The Role

Koto is a global design studio building the most loved brands of today and tomorrow. As an experienced strategist, you are self-aware, collaborative, and motivated to refine your craft. You thrive on creating brand strategies that inspire world-class work in the teams around you.

Your Responsibilities

1. Generate original, compelling brand strategies and communicate them clearly through writing, workshops, and client presentations.

2. Lead research immersions, craft strategic frameworks, and design workshops that raise the quality of work across the team

3. Translate strategy into design inspiration, ensuring ideas carry through every creative phase of the process.

4. Harness strategic tools and frameworks with curiosity and flexibility, helping evolve a Koto approach to brand thinking.

5. Engage with the strategy team from the earliest project stages, building on their perspectives to shape the vision for each brand.

6. Collaborate closely with Design, verbalizing creative territories and ensuring strategy inspires both visual and verbal output.

7. Build a deep understanding of client businesses and continuously evolve your expertise in brand strategy and architecture.

8. Take ownership of your role: action feedback, manage your time effectively, and contribute positively to studio culture.

9. Confidently use tools like Figma/Figjam, Pitch, and Notion.

Our Responsibilities

1. Provide regular access to your manager to support your growth and career trajectory.

2. Reward performance with promotions, pay increases, and a discretionary annual bonus of up to 10%.

3. Ensure an equal and inclusive workplace for all employees.

4. Support family leave with generous paid maternity and paternity.

5. Offer 25 vacation days annually, plus US bank holidays and a December studio closure.

6. Contribute up to 4% to participants in our 401k plan.

7. Provide a monthly $100 wellness benefit via Juno.

8. Offer access to YCN and fund relevant training opportunities.

9. Celebrate milestones: $5,000 and five extra vacation days after five years; $10,000 and four weeks after ten.

10. Give you the opportunity to work temporarily from any Koto studio worldwide with appropriate planning.

Our Culture

• At Koto, we encourage our team to be ‘rationally optimistic’ about the potential of our work, our clients, their businesses, and the power of brand.
• We pursue the best briefs, want to inspire meaningful work, and for those interested, provide an opportunity to make the work of their lives. We are actively cultivating leadership, culture, and spaces to encourage this.
• We work in person with an optional WFH day on Friday, and an additional two weeks of remote work a year. We believe this produces the best work, mentoring opportunities, collective learning, and culture.
• We encourage autonomy in each member of our team, allowing them to manage their own time, hours, and personal commitments appropriately to complete work.