Published: Tue, 01 Apr 2025 16:51:09 GMT
It is expected that all employees share and support this policy.
Position: Lead Designer at Exygy
Company Description:
Exygy is a digital innovation studio dedicated to creating resilient and thriving communities. Our mission is to empower impact-driven organizations to reimagine their processes and develop digital products that solve their challenges and delight their users. With our diverse team of experts in technology, user-centric perspectives, and product strategy, we bring a unique approach to every project. As a certified B-Corporation, we are deeply committed to making a positive impact on humanity. Our impressive list of clients includes CARE International, QURE Healthcare, San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing, and Hopelab. Our company has embraced a remote-first work culture and we welcome applicants from anywhere in the US. Some occasional travel may be required for meetings or team events.
We keep our team connected and engaged through virtual team events, weekly all-hands meetings, and regular Zoom workshops and training.
Summary:
Exygy is seeking an enthusiastic, experienced, and creative Lead Designer who shares our passion for using design and technology to make a positive impact in the world. Join our close-knit and growing product team to help develop CiviForm, a platform that simplifies access to public benefits. As the Lead Designer for CiviForm, you will also be part of Exygy’s design team, collaborating with peers from our Consultancy and Bloom businesses. This is a full-time remote position.
CiviForm is an open-source software and digital public good, co-owned and directed by the government agencies that use it. This role presents an exciting opportunity to drive the next chapter in the platform’s design and work directly with local and state governments to improve an essential piece of infrastructure that serves their residents. As the Lead Designer, you will be responsible for defining the design strategy, mentoring other designers, and working closely with product managers and engineers throughout the design process, from research to delivery and continuous improvement. You will lead the creation of design assets that adhere to human-centered design principles. Additionally, you will oversee the governance of our design system, which supports collaboration and efficiency between design and engineering teams. This system includes themeable design tokens, a shared component library, and supporting documentation. You will also be a thought leader, helping to establish and advocate for design best practices. CiviForm’s users include government administrators, benefits navigators, and residents, many of whom are from underserved and underrepresented communities. Therefore, it is crucial that the final user experience is accessible, impactful, and equitable, in line with our approach to building.
Responsibilities:
– Collaborate on the strategy for CiviForm: Work with the product team and design leadership to define the design strategy, aligning our design decisions with our sustainability goals and product priorities, across both the core platform and individual government feature roadmaps.
– Lead design solutions: Take charge of creating engaging and impactful UX and UI design solutions that effectively communicate the vision and goals of the product and address user pain points. This includes creating sitemaps, user journeys and flows, service blueprints, wireframes, clickable prototypes, and visual mockups.
– Evolve CiviForm’s design process: Work closely with engineering and product partners to improve design and developer handoff and QA processes. Collaborate with other design leads to establish and refine best practices and design methodologies at Exygy.
– Onboarding and design management: Help onboard and mentor staff designers and short-term design fellows to CiviForm’s design strategy and delivery process so they can be effective. This may involve conducting design reviews, QA, and weekly 1:1 meetings.
– Conduct research and discovery: Partner closely with design researchers to conduct qualitative and quantitative user research and gain insights into the goals, motivations, and challenges of applicants and government partners. This may include stakeholder-facing workshops such as design sprints and co-design workshops, as well as user interviews and synthesis and presentation of findings.
– Ensure accessibility and usability: Advocate for accessibility standards and inclusive design principles through visual guidelines and UX best practices. Collaborate with design researchers to conduct user research and testing, such as surveys, usability evaluations, and accessibility evaluations.
– Maintain our design system: Build and maintain CiviForm’s design system (built on USWDS) to support new product features. This may involve auditing, creating new components or patterns, conducting accessibility checks, and providing documentation.
Required Skills, Knowledge, and Abilities:
– Demonstrated knowledge of human-centered design principles and processes, from discovery and ideation to design and iteration.
– Professional experience in civic tech, affordable housing, and/or social impact work.
– Expert knowledge of Figma and additional design software (e.g., Dovetail, Miro, and Google Workspace).
– Demonstrated ability to articulate and justify design strategy in relation to solving human problems.
– Ability to mentor more junior designers and collaborate with peers on UX/UI design best practices to complement each other’s skill sets and fill any identified skill gaps.
– Strong collaboration abilities and a flexible and friendly approach to working with teams.
– Ability to focus on both the macro and micro level in terms of design details.
– Willingness to give and receive constructive feedback to improve and develop.
– Interest in developing skills (design principles, tools, and trends) and sharing knowledge with fellow peers and community members.
– Comfortable working within an agile development process.
– Knowledge of equitable design processes and mindsets, and experience ensuring that products are truly equitable.
– Experience designing solutions for underserved populations, such as those navigating social safety networks.
– Experience working with and navigating a set of complex government stakeholders.
– Knowledge of web accessibility best practices and standards for government websites.
– Experience with or knowledge of public sector design systems (e.g., US Web Design System, Gov.UK).
– Knowledge of building content strategy and best practices for government websites (e.g., plain language, reading levels, multilingual content, and content governance).
– Experience building a government content management system.
Education and Experience:
– Degree in Design or equivalent experience required; 7+ years of hands-on professional experience as a Product/UX and UI Designer.
– An online portfolio that demonstrates experience with UX Design across multiple verticals and platforms (mobile/web/desktop) is required (if you don’t have a portfolio, you can send us links or PDFs for designs you have created and be ready to provide context/more information about them).
Benefits & Perks:
– Our Values:
– Learning and Growth
– Pursuit of Excellence
– Leaning into Fear
– Spirit of Generosity
– Embrace the Whole Person
– Mission Statement:
– To ensure all communities, especially marginalized communities, have access to basic social needs. We use our expertise in strategic product development, thoughtful design, and tailored technical solutions to identify the greatest barriers and build solutions to overcome them.
– Vision Statement:
– Everyone has equitable access to the basic social needs that encourage them to thrive. These social needs include but are not limited to affordable housing, physical and mental health care, food security, quality education, stable employment opportunities, and public benefits.
– Employee Enablement Support:
– Laptop provided.
– $2000 annual (per calendar year) remote environment setup budget, which can be used to outfit your home office, co-working spaces, coffee shops, or to meet up and collaborate with your team members.
– Wellness Budget:
– $100 monthly to spend on your preferred wellness item (gym membership, classes, massages, etc.).
– Professional Development:
– $1000 annual (per calendar year) stipend towards professional development.
– Retirement & 401k Plans:
– Employees are eligible for a 100% employer match of up to 4% of employee contribution.
– Medical:
– Full benefits package with options for up to 100% coverage towards select medical, dental, and vision plans.
– Remote First Working Environment:
– Exygy employees may work remotely across the US.
– Exygy employees must have their main residence within the US.
– Full-time employees work 40 hours per week, Monday – Friday.
– Collaborative working hours:
– We aim to schedule all internal meetings between 10 AM – 3 PM PT.
– We expect all Exygy staff to be available during these set working hours.
– Time Off:
– Flexible paid time off, a minimum of 14 paid holidays, and an organization-wide closure from Christmas Day through New Year’s Day.
– Competitive paid parental and family leave.
EEO & Commitment to Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion:
We are actively seeking to create a diverse and equitable work environment because we believe that it leads to a stronger team.
Exygy values a diverse workplace and strongly encourages women, people of color, LGBTQIA individuals, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign-born residents, older members of society, and others from minority groups and diverse backgrounds to apply. Exygy is an equal opportunity employer. We will not discriminate against applicants based on race, color, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition, or any protected category prohibited by local, state, or federal laws. All employees and contractors of Exygy are responsible for maintaining a work atmosphere free from discrimination and harassment by treating others with dignity and respect. It is expected that all employees share and support this policy. Apply link
