Foresight Strategist (Contractor)
Welcome to Normative
At Normative , we are committed to solving valuable problems through human-centered design consulting. Our team operates at the intersection of strategy, product design, and technology, helping organizations navigate complexity and drive meaningful innovation.
We believe that exceptional work comes from true partnerships, where collaboration is built on transparency, trust, and shared ownership. Our expertise in specialized problem-solving enables us to tackle hard challenges, leveraging deep domain knowledge and a user-first mindset.
If you thrive in ambiguous and complex environments, seek to work for real impact, and believe in the power of collaboration and innovation, Normative is the right place for you.
About This Role
We're seeking a curious, rigorous, and visually-fluent Foresight Strategist to support strategic foresight research and synthesis that helps our clients anticipate change and make confident decisions about the future.
This contractor role is for an intermediate strategist with a strong grounding in strategic foresight methods - horizon scanning, signal and trend analysis, scenario development, and synthesis - paired with the graphic design skills to turn complex research into clear, compelling, and well-crafted artifacts.
You'll join a small, senior team and play a key supporting role: gathering and organizing signals, building evidence-rich trend libraries, helping shape near-term foresight, and translating findings into tactical, decision-ready recommendations. You'll move fluidly between research and craft, making sense of ambiguity and communicating it beautifully.
This is a collaborative, delivery-focused role. Strong communication, organization, attention to detail, and the ability to navigate complexity are essential.
Work Eligibility & Location
This role requires candidates to be located in Canada and eligible to work in Canada. While Normative is fully remote and offers flexibility in working hours, there will be times when availability during 7:30am-3:30pm PST / 8:30am-4:30pm MST / 10:30am-6:30pm EST is required to align with team collaboration and project needs.
What You'll Do
- Support strategic foresight research, including horizon scanning and the identification of signals, trends, and emerging shifts relevant to client challenges.
- Build and maintain evidence-rich trend and signal libraries, capturing examples with concrete artifacts, screenshots, and source references.
- Conduct competitive and global inspiration scans, distilling how markets and behaviours are evolving into clear, tactical insight.
- Synthesize multiple inputs into cohesive patterns, themes, and near-term foresight that ground recommendations in real evidence.
- Translate research and synthesis into prioritized opportunities and tactical recommendations that clients can act on.
- Design and produce high-quality visual artifacts - trend cards, frameworks, scenario visuals, journey and summary graphics - that make complex thinking clear and compelling.
- Support lightweight qualitative research activities, such as interview preparation, note synthesis, and surfacing quotes and signals.
- Collaborate closely with senior strategists and cross-functional teammates through working sessions and reviews to shape and sharpen direction.
- Bring rigor, creativity, and a highly collaborative mindset to deliver polished, decision-ready outputs.
What You'll Bring
- A Master's degree in Strategic Foresight and Innovation (or a closely related foresight/futures discipline).
- 1-2 years of experience applying strategic foresight methods in a professional, research, or consulting setting.
- Strong foresight acumen: horizon scanning, signal and trend analysis, pattern recognition, scenario thinking, and synthesis.
- Previous experience in graphic design, with strong, demonstrable visual craft and a portfolio of well-designed artifacts.
- Proficiency in design and collaboration tools such as