Senior Design Lead (MOEO)

**This position is detailed the Mayors Office for Economic Opportunity**

Our Work
The Mayors Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity) helps the City apply evidence and innovation to reduce poverty and increase equity. Using the tools of data design and research we partner with agencies to improve government systems and make the Citys social service programs more effective efficient and responsive. NYC Opportunity supports policy development and budget decisions and works to center equity as a core governing principle across government. We also produce research and analysis of poverty and social conditions including through our influential annual NYCgov Poverty Measure which we developed to provide a more accurate picture of poverty in New York City than the federal rate.

The Service Design Studio
The Service Design Studio (the Studio) helps spread valuable service design and community-centered design methodologies often underused in government. The Studio builds the Citys design capacity with consultation technical assistance and skills-building opportunities. We collaborate with City agency partners to enhance existing services or design new ones that are effective accessible and dignified. Our approach begins with understanding the needs of people who use deliver and administer public services. We seek feedback from different perspectives and test prototypes of service enhancements before implementing them at scale.

The Senior Design Lead will use their expertise and experience to work collaboratively with team members partners and New Yorkers. They desire to strengthen the ways in which the City of New York designs public services and programs focused on decreasing poverty and increasing opportunity for New Yorkers. They bring knowledge and skills to drive systems change equitable resource allocation and participatory decision-making in government.

They will also work closely with team members across NYC Opportunitys programs and products (teams such as design program and evaluation data product and technology) and will contribute to elevating strengthening and executing the wider offices strategies.

Responsibilities
The Senior Design Lead comes with solid experience managing multi-stakeholder projects developing and executing human-centered design research capturing and synthesizing information from various stakeholders and analyzing and developing key insights that can lead to actionable solutions and measurable outcomes.

Responsibilities include:

Design Projects
- Lead service design projects from scoping to implementation using human-centered design methods to enhance existing or new public services that are effective accessible and dignified.
- Facilitate and adapt design processes for diverse networks of stakeholders inside and outside government.
- Use mixed-method approaches for design research and participatory activities that foster meaningful collaboration and a trauma-informed practice throughout the process.
- Turn user research insights into practical solutions and deliverables that enhance how public services are delivered and experienced.
- Contribute to the identification and shaping of new projects that align with the offices priorities and mission.

Visual Design
- Develop wireframes mockups final design documentation and style guides.
- Prepare decks agendas and other facilitation materials to run successful stakeholder meetings and workshops.

Technical Assistance Offerings
- Build the Citys knowledge and capacity to carry out human-centered design processes and build evidence of the impact on service outcomes.
- Contribute to the development and facilitation of existing and new technical assistance offerings including office hours programming design skill workshops and forum events.
- Provide facilitation and thought leadership support for office-wide or cross-agency efforts.
- Contribute to city-wide design standards and infrastructure.

Supervision and Team Support
- Managing caring for and advising junior design staff and fellows supporting their professional development and fostering space for shared dialogue and leadership growth.
- Provide design feedback across team projects and incorporate team feedback into projects.
- Review and maintain design-related deliverables from development teams vendors and external partners.

Operations Support
- Contribute to the identification of operational enhancements to monitor manage and grow the teams capacity to do the work.
- Contribute time and skill in promoting and storytelling the work of the Studio and the larger office.
- Provide thought leadership and facilitation for internal and office-wide strategic planning to foster alignment knowledge exchange and interdisciplinary collaboration.

Skills Were Seeking

We understand that candidates may not have all of the skills we are seeking below. We encourage those interested to apply even if they do not meet all of them. We are looking for talented individuals to join our team.

- Demonstrated multi-year project management experience and ability to lead multiple projects and manage multiple deadlines for design deliverables.
- Demonstrated ability to apply the Studios service design principles to the design research process
- Experience conducting design user research with a wide range of stakeholders including but not limited to government leaders frontline staff non-profit staff and community advocates.
- Meeting and workshop development and facilitation (preparing facilitation guides for prototyping and user testing collaborative synthesis generative discussions co-design sessions etc).
- Strong understanding and confidence in employing participatory research and collaborative engagement methods that share decision-making power and center lived experience as expertise.
- Demonstrated experience in systems thinking and analysis with the ability to understand navigate and synthesize complex interdependencies within public sector systems.
- Deep commitment to advancing equity through evidence-informed approaches with a nuanced understanding of how structural inequities and governance systems shape access to and experiences within human services.
- Experience working inclusively with communities who are engaged with public services and programs and/or has lived experience engaging with public services and programs themselves.
- Proven ability to work in a manner that respects differences in race ethnicity age sex sexual orientation gender identity and expression religion ability and socio-economic circumstance.
- Exceptional communication and presentation skills both verbal and written.
- Strong interpersonal and empathy skills: Self-reflective takes time to observe develop and foster relationships with team members and partners.
- All hands on deck attitude: Comfortable working in a fast-paced bureaucratic environment can pivot their work and respond to rapid requests willingly.
- Experience with agile iterative development processes.
- Experience with tools such as Adobe Creative Suite Figma or similar prototyping and visualization platforms is preferred but not required.


PREFERRED SKILLS
A masters degree from an accredited college in design social sciences public policy public administration urban studies or a related field and 3-4 years of satisfactory full-time professional experience in government non-profit or social impact sector OR a Baccalaureate degree from an accredited college in design social sciences public policy public administration urban studies or a related field and 5-6 years of professional experience in government or non-profit or social impact sector.

TO APPLY
Please go to and search for Job ID # 718364

Mayors Office of Contract Services is an equal opportunity employer. Mayors Office of Contract Services recognizes the unique skills and strengths gained through military service. Veterans and service members of the U.S. Armed Forces are strongly encouraged to apply. Special accommodations provided to applicants with disabilities. Please contact MOCS Disability Service Facilitator at or only to request an accommodation. No other phone calls or personal inquiries permitted.

Only those candidates under consideration will be contacted. No phone calls faxes or personal inquiries permitted.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
To best serve the City that we represent MOCS seeks individuals from a variety of backgrounds who can bring different perspectives to contribute to the work of the office. MOCS also seeks candidates who want to contribute to a work environment that values teamwork inclusion and respect.

RESEARCH PROJECTS COOR(MA)-MGR - 0527A

Qualifications :

1. Do you have a baccalaureate degree from an accredited college or university

2. Do you have an associate degree from an accredited college or university along with two (2) years of experience with administrative analytic coordinative supervisory or liaison responsibilities

3. Do you have a four-year high school diploma or its educational equivalent approved by a states Department of Education or a recognized accrediting organization along with four (4) years of experience as described in question 2 above

4. Do you have a satisfactory combination of education and/or experience equivalent to that described in questions 1 2 and/or 3 above

Additional Information :

The City of New York is an inclusive equal opportunity employer committed to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce and providing a work environment that is free from discrimination and harassment based upon any legally protected status or protected characteristic including but not limited to an individuals sex race color ethnicity national origin age religion disability sexual orientation veteran status gender identity or pregnancy.

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time