Product Designer - Federal Grants Tool

About U.S. Digital Response

U.S. Digital Response (USDR) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that helps governments and organizations respond quickly and efficiently to support the critical needs of the public.

Leveraging an amazing internal team along with a network of pro-bono technical expertise and modern, resilient technology, USDR addresses and uncovers solutions for common, systemic challenges that public servants are facing, leaving them better equipped to deliver services and support to millions of people nationwide.

We operate with humility and deep respect for our partners and believe that modern and resilient technology applied in the public interest can deliver people-centered services at the speed of need.

Since March 2020, USDR’s projects have impacted 42M+ people in 37 U.S. states and territories. We've built deep partnerships with over 230 government and nonprofit partners, strong expertise across more than 300 projects, and repeatable processes to solve some of the most pressing challenges in order to help governments meet the critical needs of people today, while building digital resilience to stand up to the crises of tomorrow.

Learn more about our last year in our annual impact report, Demos not Memos in 2021: A Look Back.

About our Federal Grants Portfolio

The CARES, ARPA, and IIJA legislation responding to the COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased federal funding available for many public programs. However, the scale of the funding also brought processing challenges for the cities and states administering these programs. This means that these necessary funds may not be making their way to qualified recipients due to a lack of local capacity to apply for and report on grants.

Our product suite provides that capacity. USDR has created a portfolio of web-based tools to help government administrators efficiently report on Federal grants, saving time and money, and helping to assure that benefits flowed easily to those organizations and individuals most in need.

“The work the USDR team did for grants tracking and funding opportunity tracking easily saved the state thousands of hours. I think for me the most impressive aspect of the USDR engagement was the full-spectrum analysis approach… It wasn’t just looked at from the technical or compliance perspective but also UX design, ease of use, and maintenance.”

– Steve Thompson, Project Manager, Rhode Island Office of Grants Management

You can learn more about the tools we are building in our recent Scaling Civic Tech panel.

About the Role

USDR is seeking a Product Designer to join our team and lead the design of our Federal Grants Tools. In this role, you will be responsible for the end-to-end design process, from research and ideation to prototyping and testing. You will supervise the work of volunteers and team members while also generating insights, defining user stories, wireframing and prototyping workflows, and validating with users. You’ll represent the voice of the user to USDR and our partners.

You will work closely with your cross-functional team, including product management and engineering, to ensure that the design of these tools is user-friendly, efficient, effective, and accurately reflect the brand of USDR.

Some of the near-term work you will be focused on is improving the overall design and user experience of two products that were recently merged onto a single platform. This may include defining a clear information architecture, rethinking the login and account management flows, defining top-level navigation, designing a consistent and clean visual language and UI across the products, and defining our overall design principles so that we can scale your work with the help of design volunteers.

You might be a good fit for this role if you are a product designer who has led the design of business or enterprise web-based tools.

This is a one-year, paid position with competitive pay and benefits.

In this role, you will:

• Imagine, conceive of, manage, and drive UX design projects from system assessment, problem definition to concept to implementation
• Determine best solutions based on customer feedback and business goals and helps to determine overall direction, identifying challenges and adapting as needed based on the context of the solution and customer.
• Develop wireframes, mockups, and prototypes to communicate design concepts and interactions.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure that design solutions are feasible and aligned with business goals and collaborate with partners to validate design concepts and gather feedback
• Lead the development of design systems and guidelines and sharing of those standards and guidelines to ensure consistency across products and team members.
• Evaluate how designs are performing for target customers. Iterate and improve those experiences as needed. Influences team roadmaps to include experience improvements when the design or product is not performing or needs improvement.

Qualified candidates will have:

• You have 5+ years of experience in product, interaction, or user experience with a portfolio of relevant design work. Past experience ideally includes the design of an entire enterprise or business web-based tool or a large set of its features with an emphasis on a clean, easy-to-use, and functional design.
• Experience working with engineers and product managers using agile, iterative software development practices; experience working on design systems or component libraries is a bonus
• A customer-focus, with experience using design research to uncover customer insights. You can collaborate and facilitate design discussion in a remote working environment, You are then able to take those insights and define the desired customer outcomes.
• Outstanding written and verbal communication skills. Strong ability to communicate design concept ideas through sketches, prototypes and wireframes. Experienced and comfortable with presenting work to executives and large groups. Strong ability to communicate complicated concepts and bring clarity to stakeholders and team members.
• Familiarity with common industry design and collaboration tools such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, Mural, Github, etc.
• Strong work ethic, keen analytical and problem-solving skills, and the ability to manage complex projects and multi-task with excellent organization skills and a strict attention to detail.
• Comfort with a fast-paced environment and changing requirements.
• Strong interest in supporting equitable, effective access to public services using modern technology, design, and research practices.
• Or any combination of education, experience, and measurable performance that demonstrates the capability to perform the duties of the position.

Skills and experience are necessary, but we hire on value alignment first, so if you feel you would be a good fit with us, still consider applying. We will begin reviewing applications in mid-January.

What you’ll get:

• A competitive salary, consistent with similar roles in other tech non-profits in major U.S. metropolitan cities. The annual salary range for this role is $140,000 - $170,000 depending on experience.
• Full health, dental and vision benefits (USDR pays 100% of the cost for our employees and 80% of the cost for their dependents).
• 401K with a matching contribution of up to 3 percent of your pay with $1 for each dollar you contribute and for more than 3 percent and up to 5 percent of your pay with $0.50 for each dollar you contribute.
• An equipment reimbursement for the purchase of a computer and peripheral devices of up to $2,000 along with a Work from Home allowance of $100 each month to support employees as they navigate working from home.
• A discretionary budget of $500 per year per employee for learning and development along with an organization-wide L&D budget to support individuals and teams with work-related learning and development expenses
• A supportive community where everyone can thrive and find a balance between working hard to make a difference and taking care of themselves. This means that we are committed to a fully remote work environment (for US-based employees) along with flexible schedules and time off policies that work with your life.

Equal Employment Opportunity

U.S. Digital Response is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer fully dedicated to achieving a diverse staff. All qualified applicants are encouraged to apply and will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, age, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity and expression, and sexual orientation), disability status, protected veteran status, political party affiliation, or any other characteristic protected by law.

We encourage and welcome all interested potential applicants, regardless of background or prior experience volunteering with U.S. Digital Response, to apply.