The Brand Business Director role encompasses prospecting for new business and the ongoing development of ASTRO’s Brand Communications and Design creation and consulting services. This role is responsible for the entire account development process including lead generation, presentations, speaking engagements, proposals and RFP responses. Also, often supporting and supplementing Brand Strategy, Design and Development in collaboration with ASTRO’s Brand Creative Director. The position is primarily focused on new client relationships and secondarily on "new" business from existing accounts.

Job Responsibilities

Consultative Sales:
Lead individual and team efforts that contribute to successful new business acquisitions:
• Point of view development; internally and for clients through consultation
• Appropriate levels of due diligence
• Pitch strategy; content positioning and ASTRO marketing support
• Pricing / proposal strategy and content
• Team integration; (i.e. Partner, Creative Director, Program Director, etc.)
• Strategically drive thoughtful RFP initiatives

Lead identification, cultivation:
• Targeted lead generation; prospecting as needed
• Presentations and lead generation materials: case studies, leave-behinds
• Negotiation and conversion of opportunities into client relationships
• Work with PA partners and related design & innovation partner/collaborators
• Meet annual targeted business goals (both personal and team goals)

Team Collaboration:
• Develop strategies for optimal integration of all ASTRO competencies to best meet client needs
• Help build a network of Partnerships (UI/UX, Ad Agencies, Research, Venture Capital etc.)
• Establish business objectives for Brand/Digital capability growth with Directors and Partners
• Identify new growth opportunities in different sectors

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities:
• Proven Business Development / Account Leadership
• Strong negotiation skills
• Self-starter, ambitious
• Ability to understand and represent the ASTRO story through a client service-driven model
• Excellent communication skills: engaging public speaker and effective proposal writer
• Intrinsic knowledge on how to qualify and offer relevant insights for prospective clients
• Detail-oriented, with strong client service and follow-through skills
• Strong understanding of process and production of brand and digital projects
• Strong understanding of roles and responsibilities of a design team
• Highly driven team player

Education and Experience:
Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree at an accredited university. Minimum of 6+ years of successful business development and/or account management experience within a professional design firm and/or digital or advertising agency. Client-side marketing leadership experience a plus.

Astro Studios is looking for a Business Coordinator (BC) to join our San Francisco studio to support the growth of Astro within our business development, sales and marketing efforts. You will work in our creative, inclusive environment with the talented Astro Insights, Product, and Brand Design teams, and in close collaboration with Astro partners and our business growth team. As BC, you will onboard and manage new business leads and meetings as a generous portion of your responsibilities. You will wrangle input and content and streamline it into deadline-driven, cohesive, professional business development documentation and marketing materials.

Ensuring Astro client meetings and client communications are well-coordinated and planned will drive customer success and enable our teams to focus on their creative efforts. You will also work with the Astro team to plan, assist in developing, and produce marketing and public relations content for press releases, presentations, social media, Astro events and email newsletters, all executed at the highest levels of quality to properly reflect the storied Astro brand.

This position will report to Directors and Partners.

Job Responsibilities

Activities:
• Coordinate the onboarding of new business development and growth opportunities
• Organization and coordination of business development and growth activities
• Track and monitor status of business development leads, tools and activities
• Assist with execution of business development and partnership documentation such as Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs), Master Service Agreements (MSAs), Statements of Work (SOWs), etc.
• Perform new business saleslead follow-up activities, including meeting summaries, action items, and coordination of business development documentation execution
• Assist with proposal and quotation creation, including research, writing, editing, proofreading, and integrating input from Astro partners, directors, designers and program managers
• Support Astro personnel in coordination and execution of marketing communications content, including press releases, social media posts, website updates, email newsletters and contact databases
• Coordinate meetings, design events, conferences, trade shows and speaking engagements for Astro partners and directors
• Assist with Astro participation in annual design award competitions
• Assist with the planning and coordination of Astro design events and media contacts
• Assist in the creation of marketing and public relations collateral taken from Astro partnerships, projects, internal asset creation, and events as needed

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities:
• Excellent verbal and written communications skills
• Ability to consistently engage with clients and fellow team members in an approachable, professional manner
• Ability to work independently or as part of a team to meet deadlines
• Ability to demonstrate good decision-making and time management
• Ability to craft professional, well-written documentation and emails
• Experience in and a solid understanding of social media channels
• Detail-oriented, organized, and dependable
• Proficiency in Microsoft 365 suite
• Adobe Creative suite a plus but not necessary
• Experience with project management software such as Asana or Celoxis a plus

Experience:
• Minimum of 2 years of experience in a similar position in a business environment
• Experience working with stakeholders to craft business plans and documentation
• Experience planning, coordinating, and executing business, marketing, and program activities

Education:
Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited university

Astro Studios is search for a User Experience Design Director to help drive our UX Design offering. You will help grow our UX design team through both studio leadership as well as crafting dynamic user and customer journeys. As our UX Design Director you will help unify our Insights, Product Design, and Brand Communications teams through the application of contemporary experience design best practices and methodologies. Contributing to our growth goals by creating UX design strategies and proposals for our clients will be a core part of your responsibilities. You are comfortable working with technology that requires interweaving physical and digital user workflows. You are passionate about creating meaningful, intuitive experiences that elevate the humanity and quality of life. You will be the principal representative of human-centered design best practices with our clients and the primary advocate of UX design within Astro.

Job Responsibilities:
• Lead strategic UX design activities and projects at Astro
• Work with partners & directors to create of vision for the future of Experience Design at Astro
• Spearhead efforts to build our UX team through identification and mentoring of exceptional UX design talent
• Collaborate with our Insights, Product Design, and Brand Communications teams on multidisciplinary programs
• Manage cross-functional design teams on projects
• Support the growth team with development of project proposals
• Select the optimal methodologies and build UX design strategies for projects
• Support our Insights team with the execution of qualitative research and testing activities
• Build intuitive user & customer experiences through the creation of information architectures, workflows, and wireframes
• Support our Digital Designers with the creation of interactive prototypes
• Support our Brand team with development of engaging customer experiences
• Develop and interpret user stories
• Collaborate with engineering to translate user requirements into implementation plans
• Represent Astro UX design with clients and at public events
• Participate in PR, marketing, and branding efforts as the role requires

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities:
• Deep knowledge of qualitative research and experience design best practices
• Extensive experience applying the methodologies of user research and experience design to real-world solutions
• Experience creating the artifacts of UX design, including journey maps, information architectures, workflows, wireframes, wireflows, and low-fidelity digital prototypes
• Experience managing UX design teams
• Experience collaborating and working with multidisciplinary teams
• Strong leadership skills
• Excellent written and oral communication skills
• Strong interpersonal and people skills
• Demonstrated practical success in taking UX & CX research findings and applying them to real-world business goals and challenges
• Experience using UX design software such as Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch, Figma, Principle, InVision, and/or similar
• Proficiency with the Microsoft 365 suite
• Proficiency with program management software such as Microsoft Project, Asana, Celoxis or similar
• Detail-oriented, with strong client service and follow-through skills

Education and Experience:
Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree at an accredited university or equivalent. Minimum of 8+ years’ experience with a focus on user research and experience design; 3+ years managing UX design teams

The Copywriter will work across the Digital, Design and Brand teams, to support copy needs for brand communications, strategy, research & insights, and ASTRO marketing initiatives as needed. The ideal candidate will have relevant design, marketing and/or communications experience, demonstrating a strong understanding of how to craft brand language, tone and messaging, across various markets and business channels ranging from digital properties to complex concepts, business to social media and marketing. A keen perspective on creating social content is required as responsibilities for both clients and ASTRO will be expected. Additionally, the writer will have the opportunity to refine ASTRO’s brand, tone, and establish a structure for other collaborators.

Job Responsibilities

Activities:
• Creation of engaging content with a distinct voice to be disseminated across various channels and platforms
• Production of error-free edited content
• Presentation of concepts and underlying strategic thinking to business leaders
• Interpretation of creative direction and adaptation of points from creative briefs into persuasive copy concepts
• Flexibility in writing styles across different needs that range from creative copy, editorial copy, and foundational brand copy
• A varying degree of on-going projects from brand, to industrial design, to marketing initiatives will be active concurrently

Team Collaboration:
• Collaboration with Partners, Directors and creative teams in production of content
• Client-facing collaboration and presentation
• Participation with the Marketing team and brand initiatives
• Collaboration with digital team for web/app projects/initiatives

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities:
• Highly creative, curious, and imaginative
• Ability to communicate skillfully and effectively across all team and client team members
• Keen and fine-tuned attention to detail, accuracy and ability to edit own work
• Empathetic POV and strong ability to communicate brand values
• Ability to simultaneously manage multiple projects with short deadlines
• Demonstrable success in managing a business social media presence
• Experience in production of copy for digital, print and video content
• Understanding of user experience
• Proficiency in Microsoft Office Suite
• Solid understanding of SEO concepts a plus

Education and Experience:
Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing, Journalism or Communications from an accredited university. Minimum of 2+ years experience in a similar position with proven success.

A Brand Designer participates and contributes as a creative team member. They should demonstrate a strong understanding of design, and the processes required to achieve it. They will be expected to have the ability to generate fresh, creative solutions and communicate them effectively.

The key expectation is to quickly learn to contribute with impact on projects. Designers at this level should strive to get good and comfortable with their design tools and continue to learn new ones. A Designer should also learn to effectively communicate with clients and staff as directed and modeled by the Creative Directors & Lead Designers. The designer will work on a variety of programs and learn and grow from more experienced designers to gain a basic understanding of the business side of design consulting.

Finally, ASTRO is a distinct brand within the global marketplace. Our clients come to us for our strong, unique point of view, and hard-hitting approach. We ask all our designers to push the envelope, because that’s what our clients ultimately respect us for the most.

Job Responsibilities

Activities:
• Translation of client needs and branding strategies into design strategies
• Design of visual concepts using graphic design tools in 2D or 3D art
• Design of logos and layouts for print and digital media
• Selection of colors, fonts, photographs, layouts and other design elements to communicate creative concepts
• Articulation and pitching of design concepts to Directors and teams
• Ideation and design of social content and Astro brand material
• Design and management of presentation documents

Team Collaboration:
• Must have strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to partner with colleagues and be receptive to the ideas of others
• Must have ability to take direction and accept constructive criticism from Lead Designers and Creative Directors
• Will work with other capabilities ranging from Strategy/Insights, to Marketing
• Will have the freedom and encouragement to express creative POV
• Will work with the teams across multiple categories of design
• Will work on more than one project at once

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities:
• Up-to-the minute knowledge of global trends, technology and fashion
• Ability to demonstrate insightful, fresh conceptual thinking
• Ability to deliver effective written and oral communication
• Ability to prioritize work and manage time effectively
• Ability to meet deadlines and demonstrate reliability
• Detail-oriented and organized
• Strong understanding of visual communication principles such as shape, form, color, composition, etc.
• Strong understanding of digital design and social platforms
• Expert understanding of graphic applications such as Illustrator, Photoshop, InDesign, etc.
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite, Sketch
• Photography/Video is a strong plus
• Motion / Interactive design skills a strong plus
• Understanding of digital prototyping tools for product, mobile and web a bonus

Education and Experience:
Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree in Graphic Design, Visual Communications or relevant equivalent at an accredited university. Minimum of 1+ years in a similar position with similar responsibilities in the field of Brand and Graphic Design

An Industrial Designer participates and contributes as a creative team member. He/she should be able to demonstrate a strong understanding of design, and the processes required to achieve it. You will be expected to have the ability to generate fresh, creative solutions and communicate them effectively.

The key expectation here is to quickly learn to contribute with impact on projects. Designers at this level should strive to get good and comfortable with their design tools and continue to learn new ones. A Designer should also learn to effectively communicate with clients and staff as directed and modeled by the Creative Directors & Lead Designers. You will work on a variety of programs, and this is really a time to learn and grow from the more experienced designers around you, and to gain a basic understanding of the business side of design consulting.

Finally, ASTRO is a distinct brand within the global marketplace. Our clients come to us for our strong, unique point of view, and hard-hitting approach. We ask all our designers to push the envelope, because that’s what our clients ultimately respect us for the most.

Job Responsibilities:
Activities:
• Development of product design concepts from client requirements
• Confirmation of product design specifications with clients
• Preparation of design specifications via sketching and CAD
• Articulation and pitching of product design concepts to Directors and teams
• Develop user scenario and experience storyboards
• Build physical mock-ups and study models for concept evaluation
• Generate high resolution renderings
• Participate in consumer and market research

Team Collaboration:
• Must have strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to partner with colleagues and be receptive to the ideas of others
• Must have ability to take direction and accept constructive criticism from Lead Designers and Creative Directors
• Will work with the product development team across all stages of the process: brainstorming and sketching, consumer research, prototyping, product testing, 3D CAD modeling, renderings and detailed design drawings
• Will work with the teams across multiple categories of products such as consumer electronics, packaging, soft goods, furniture, medical devices, etc.
• Support internal Astro projects or marketing efforts, generating any needed assets and materials
• Work with the team to evaluate effectiveness of current ID tools and recommend any improvements or new tools
• Work with external vendors and partners to ensure design success

Knowledge / Skills / Abilities:
• Understanding of global trends, technology and fashion
• Ability to demonstrate insightful, fresh conceptual thinking across a range of product experiences
• Empathy regarding solving human problems and keen awareness of usability issues
• Passion about creating delightful moments across the entire user experience
• Ability to deliver effective written and oral communication
• Ability to prioritize work and manage time effectively
• Ability to meet deadlines and demonstrate reliability
• Detail-oriented and organized
• Inspiring, comprehensive 2D visualization skills via sketching, Illustrator, Photoshop, etc; ability to convey employing a variety of creative techniques
• Computer proficiency in 3D modeling; 3D form development skills via SolidWorks, Keyshot, Rhino, Alias, etc.
• Basic knowledge of prototyping and manufacturing processes; ability to arrange internal components to make products easier to manufacture, assemble, service and recycle
• Proficiency in Adobe Creative Suite
• Knowledge and skills in User Experience a plus

Education and Experience:
Minimum of a Bachelor’s Degree in Industrial Design or equivalent at an accredited university. Minimum of 2+ years in a similar position with similar responsibilities in the field of Industrial Design