Job: Interaction Designer @ NYC Planning Labs [FILLED 4/4/2019]
Join a modern tech team building the future of city planning
Application deadline: March 18, 2019 or until filled
In a nutshell
We’re hiring an Interaction Designer to grow NYC Planning Labs’ design practice. We’re looking for a curious and hard-working person excited about cities and bringing modern digital products to government.
You’ll need to be motivated and ready to work through the challenges of building software in a complex bureaucratic and policy environment. If you’re interested in shaping the future of city planning and building smarter government, you should most definitely apply.
Already interested? Apply here.
About NYC Planning Labs
NYC Planning Labs is a division of the NYC Department of City Planning (DCP) that embraces progressive civic tech values including open technology, agile development, and user-centered design to build impactful products with NYC’s Urban Planners.
We work with modern tools and languages. We embrace mature frameworks, with an eye towards maintainability and long-term stability. We’re on the forefront of web mapping, and we intend to make our mark in open-source data engineering. We’re building an emergent UI language and tackling unique design challenges like bringing city planning mapmaking into the digital world. And we’re just getting started.
What is it like to work at NYC Planning Labs?
You’ll be working alongside people who care deeply about what they do, driven to tackle the hard problems that city government and New York City face every day. We’re a small, growing team, and you’ll have a chance to make an immediate impact. We’re going to trust your opinion and expect you to help us make the right decisions. You’ll be empowered to dive into our processes, test new tools, and give your thoughts on how we can do better.
We are only a small part of NYC Planning, New York City’s planning agency, one of the largest city planning agencies in the world. You’ll have a chance to work with brilliant colleagues, many renowned experts in their fields. You’ll learn first hand how New York City runs.
What will you be working on?
You’ll have the chance to work on NYC Planning Labs’ growing portfolio of products ranging from data visualizations to complex analytics and mapping tools. Some of the products you’ll get to work on include:
- Web maps like Zola and Street Map that make vast amounts of city data quickly accessible to planners and citizens.
- Analysis and automation tools, like CEQR App, that break down complex government processes and make the faster, easier, and more understandable.
- Demographic and data tools like Population FactFinder and Community Profiles.
- Data visualizations like Metro Explorer and Population Stories.
- Focused data and mapping projects highlighting specific datasets or policies such as Waterfront Access and the Facilities database.
Ready? Apply here.
What will you be doing day to day?
- You’ll work alongside a product manager prioritizing user needs in a complex bureaucratic and policy environment.
- You’ll probe technical experts on their methodologies, finding opportunities for clarification, improvement, and digital intervention.
- You’ll map user journeys through government processes, breaking them down into actionable, logical units.
- You’ll conduct user research and distill insights across all our user types (and help us define them), from government employees to private sector analysts.
- You’ll wireframe an interaction flow for sections of an application. (We haven’t committed to any given wireframing application. We currently use Google Slides and Draw.)
- You’ll draft application copy explaining in simple terms how a feature or function works.
- You’ll have opportunities to contribute to public design documents, and you’ll be encouraged the blog about your process and what you’ve learned.
You should apply if:
- If you have 2 or more years of professional interaction design experience on a cross-functional app development team.
- You can demonstrate an ability to communicate your design concepts both visually, verbally, and in writing. We’ll ask that you submit a portfolio of your best work.
- You are interested in helping NYC Planning build a strong design culture. The practice is still new to government, though we’ve made some great progress in New York City.
- You are organized and thorough, with a proven ability to bring order and logic to processes and tools.
- You have the ability to synthesize perspectives from a variety of users, ranging from technical experts to non-technical generalists.
- You’ve worked on modern design/development teams and understand the importance of collaboration, teamwork, and clear communication.
What you get
- Salary: $82,000 — $94,000, commensurate with experience
- New York City health benefits, including full dental coverage
- 15 paid vacation days a year, with an additional 11 paid Federal holidays
- Eligibility for a host of NYC retirement plans
- Agency-issued MacBook Pro and dual-monitor workstation
- Modern office in downtown Manhattan
- Strong work/life balance
Apply here. We look forward to hearing from you!
We’re also hiring for:
- Full Stack Developer (Planning Labs)
- Data Engineer (Data Engineering)
Know anyone?
