Senior Service Designer, Insight & Impact

Code for America believes government can work for the people, by the people, in the 21st century. 

We build open source technology and organize a network of people dedicated to making government services simple, effective, and easy to use. 

Our employees build and transform government services, making them so good they inspire change. We merge the best parts of technology, non-profit, and government to help support the people who need it most. With a focus on diversity, equity, inclusion, and deep empathy for both the government and the people the government serves, we’re building a movement of motivated change agents driven by meaningful results and lasting impact. 

We are looking for a Service Designer to join our Insight & Impact team. 

The Safety Net consists of largely disconnected government-funded social benefit programs that aim to promote the health and wellbeing of children, adults, and seniors. Most Americans have relied on at least one safety net benefit program at some point in their life for healthcare, food, or money in times of need. Code for America’s Safety Net Team uses human-centered technology and movement strategy to co-create a social safety net that provides economic justice and health equity. 

As part of the Service Design Team at Code for America, you will help transform how government services are delivered. Your work will demonstrate that design can create the conditions for generational, systemic change and help millions of people in need. 

You’ll join our Insight and Impact team and focus on time-bound projects with government partners. You’ll join a small and highly collaborative multidisciplinary team to evaluate government services, prototype design interventions, facilitate workshops and co-design sessions, create actionable resources, and teach government how to apply human centered design to their programs and services.

What you’ll do

Locate and define problems

• Identify the right questions, frame and reframe problems, and drive clarity at all stages of a project 
• Produce new vantage points to guide complex decision-making
• Plan and conduct design research
• Contribute an equity-centered approach that focuses on minimizing harm, engaging with people impacted, and checking your biases and assumptions
• Evaluate services and articulate opportunities

Visualize complexity

• Visualize complex services through compelling journey maps, frameworks, and diagrams that inspire systemic improvements
• Communicate strategy, insights, and ideas through visual storytelling

Prototype and implement holistic services

• Choose the most effective and equitable path from initial insight generation through prototyping, pilots, and ongoing service delivery
• Explore how people might experience or behave in future service situations
• Orchestrate multi-channel experiences that balance user needs, technology limitations, financial constraints, policy realities, and change behavior
• Facilitate co-design and prototype feedback sessions with partners and project participants
• Understand the role of technology and its limitations
• Use research insights and service prototype learnings to guide nuanced product improvements
• Design low and medium-fidelity digital prototypes
• Measure the impact of service interventions 

Build connections across silos

• Design and facilitate workshops and trainings about service design for external stakeholders
• Coach multi-disciplinary internal teams through the human-centered design process
• Create opportunities for community members and stakeholders to collaborate
• Convene people and start conversations

Facilitate change behavior

• Communicate the value of design to stakeholders and cross-functional partners
• Advise government partners on how they can improve their services and use human-centered design
• Ability to think strategically around trade-offs and short term vs. long term impact
• Facilitate the creation of compelling future-state visions with partners 
• Demonstrate how to take a series of small steps towards that future-state vision
• Collaborate with other Code for America designers to improve team practices and processes

What we’re looking for

• At least 4 years of service design experience or related design experience in product, user experience, or human-centered design
• Demonstrated ability to design, test, implement, and measure multi-channel experiences that include a digital product delivery
• A portfolio of service design work that outlines your design process, deliverables, and impact
• Familiarity working within or alongside iterative software development practices
• Willingness to travel for research and client workshops once it’s safe (up to 40% of the time)
• Someone with experience in the justice system or receiving social safety net benefits such as SNAP (food stamps), WIC, TANF, and Medicaid.

More about the role

• Full benefits package with 100% coverage towards select medical, dental and vision plans and contributes 80% of the cost towards dependent and family coverage
• 401k plan with matching funds 
• A collaborative, hardworking and fun environment
• Leadership and teammates who value Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity
• Professional development includes bi annual 360 review process and $1000 annual budget
• The median salary for this role is $112,500. Code for America’s salary bands are transparent internally as a part of our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion. We extend this to our hiring process. A Senior Service Designer with 4 years of experience will receive between $95,000 – $130,000 in salary. As a part of our equitable hiring practices, we target the median for all new hires. These numbers are for the San Francisco/Bay Area market and subject to adjustment for cost of living differentials. 

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.