With a workforce of over 25,000 people, and opportunities in more than 1,000 different job categories, the City of Philadelphia is the fifth-largest city in the United States and one of the largest employers in Southeastern Pennsylvania. As an employer, the City of Philadelphia operates through the guiding principles of service, integrity, respect, accountability, collaboration, diversity and inclusion. Through these principles, we strive to effectively deliver services, to resolve the challenges facing our city, and to make Philadelphia a place where all of our residents have the opportunity to reach their potential. 

The Office of Innovation & Technology (OIT) oversees most major technology projects for the City of Philadelphia, ensures continuity of the City’s technology operations, and finds new ways to help the public interact meaningfully with technology. OIT uses technology to help City employees do their work better and helps residents get what they need from municipal government. Additionally, OIT offers an innovation service portfolio focused on developing municipal government’s capacity for creativity and innovation.

OIT is currently absorbing much of the former Office of Open Data and Digital Transformation (ODDT) team in the 2020 calendar year. Open Data team members are now located within OIT’s centralized data team, and the Digital Transformation team will also be based within OIT. This integration with the City’s central technology office will allow digital UX and content designers to work seamlessly with software engineers to support enterprise-wide technology development.

This position is part of the Digital Transformation team (located within the Office of Innovation & Technology) and primarily supports the content migration efforts and product feature development of the new phila.gov platform.

Six million people visit the City of Philadelphia’s website, phila.gov, every year. Whether they’re looking for information on the Philadelphia Marathon, checking whether trash pickup is on-schedule, looking for after school activities, or applying for public assistance programs, for many Philadelphians, their experience on
phila.gov represents the image they have of government. For the past few years, we’ve been working closely with content creators, City colleagues, and the public to rewrite service information and to design features that better meet the needs of City residents. You can see the progress so far at www.phila.gov.

As a User Experience Design Strategist, you’ll report to the UX Practice Lead and lead product design projects from project scoping to design strategy and implementation. You’ll collaborate with content strategists, designers, service designers, and software engineers to develop solutions that are accessible and user-friendly. In addition, you’ll mentor emerging team members—helping to expand their skill-sets and deliver exceptional work. Please note this is not a design research position. We’re looking for visually-focused user experience designers.

As a senior member of the team, you’re responsible for leading all aspects of a project life cycle—including strategy, design, and implementation.

Below are the primary duties of this position:

Strategizing and designing

• Lead conversations with subject matter experts from City departments to understand their organizational goals and the goals of those who use their content.
• Lead requirements gathering activities through a variety of methods, including needs assessments and interviews.
• Create design strategies that thoughtfully guide product development efforts.
• Synthesize requirements into documents that clearly articulate a digital product’s features, like spec documents.
• Create sketches, wireframes, and site maps that incorporate best practices in usability, accessibility, interaction design, mobile design, and responsive strategies.
• Collaborate with designers to incorporate the identity of phila.gov into all product work.

Collaborating and project managing

• Lead all aspects of a design project—from scope to implementation.
• Collaborate with senior leadership on the design of a project.
• Break down complex projects into reasonable project plans with clear deliverables, milestones, and deadlines.
• Lead project partners and team members through design processes.
• Clearly communicate project plans and their status to leadership, team members, and other stakeholders.
• Effectively navigate through ambiguity and project challenges.
• Deliver projects on time.

Competencies

• Excellent communicator: Articulate jargon to general audiences (e.g., City departments and the public), explain the logic behind design decisions, craft compelling narratives about product work, write and speak clearly, and cultivate effective communication among team members.
• Relationship-builder: Work with a variety of people and personalities, listen and ask questions to identify new design opportunities, and cultivate strong relationships to ensure seamless collaboration and continued project support.
• Curious: Practice active listening, ask questions to get to the root of a problem, be open to receiving/giving constructive feedback, and have a sincere interest in learning new skills or growing old ones.
• Compassionate: Turn empathy into actionable solutions that address people’s real needs with integrity.
• Organized: Demonstrate the ability to manage multiple tasks, estimate timelines, rework a project approach based on unforeseen challenges, works well under pressure, and set/meet reasonable deadlines.
• Action-oriented: Understand opportunities, navigate barriers, be self-directed, and problem-solve for solutions that enhance ODDT’s deliverables, processes, and practices.
• Resilient: Have a sense of humor, learns from mistakes, and/or returns to work after experiencing a setback.

Knowledge, skills, and ability

• Ability to design for accessibility accommodating for varying ability levels.
• Ability to sketch, create concepts, wireframe, produce sitemaps and user flows, and create clickable prototypes.
• Ability to clearly express complex information through design.
• Ability to design for consistency with standards rather than creative expression.
• Ability to analyze user feedback and activity, and iterate to enhance the user experience.
• Clearly and effectively present ideas, research findings, sketches, and other deliverables to a range of stakeholders.

Required:

• A design-related degree or relevant industry experience.
• 5 (+) years of professional experience at a design consultancy or a graduate degree plus 3 (+) years of professional experience.
• 5 (+) years managing project relationships with colleagues, clients, and project stakeholders.

Especially strong candidates will have:

• A personal interest in and/or perspective on the intersection of social impact and design.
• A solid grasp of human-centered design, rapid prototyping, heuristic analysis, usability, and accessibility concerns.
• Proficiency with tools and applications that support design and prototype creation.
• Extreme attention to detail with a focus on efficiency.

We’re interested in hiring the best possible candidate for the User Experience Designer role. We recognize that experience, education, and qualifications can be attained in a variety of ways and that many skill-sets are transferable. If you feel you’re a good fit, please don’t hesitate to apply.

Please include:

• Resume
• A cover letter explaining why you’re passionate about participating in the redesign of the City of Philadelphia’s website.
• Your portfolio

Please note: Applications will not be considered without a cover letter.

Salary Range: $80,000 - $90,000

The successful candidate must reside in the City of Philadelphia or establish primary residence in the City of Philadelphia within 6 months of employment.

The City of Philadelphia is an Equal Opportunity employer and does not permit discrimination based on race, ethnicity, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, marital status, source of income, familial status, genetic information or domestic or sexual violence victim status. If you believe you were discriminated against, call the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations at 215-686-4670. 

For more information, go to the Human Relations Website:
http://www.phila.gov/humanrelations/Pages/default.aspx