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 transparency and fairness, 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 Staff UX Designer who will help the organization build products and digital services that transform the way government delivers services to communities in need. You’ll work with a multidisciplinary team of designers, researchers, engineers, and policy experts to analyze problems, and create simple digital solutions to help people connect with safety net benefits, file their taxes online, and otherwise access government services in an accessible and inclusive way.

About the Role:

The Design team at Code for America is building a radically better future, starting today. We believe design can create the conditions for generational, systemic change while also delivering immediate material value to communities. We design with, not for, impacted communities, and we believe that good design serves everyone with respect. In this role, you’ll be a key part of a talented design team working towards this vision together. You can read more about our design principles here.

In this role you will initially contribute to team culture, and act as a craft leader, defining best practices for doing design with respect and dignity. You will also be responsible for the strategy, development, and maintenance of our code-based design system- collaborating closely with colleagues in Design, Engineering, Content, Product, and Client Success.

This role will report to the Senior Director of User Experience and is expected to travel no more than 10% of the time.

Code for America is based in California and can employ those who reside full-time within the United States. This is a remote position.

In this Position You Will:

Specialty focus: Design System Maintenance & Management

Lead the strategy, planning, and roadmap for the design system in collaboration with cross-functional partners.
Manage the documentation infrastructure and versioning process (e.g., Storybook, changelogs).
Facilitate governance working groups, contribute to component reviews, and manage contribution workflows.
Develop a long-term maintenance model, including sprint planning, intake, and backlog prioritization.
Partner with design leadership to align the system with organizational goals.
Maintain the design system’s design assets, including Figma libraries, tokens, and core components.
Ensure that all components are accessible (WCAG 2.1 AA) and documented for both designers and developers.
Track usage metrics and identify gaps or pain points in collaboration with product teams.
Stay current with tooling and design system best practices to keep the system modern and maintainable.

Design Craft

Design from zero to one and/or improve the end to end user experience across your assigned portfolio.
Contribute interaction patterns, standards, and style guides to a unified design system across our programs and products.
Partner closely with engineering, product, and program teams to find elegant and practical solutions to design challenges.
Work with researchers to plan and run design research and usability tests to evaluate the user experience needs for your projects.
Successfully handle lead responsibilities within your project teams. Takes the lead on planning, organizing, decision making, and delivery of small or medium size projects within their program or practice area
Be able to communicate both the front-end and back-end user experience parameters to your cross-functional partners.
Facilitate workshops and co-design sessions with users and stakeholders

Strategic Leadership & Partnership

Advocate for design by sharing work and presenting cross functionally, clearly articulating the rationale behind your design decisions.
Engage with clients, government agencies, and community partners to understand your particular landscape and envision new ways of serving those most in need.
Participate in strategy conversations and use insights to guide team's decision making
Work with program and policy folks to understand how policies contribute to user touch points or requirements
Develop relationships with and teach other disciplines about design to foster more effective collaboration
Understand the policies, infrastructure, technology, and system constraints within any given government service.
Understand how/when to use design to push policy

Mentorship

Act as mentor to support the development of junior design staff
Act as design lead when projects have staffed multiple designers.
Support design and research staff in their work by pairing, coaching, and raising the quality bar of all outputs

Other duties as assigned

About You:

This role is a perfect fit for a thoughtful, strategic leader who stewards reusable patterns, fosters collaboration across disciplines, and cultivates a culture of accessibility, quality, and shared ownership. You will lead the evolution of Code for America’s new design system from its initial launch into a sustainable, trusted internal product. You should be excited by the challenge of improving design and engineering collaboration, and helping position Code for America’s design system as a reusable resource for the civic tech field.

6+ years of experience in product, interaction, and/or UX Design
Deep understanding of accessibility principles, semantic HTML, and design-to-code handoff
A portfolio of relevant design work with strong examples of your work, your design process, and your role
Comfortable working in agile, iterative software development practices
Able to manage multiple high-priority initiatives, including early-stage product strategy as well as delivery of tactical and incremental design improvements
Ability to collaborate and facilitate design discussion and workshops in a remote working environment
Experience mentoring designers and communicating the value of design to stakeholders and cross-functional partners.
High level of professionalism when communicating with clients, partners, and users.
This specific Staff UX Designer should have specialized expertise in:

3+ years managing or contributing to a design system at scale in a cross-functional setting.
Experience owning a system roadmap and leading multi-disciplinary teams through discovery, build, and rollout phases.
Understanding of multi-brand design system documentation needs.
Familiarity with localization, UX writing, or structured content systems.
Cross-functional familiarity with component libraries (React preferred), design token tools (e.g. Style Dictionary), and documentation platforms.
Proficient creating and maintaining component libraries in Figma as well as proficiency with industry tools like Adobe Creative Suite, Mural, Trello, Github, etc.
Comfortable working in agile design/development methodologies

It’s a Bonus if You Have:

Experience in civic service design, civic tech, or social impact design in the public sector.
Fluency in one or more languages other than English

What You’ll Get

Salary:

Code for America’s salary bands are transparent as a part of our commitment to transparency and fairness. As part of our 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 $128,945 to $157,850 annually.

Benefits and Perks:

Values:

Leadership and teammates who share a strong work ethic and values, and who respect and care for one another
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 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:

This position is covered by a Collective Bargaining Agreement between Code for America and Code for America Workers United, affiliated with OPEIU, Local 1010. The agreement was ratified on October 27, 2023, and is currently in effect.

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