Millions of people interact with the City of Boston digitally each year to do everything from finding information on City services to paying a parking ticket. On the Digital Services team, we believe these experiences should be easy to navigate, dignified, and even delightful. The Digital Services team within DoIT is focused on partnering with City departments to improve service delivery across the City. We’re a cross-functional team with a mission to improve the user experience of existing digital services, better engage and communicate with our residents, and build new systems to improve how the City delivers services online. 

The Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT) provides and maintains mission-critical technologies for the City’s more than 18,000 employees and the hundreds of thousands of constituents they serve. 

As the Senior UX Designer / Researcher, you will create service experiences that are designed around the people that use them. This is a multidisciplinary design role where you’ll use the full range of your experience, exercising your skills in service design, research, digital strategy and product design. You’ll collaborate with teammates and stakeholders to build services that are simple and easy-to-use for staff, residents and businesses. 

You’ll be a champion for user needs, improve business processes and streamline systems. You’ll work with a cross-functional team to analyze services, conduct user research, map user experiences across channels (for both staff and the public), communicate ideas, and lead change management. You will work directly with City departments, and must have strong communication and relationship management skills. 

The Senior UX Designer / Researcher comes with solid experience managing multi-stakeholder projects, developing and executing human-centered research plans, conducting fieldwork, capturing and synthesizing information from various stakeholders, and analyzing and developing key insights that can lead to actionable solutions and measurable outcomes.

• Research, design, prototype, develop, and test new and existing public services.
• Contribute to the identification of new projects and offerings including development of strategy, design, deliverables and final products.
• Facilitate design process with stakeholders inside and outside government.
• Provide design feedback across team projects and incorporate team feedback into projects.
• Conduct user research and testing including outreach, planning, and facilitation.
• Turn user research insights into actionable items and deliverables, including journey maps, research reports, enhancement lists, etc.
• Develop wireframes, mockups, final design documentation, and style guides for new and existing services.
• Prepare decks, agendas and other facilitation materials to run successful stakeholder meetings.
• Develop and design curriculum for service design training and workshops.
• Review and maintain design related deliverables from development teams, vendors, and external partners.
• Contribute to identification of current product enhancements and new offerings including development of strategy, design, deliverables, and final products.
• Provides SME input into planning and estimates and for work in upcoming sprints
• Participate in or support office wide or cross-agency working groups that need technical assistance or thought leadership.
• Takes a lead role in positioning and promoting the City of Boston design standards throughout the City, and help to guide it’s evolution based on best practices
• Perform duties as assigned by the Chief Digital Officer 
• Advocate for centering communities when designing programs and services.
• Contribute time and skill in promoting and storytelling the work of the Digital Services team. You see yourself as an ambassador for the work.
• May supervise and coach other staff members
• May oversee contracts and projects with contractors and vendors 
• Performs related work as required.

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent professional experience in user-centered design, anthropology, public administration, public policy, economics, information technology, data science, finance, sociology, political science, urban studies, design or a closely related field preferred
• 2 years of supervisory experience preferred
• 5+ years experience in relevant roles 
• Strong portfolio featuring real-world examples of relevant work
• A detailed understanding of user-centered design, with rapid prototyping skills
• Experience using such research techniques as moderated testing, unmoderated testing, card sorting, one-click tests, comparative design tests, tree tests, user interviews, surveys, heuristic reviews, heat/click map analysis, A/B and multivariate testing, and web analytics
• Experience with user research frameworks, such as journey maps
• Ability to multi-task, prioritize requests, communicate with stakeholders, and meet expected milestones
• Experience working in a fast-paced, agile environment, partnering effectively with business and development stakeholders
• Strong strategic insight skills. Understands what problem the team is trying to solve and can align user research activities to inform decision-making and action 
• Understands and has experience of a range of user-centered practices
• Work with colleagues to plan and do continuous user research in a multidisciplinary team. 
• Strong analytical skills and ability to understand and synthesize complex systems
• Strong communication and presentation skills, both verbal and written
• Project management experience is a plus, especially with multiple stakeholders (Crafting scope of work documents, writing design briefs, managing timelines and coordinating schedules, building strategic plans, etc.)
• Ability to exercise good judgment and focus on detail as required by the job

BOSTON RESIDENCY REQUIRED

Terms:

Union/Salary Plan/Grade: SENA/ MM1-10

Hours per week: 35