SR. USER EXPERIENCE DESIGNER

As a UW employee, you have a unique opportunity to change lives on our campuses, in our state and around the world. UW employees offer their boundless energy, creative problem-solving skills and dedication to build stronger minds and a healthier world. 

UW faculty and staff also enjoy outstanding benefits, professional growth opportunities and unique resources in an environment noted for diversity, intellectual excitement, artistic pursuits and natural beauty. 

POSITION PURPOSE
The Sr. User Experience (UX) Designer, within the Office of Research, is responsible for communicating and contributing to the strategy that guides the execution of product and user experience design. The role is part of a user experience group that is the voice of the user and will work with research administrators, product owners, business analysts, and technical resources to blend business goals, product roadmaps, and user goals to ensure successful outcomes. This role is a crucial member of development teams that will ensure user interfaces are useful and usable.  In this capacity the role is to bring simplicity to an institution with a world-leading complex research enterprise.

The person in this role must be able to communicate design concepts using a variety of physical and digital tools and technologies and be adept at selecting the appropriate communication medium to use in any given situation. The ability to synthesize a large body of information around research administration processes, procedures, policies, guidelines, forms, topics, and concepts into simple and elegant design recommendations and working prototypes is essential.  This role is expected to leverage analytics data and tools to inform design choices, and to be actively involved in shaping the user research plans that inform product design and usability testing. Also necessary is the ability to deftly balance creating a positive user experience with handling business requirements and technical constraints. This person will need to be comfortable working with stakeholders (technical and non-technical) and product managers while skillfully promoting a user-centered design approach for Office of Research related software products.  This position will be an expert in the interaction design specialty as well as broader product design and visioning and information architecture.

The Sr. UX Designer will help to mitigate the burden of administration required to prepare, submit, and manage research projects by enhancing the design, interface, and physical interaction of research systems especially with integration with Workday. This position is key to support research activity to reduce the administrative burden throughout the entire research lifecycle. The Sr. UX Designer will be curious and strive to understand the complexity of the activities within the Research lifecycle, such as: preparing research proposals and applications for funding, maintaining research integrity and compliance, meeting sponsor requirements, managing a portfolio of research projects, and career development. The ideal candidate will understand and have empathy for the people involved in all the segments of the Research Enterprise such as: applications, compliance, sponsor reporting, grant management, and career development. Reduced burden results in less frustrated researchers and research administrators, leading to more grants awarded and better retention of UW scientists.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

User Experience Design