Senior Service Designer

Job description

Intro

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 to modernize and transform customer 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 agile 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, courage, and excellence 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 Senior Service Designer to support our client in the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). In your work and through your design expertise you will improve health outcomes for 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 cultural steward within the design team at MO, responsible for defining best practices and approaches that support a 21st century government and supporting our people as we grow.

Successful candidates will have a track-record of building and sustaining high-performing collaborations at scale. The willingness to dive into ambiguity 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.

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.

For your application, please include a portfolio or case studies that showcase your expertise in delivering impactful design solutions, interpreting software systems, complex project leadership, and strategic design thinking.

What You’ll Do:

• Team Leadership: Lead and oversee complex engagements, ensuring the seamless integration of service design practices into overall project management. Inform program/project-level CX 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 matters, presenting and defending service design decisions. Collaborate closely with clients to deeply understand their needs, provide strategic insights, and ensure alignment between problem definition and their goals.
• Customer-Centric Discovery: Implement mixed-method discovery approaches that uncover deep insights about the interactions between systems, business processes, and people. Use these insights to inform and shape the service design strategy.
• Prototyping and Testing: Lead the co-design, testing, and iteration of low and high-fidelity service design artifacts to validate assumptions, uncover service design opportunities, and deliver solutions that resonate with VA staff.
• Design System Implementation: Collaborate with product management, design and development teams to ensure the successful implementation of knowledge into searchable knowledge bases.
• Impact Analysis: Utilize data-driven insights to analyze the effectiveness and impact of service design solutions, driving continuous improvement and innovation.
• Mentorship and Design Leadership: Work with MO leadership to build and mature an HCD Community of Practice that people are proud to belong to, with industry presence. Provide guidance and mentorship to more junior designers, fostering their growth and development. Influence clients and stakeholders to embrace people-centered design principles and practices.

What We’re Looking For:

• People-centered change leadership: Adept at navigating and instigating change in a way that addresses the needs of all those impacted, including VA product leaders and staff that deliver services to Veterans, Caregivers, Survivors and Family Members.
• Exceptional Service Design Leadership: An exceptional history as a service design leader, evident through your contributions to experience strategies, 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: Passion for and high competence 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, CX and UX research and testing to envision and optimize services, products and features.
• 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.

Perks

• 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 (85% medical premiums for employees and dependents, dental, vision)
• 401K plan
• Unlimited Paid Time Off (PTO)
• Short- and Long-Term Disability in addition to Life Insurance (company sponsored)

$120,000 - $140,000 a year

All MO leaders are expected to lead with humility, embody our core values in their leadership, and to hold their team accountable to the same. MO leaders are expected to ensure we are always growing by tackling hard problems, being strategic, and learning from others.

$120,000 to $140,000 Annual Salary + Benefits + Growth Potential

Placement within this range will be based on the competency level of the candidate. An offer will be made at one of the following tiers:

Tier 1: $120,000 — Meets minimum qualification/experience requirements. Beyond onboarding, will need additional guidance and training to perform key responsibilities of the role.

Tier 2: $130,000 — Experienced and fully-competent. Beyond onboarding, can independently perform key responsibilities of the role.

Tier 3: $140,000 — Highly-experienced and can perform all responsibilities of the role at a higher level than expected once onboarding is completed.

To honor our company-wide equitable pay system, the posted salary range and corresponding tier salaries are non-negotiable.

This position will remain open until August 15, 2025.

Note: to ensure we remain compliant with all state, county, and local employment and tax regulations, applicants must currently reside in one of the following states to be considered for employment with MO. This list will be updated periodically as our PeopleOps team works to open up hiring in additional states.

AL, AZ, CA, CO, CT, DC, FL, GA, IL, KS, ME, MD, MA, MI, NC, NV, NY, OR, VA, WA

We’re MO

The Company reserves the right to conduct background and/or reference checks on all prospective employees. Your job offer is contingent upon satisfactory completion of such background and/or reference check as applicable. Additionally, this position may require a government background investigation to be completed and adjudicated dependent on your role and project . This offer will be withdrawn if any of the above conditions are not satisfied.

In support of the  Colorado Equal Pay Transparency Act, and others like it across the country, MO 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.