You will be a key creative contributor to AHEAD’s Design CoE — delivering high-impact presentation design, visual storytelling, and consulting communication outputs that directly influence pursuit outcomes and client engagement quality. This is a hands-on design role that combines deep craft excellence with an understanding of consulting context and business narrative. You will work at the intersection of data, design, and technology, collaborating closely with consultants, researchers, analysts, and technologists to create best-in-class presentation, visualization, and analytics solutions.

Your work will directly shape how sharply AHEAD’s ideas are expressed, how persuasively its stories land with CXO audiences, and how consistently the firm projects a consulting-grade visual standard across every client engagement.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES:

Design CoE Build-Out & Team Leadership

Actively contribute to the smooth operation of the Design CoE — following intake workflows, briefing processes, quality review standards, and turnaround benchmarks; suggest improvements to processes as experience grows.

Collaborate closely with fellow Visual Communication Specialists and Presentation Analysts; model a design culture grounded in creative excellence, delivery discipline, and continuous improvement; support onboarding of junior team members when needed.

Participate in structured onboarding and training programs; take ownership of personal skill development across design craft, consulting communication, and emerging tools — and share learnings informally with peers.

Manage personal workload effectively across concurrent consulting engagements and research publications; flag capacity or prioritization conflicts proactively to the Team Lead.

Consistently meet quality and turnaround benchmarks; actively seek feedback from the Team Lead and stakeholders to raise the bar on every deliverable.

Narrative Excellence & Strategic Design Partnership

Take primary ownership of complex, high-stakes design work — strategic proposals, executive communications, pursuit decks, and CxO/board-level presentations — delivering polished outputs with minimal iteration cycles.

Apply narrative excellence across consulting outputs: refining storylines, sharpening executive messaging, enhancing proposal storytelling, and translating insights into compelling slide sequences.

Transform unstructured inputs — scribbled notes, whiteboard captures, fragmented ideas, raw data, and oral briefs — into cohesive, structured, and visually compelling consulting narratives.

Collaborate with consulting and sales teams to develop differentiated win themes and visual pursuit strategies that strengthen proposal quality and CXO resonance.

Engage consulting stakeholders with recommendations on visual and narrative approach; build a reputation as a thoughtful creative collaborator who understands business context, not just design craft.

Translate analytical outputs into compelling visual stories and interactive experiences that make data and insight accessible and persuasive for client audiences.

Design interactive visualizations, exploratory data tools, and storytelling interfaces that elevate the quality and impact of AHEAD’s consulting outputs.

Consulting Presentation & Proposal Design

Execute end-to-end design of high-impact consulting presentations, executive proposals, and client-facing materials — from creative brief and storyboard through to polished, delivery-ready output.

Ensure all presentation materials comply with AHEAD’s brand guidelines, maintain visual consistency, and project a consulting-grade professional standard across every client engagement.

Conduct self-review and peer review of design output before delivery; apply zero-defect, brand-compliant standards and incorporate creative feedback constructively to continuously improve output quality.

Handle the design intake and briefing process for assigned requests — ensuring accurate scope capture, clear expectation-setting on timelines, and proactive communication with requestors throughout delivery.

Visual Innovation & Design IP Development

Actively contribute to the CoE’s design IP initiatives — building reusable templates, visual frameworks, and self-service assets that scale design quality across AHEAD’s consulting organization.

Contribute to and maintain AHEAD’s visual asset library: standardized presentation templates, brand-compliant design systems, reusable frameworks, consulting-grade iconography, infographic libraries, and presentation accelerators.

Adopt and champion AI-powered design and productivity tools within your own workflow; contribute to building a high-velocity, human-in-the-loop design practice that delivers speed, quality, and brand governance.

Identify and implement design productivity improvements — automation shortcuts, reusable components, smarter iteration approaches — that meaningfully reduce rework and speed up content refinement cycles.

Stay current with best-in-class visual communication practices at leading consulting and advisory firms; bring forward relevant design innovations and ideas to strengthen AHEAD’s creative edge.

Brand Stewardship & Standards

Apply and uphold AHEAD’s visual design language across all consulting outputs: presentation templates, color systems, typography standards, iconography libraries, chart styles, and data visualization frameworks.

Contribute to the maintenance and improvement of design standards, self-service playbooks, and consulting communication frameworks that enable consultants to produce brand-compliant, quality output independently.

Uphold consistency and quality of AHEAD’s visual identity across all consulting, research, and thought leadership outputs — proposals, client presentations, research publications, CxO Guides, and webinar materials.

QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE:

Essential

6–9 years of progressive experience in presentation design, visual communication, or consulting design, with demonstrated ability to independently deliver high-quality design outputs in a consulting, advisory, or professional services environment.

Expert-level PowerPoint proficiency — master-slide management, bespoke layout design, complex data visualization, advanced charting, animation, and end-to-end deck construction from scratch to consulting-grade finish.

Strong working proficiency in design tools for infographics, custom visual frameworks, icons, and publication-quality design assets.

Demonstrated experience with AI-powered presentation, design automation, and productivity tools used in a professional services or consulting environment.

Proven ability to translate unstructured inputs — notes, whiteboards, raw data, oral briefs — into polished, executive-ready consulting narratives and presentation materials.

Familiarity with design standards, brand systems, and template libraries; ability to apply and maintain them consistently across a range of consulting output types.

A strong portfolio demonstrating consulting-grade presentation design — proposals, executive decks, research publications, and data-rich visual storytelling — produced to a high professional standard.

Creative excellence — sets a high aesthetic and storytelling bar for personal output; consistently delivers design work that elevates the quality of consulting materials and earns the trust of stakeholders.

Strategic communicator — understands the business context behind every brief and translates consulting intent into visual narratives that persuade, not merely present.

Builder's mindset — comfortable working with ambiguity and incomplete briefs; brings a structured, solutions-oriented approach to every engagement and thrives in a fast-moving, high-expectation environment.

Innovation-oriented — actively explores new design tools, AI capabilities, and automation opportunities; eager to evolve personal workflows and contribute to the CoE’s technological and creative edge.

Preferred

Bachelor's or master’s degree in engineering, Graphic Design, Visual Communication, Communication Design, or a related creative discipline.

Prior experience in a consulting firm in a Visual Graphics, Business Presentation Specialist, or senior design contributor role.

Experience building or managing AI-augmented design workflows, including prompt-based design generation, document-to-presentation conversion, or design automation pipelines.

Proficiency with consulting-grade data visualization and charting tools, and the ability to translate analytical outputs into polished, presentation-quality visual formats.