State of MA - Executive Office of Technology Services and Security 

Responsibilities:

A content designer works on the end-to-end journey of a service to help users complete their goal and government deliver a policy intent. In this role, your work may involve the creation of, or change to, a transaction, product or single piece of content that stretches across digital and offline channels. You will be expected to:

•                     make sure appropriate content is shown to a user in the right place and in the best format

•                     start from discovery and work closely with user researchers, service designers and interaction designers

Skills required to be a content designer:

You will need the following skills for this role, although the level of expertise for each will vary, depending on the role level.

•                     Agile working. You know about agile methodology and can apply an agile mindset to all aspects of your work. You can work in a fast-paced, evolving environment and use an iterative method and flexible approach to enable rapid delivery. You are unafraid to take risks, willing to learn from mistakes and appreciate the importance of agile project delivery for digital projects in government. You can ensure the team knows what each other is working on and how this relates to practical government objectives and user needs.

•                     Prototyping. You can apply technical knowledge and experience to create or design workable prototypes, both programs and physical outputs. You understand parameters, restrictions and synergies.

•                     Stakeholder relationship management. You know how to identify, analyze, manage and monitor relationships with and between stakeholders. You can communicate with stakeholders clearly and regularly, clarifying mutual needs and commitments through consultation and consideration of impacts while focusing on user needs. For example, you know how to manage customer and supplier relationships, ensuring that recommendations deliver maximum benefit and facilitating workshops with stakeholders.

•                     Strategic thinking. You can take an overall perspective on business issues, events, activities and discuss their wider implications and long-term impact. This could include determining patterns, standards, policies, roadmaps and vision statements. You know how to focus on outcomes rather than solutions and activities.

•                     User focus. You understand users and can identify who they are and what their needs are, based on evidence. You can translate user stories and propose design approaches or services to meet these needs. You can engage in meaningful interactions and relationships with users. You put users first and can manage competing priorities.

•                     User-centered content design. You can design content to meet user needs and make complex language and processes easy to understand. You can understand and implement style and standards.

Skills Needed

•             A desire to support all constituents of the Commonwealth to have healthy lives and healthy families

•             BA in English or another liberal-arts degree.

•             4+ years of experience as a content strategist, content manager, author, or editor.

•             A writing sample, ideally demonstrating your ability to explain a complex concept in plain language

•             Experience identifying user needs and proposing a path towards better meeting those needs

•             Demonstrated ability to use data to make informed decisions and prioritize work

•             Worked on content in a multi-channel digital environment

•             It is helpful to have experience using tools like:

o             Drupal (or analogous CMS experience)

o             ServiceNow (or analogous CRM experience)

o             Mailchimp

o             Google Analytics