Director of Design

Code for America believes government can work for the people, by the people, in the new digital age, and that government at all levels can and should work well for all people. For more than a decade, we’ve worked to show that with the mindful use of technology, we can break down barriers, meet community needs, and find real solutions.

Our employees build and transform government and community tools and services, making them so good they inspire change. We merge the best parts of technology, nonprofit, and government to help support the people who need it most.

With a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and deep empathy for partners in government and community organizations and the people that our partners serve, we’re building a movement of motivated change agents driven by meaningful results and lasting impact.

At Code for America, you contribute to exciting work while learning and developing in a supportive and flexible environment. Our compensation and benefits are holistic and thoughtfully curated to represent our employees and our mission. Help us drive real generational change that lasts.

Code for America is looking for a talented Director of Design who will lead and manage a ~15 person team of service and UX designers. In this role, you will have design managers reporting to you, and will be responsible for making sure they feel prepared and stable advising folks they themselves lead.

You will be responsible for supporting and/or delegating cultivation and resourcing needs for design at the organization, including supporting proposal writing, hiring, and resource allocation.

Additionally, the Director of Design is responsible for:

• Design quality - ensuring the design team meets a quality bar as set by you and your managers.

• Sustainable discipline culture - fostering a cohesive community of practice where folks feel psychologically safe, have healthy manager-employee relationships, feel that their workloads are sustainable, are taking time off as needed, and are working collaboratively with each other.

• Design operations - making sure the design team is run smoothly and efficiently - e.g. creating common templates, aligning on the best tools, etc.

• Showing up - making sure the design team and design practice is visible in a positive way within the organization, e.g. regularly contributing to company strategy, centering our clients, working positively with cross-disciplinary teams, and uplifting each other’s good work.
  

About the Role: 

The Design team is fundamental to the success of the products and services Code for America makes, and carefully crafts the touch points of a useful, equitable, and respectful experience.

Code for Americaʼs Directors of Design are thoughtful and talented leaders that enjoy mentoring and growing a team and culture that is driven by making a meaningful impact in people's lives. 

As the Director of Design, you will report to the VP of Experience and will be responsible for strategy, execution, and design team health across all our verticals. You will closely collaborate with peers in Program, Product, Engineering, Insights, and Client Success. Together you will work to build and support a high performing cross-functional team that drive better outcomes in public service delivery at the organization.

This position may require up to 5-10% travel.

In this Position You Will:

• Manage the Design Team 

  • Directly manage 3-5 reports (could be up to 7 during transition times) 

  • Run goal setting, performance reviews, etc 

  • Help direct reports in growth, morale, and safety

  • Coach design managers to support and effectively guide their direct reports 

  • Review work and provide feedback 

  • Support the recruitment and onboarding of new members of the design team

  • Identify skills and capacity gaps within the design team; Propose and own initiatives to address those gaps in order to meet organizational needs  

  • Make strategic recommendations to senior leadership about design headcount and advocate for design hiring as needed to ensure the sustainability and effectiveness of the design team 

• Assist in cultivation, teaming, strategy, and opportunity spotting 

  • Assist our cultivation group in writing proposals and teaming approaches

  • Participate in working groups tackling a specific issues or opportunity 

  • Own design staffing plans 

  • Cascade comms from leadership to the design team 

• Lead the Design Practice

  • Design quality - ensuring the design team meets a quality bar as set by you and your managers.

  • Sustainable discipline culture - fostering a cohesive community of practice where folks feel psychologically safe, have healthy manager-employee relationships, feel that their workloads are sustainable, are taking time off as needed, and are working collaboratively with each other.

  • Design operations - making sure the design team is run smoothly and efficiently - e.g. creating common templates, aligning on the best tools, etc.

  • Showing up - making sure the design team is visible in a positive way - regularly contributing to company strategy, centering our clients, working positively with cross-disciplinary teams, and uplifting each other’s good work.

• Other duties as assigned

About You:

• You have 10+ years of experience in user experience-related work, including both design and qualitative research

• 5+ years of experience managing teams

• 2+ years of experience managing managers - Supporting /organizing the people managers to support the design team as a whole / culture, inclusion, growth, impact

• Experience in UX-related cultivation and teaming work at an agency or other similar organization - experience writing proposals, presenting to partners, and putting together solutions

• Organizational design, strategy & resourcing - Taking the lead on headcount forecasting and ensuring that budget is being used appropriately and teams have the right staffing and resources to deliver on their goals

• Decision making & judgment - considering multiple perspectives and making a call - to find ways that everyone is satisfied, but is in charge of making decisions that affect all

• Facilitating alignment - Skilled at providing direction, facilitating alignment, and gaining commitment

• Experience running teams remotely - Ability to collaborate and facilitate discussions remotely, be active and available in tools like Slack and Miro, etc.

• A portfolio of relevant design work with strong examples of your work, design process, and role

• Familiarity with common industry design and collaboration tools such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, Mural, Trello, Github, etc.

• Familiarity with agile, iterative software development practices

• Ability to work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team

It’s a Bonus if You Have: 

• Personal experience with or professional experience working within the criminal-legal system, social safety net or other mission-relevant government services

• Experience in civic service design, civic tech, or social impact design in the public sector

• Experience managing content designers or accessibility specialists

• Experience working with data scientists or quantitative research

• Leadership experience with diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives

• Experience with both product development/digital delivery and design agency models

• Fluency in one or more languages other than English

• Experience working on design systems/ UX library related projects

What You’ll Get

Salary: 

Code for America’s salary bands are transparent as a part of our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We are happy to extend this transparency in the recruitment process. As part of our equitable hiring practices, we aim to target the midpoint of the 2nd quartile of the range for all new hires.

Offer targets vary based on market / geographic location. The offer targets for this role range from $143,884 to $176,138, annually.

Benefits and Perks: 

• Values:

  • Leadership and teammates who value Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity (DE&I)

  • A collaborative, cross-functional, hardworking, and joyful environment

• Employee Enablement Support: 

  • Laptop provided

  • $700 remote environment setup; $200 stipend and up to $500 reimbursement, in accordance with our equipment policy

  • Cell phone and/or internet reimbursement of $50 per month 

• Professional Development:

  • $1000 annual (per calendar year) stipend towards professional development; prorated at time of hire

  • Up to $1000 of professional development funds can be rolled over each year, up to a maximum of $2000

• Retirement & 401k Plans:

  • Employees under 3 years are eligible for a 100% employer match of up to 3% of employee contribution

  • Employees with 3+ years are eligible for an additional 50% employer contribution over 3%, to a maximum of 5%

• Medical:

  • Full benefits package with options up to 100% coverage toward select medical, dental, and vision plans

  • Employer contributes up to 80% of the cost towards dependent and family coverage

• Remote Work:

  • Code for America employees may work remotely across the US

  • Code for America employees main residence must be within the US

  • Full-time employees work 40 hours per week, Monday - Friday

  • Collaborative working hours: we aim to hold all internal meetings between 10 AM - 3 PM PT. We expect all Code for America staff to be available during these set working hours

• Time Off: 

  • Open personal time off, a minimum of 16 paid holidays, and an org-wide closure from Christmas Day through New Year's Day

  • Paid sick time; up to 96 hours annually

  • Competitive paid parental and family leave

  • 4 weeks of paid sabbatical after 4 years of service, with an option of up to 4 additional weeks of unpaid time away

Equal Employment Opportunity: 

Code for America values a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace and strongly encourages women, people of color, LGBTQ+ folks, people with disabilities, members of ethnic minorities, foreign-born residents, and veterans to apply. Code for America is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition or any protected category prohibited by local, state or federal laws.

Code for America Workers United:

As of October 27, 2023, Code for America has reached a CBA (collective bargaining agreement) with Code for America Workers United, affiliated with OPEIU (Office Professional Employees International Union, Local 1010). This position is not designated as part of Code for America Workers United.

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