addition to competitive base salaries, each and every ‘Vowzer’ owns equity in the company so we can all benefit from our hard work and future success.
• Generous paid parental leave. We offer 12 weeks for primary carers and 4 weeks for secondary carers.
• Generous relocation budget & support. Support for interstate or overseas team members and their families (including pets!)
• Flexible working hours and location. We value work-life balance. While we’re mostly back in the office, you’re free to choose the best way for you to work.
• Unlimited Personal Leave. At Vow we recognise that sometimes you need time off to recuperate, look after your mental health, or simply deal with an emergency. We put unlimited personal leave in place to empower you to truly bring your best self to work every single day and you are always paid for days taken off as personal leave.
• Transparent culture. Active transparency to let you effectively contribute to every facet of the business.
• Heaps of tasty samples from our culinary centre. Our fantastic "food inventors" on the Vow team are always cooking up new product prototypes, and all Vowzers are given the opportunity to taste, give feedback, and learn from their culinary prowess
• Company wide professional development & coaching. A huge focus on career support and growth, with access to lots of learning and development opportunities through lunch and learn events, access to webinars and conferences, and networking with our investor and tech community.
• Company wide social events. Monthly birthday celebrations, "Bio Beers" happy hours, breakfast before our fortnightly companywide "All Hands”, annual end of year event and many more. 
• An awesome converted warehouse office in Alexandria. Complete with a glass-walled lab, free snacks, a culinary centre and professional-grade coffee machine + premium coffee bean subscriptions available for all to use in the cafe, and a DIY workshop for all hands-on projects.
• Human and dog friendly office! An inclusive community and culture, in a welcoming office, complete with friendly “Vowzer” dogs!
• A variety of social clubs. We encourage all our Vowzers to build the culture with us and share what you love by creating social clubs across the business. From book clubs to hiking groups, we’re always looking for ways to learn and engage with our team.