MO helps government leaders achieve their mission by designing intuitive and sustainable customer experiences that build trust and improve satisfaction. We use human-centered design (HCD) to modernize and transform user and employee experiences. We’re a small team of interdisciplinary creatives with mission, impact, and service to others deeply rooted in our DNA. We’re naive enough to believe we can change the world and bold enough to take the chance to do it.
We combine design thinking with continuous discovery and delivery methods to drive visionary, human-centered products to market. Our custom solutions range in size from completely revamping an entire application to refreshing small pieces of a larger product. Everyone at MO directly impacts the direction and success of the company, and we own our roles. We value integrity, curiosity, and courage, and we operate collaboratively and with accountability while consistently challenging each other in the pursuit of excellence. At MO, we delight in creating one-of-a-kind products and experiences. Your imagination is the only limit on what you can do here!
Overview
Are you looking to make an impact? We are looking for a Sr. Service Designer to lead a design team. This is a leadership role at MO. In your work and through your design leadership you will improve health outcomes for 9MM+ Veterans, Caregivers, Survivors and Family Members by reducing barriers to accessing care and benefits within the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). Additionally, we are looking for this person to be a leader and cultural steward of the design team at MO, responsible for defining best practices and approaches that support a 21st century government, as well as building a diverse team and an inclusive culture that supports our people as we grow.
In this position, you will be working in a small, cross-functional team of Researchers, Designers, Product Managers, and Technical practitioners to understand and synthesize customer needs, strategize improved service delivery, and design innovative solutions built on SaaS and PaaS products for VA employees inside various Program Offices of the Veterans Business Administration. If you have experience integrating HCD practices into the deployment of impactful, scalable digital services and enjoy simplifying complexity into intuitive experiences, we’d love to hear from you.
How will you spend your time? 85% of your time will be spent on billable work, and roughly 15% of your time will be spent maturing our HCD practice at MO and mentoring more junior HCD team members.
Successful candidates will have a track-record of building and sustaining high-performing design teams at scale. The willingness to dive in and build new systems and processes, sometimes from scratch, is essential, as is leading through influence within a matrixed environment. Previous experience working in a client services organization (i.e., consulting or a digital agency) is helpful but not required. A passion for our mission and civic design is a must-have.
What You'll Do
- Program/Project Leadership: Lead and oversee complex engagements, ensuring the seamless integration of service design practices into overall project management. Shape program/project-level UX strategy, aligning user needs, business objectives, and technical capabilities to deliver exceptional user experiences.
- Client Engagement: Act as the primary client contact for service design/UX matters, presenting and defending design decisions. Collaborate closely with clients to deeply understand their needs, provide strategic insights, and ensure alignment between design solutions and their goals.
- User-Centric Discovery: Implement mixed-method discovery approaches that uncover deep insights into people’s (user) behaviors, desires, and pain points. Use these insights to inform and shape the service design strategy.
- Prototyping and Testing: Lead the co-design, testing, and iteration of high-fidelity prototypes to validate assumptions, uncover design opportunities, and deliver solutions that resonate with people (users).
- Design System Implementation: Collaborate with product management, design and development teams to ensure the successful implementation of service designs, maintaining consistency and accessibility across civic tech products.
- Metrics and Impact Analysis: Utilize data-driven insights to analyze the effectiveness and impact of design solutions, driving continuous improvement and innovation.
- Mentorship and Design Leadership: Work with MO leadership to build and mature a diverse and inclusive HCD Community of Practice with industry presence. Provide guidance and mentorship to more junior designers, fostering their growth and development within the team. Influence clients and stakeholders to embrace user-centered design principles and practices
What We're Looking For
- Passion for Design for Change: Demonstrated commitment to social impact design and recognized leadership within the civic design community.
- People-Centric Advocacy: Extensive experience as a people (user) advocate, with a strong command of accessibility, Section 508 compliance, and a nuanced understanding of the challenges posed by user research barriers in the public sector and healthcare domain (e.g., PRA, HIPAA).
- Exceptional Service Design Leadership: An exceptional history as a service design leader, evident through your contributions to experience strategies, design systems, products, services, and customer experiences that not only delight users but also yield substantial business outcomes. Your expertise will extend to fostering organizational alignment and guiding teams through the design process, from uncertainty to clarity.
- Versatile Research Proficiency: Proficiency in conducting research across both undefined problem spaces, utilizing design research and strategic thinking to frame opportunities, as well as clearly defined problem spaces, employing co-creation, UX research and testing to envision and optimize products and features for the market.
- Organizational Excellence: Excellent organizational skills that enable you to seamlessly manage multiple high-profile, medium-to-high complexity projects within a dynamic organizational environment.
- Empowering Leadership and Collaboration: Strong leadership qualities coupled with effective collaboration skills, encompassing articulate verbal, non-verbal, and written communication. Your ability to lead high-performing teams hinges on your aptitude for persuasion and influence, fostering a cooperative approach rather than a rigid command and control structure.
$125,000 - $140,000 a year
In support of the Colorado Equal Pay Transparency Act, and others like it across the country, MO's job descriptions feature the starting range we reasonably expect to pay to candidates who would join our team with little to no need for training on the responsibilities we've outlined above. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide range of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and responsibility.
MO’s Employee Value Proposition
- A fun, dynamic working environment with an energetic and diverse team
- A REMOTE first work environment
- An inclusive culture where everyone is welcome
- Competitive compensation commensurate with experience
- Opportunities for career growth
- Full health benefits (medical, dental, vision)
- 401K plan
- Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO)
- Short- and Long-Term Disability Life Insurance (company sponsored)
