Company Description

A best-in-class city that attracts best-in-class talent, Philadelphia is an incredible place to build a career. From our thriving arts scene and rich history to our culture of passion and grit, there are countless reasons to love living and working here. With a workforce of over 30,000 people, and more than 1,000 different job categories, the City of Philadelphia offers boundless opportunities to make an impact.

As an employer, the City of Philadelphia values inclusion, integrity, innovation, empowerment, and hard work above all else. We offer a vibrant work environment, comprehensive health care and benefits, and the experience you need to grow and excel. If you’re interested in working with a passionate team of people who care about the future of Philadelphia, start here.

What we offer

• Impact - The work you do here matters to millions. 
• Growth - Philadelphia is growing, why not grow with it? 
• Diversity & Inclusion - Find a career in a place where everyone belongs.
• Benefits - We care about your well-being.

Agency Description

The PHL Service Design Studio (SDS) is an office within the Office of the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) and leads service improvement initiatives at the City of Philadelphia.

We, SDS, believe we’re closer to creating a more just city when residents and colleagues—who have and continue to be marginalized by government actions—can access and deliver government services with ease and agency. To support this belief, we collaborate with community members and staff at all levels of government to design accessible, equitable, and trauma-responsive services that honor the diverse needs of Philadelphians. 

We lead service improvement projects by providing design research and evaluation, strategic service design, participatory and collaborative design, implementation and change management support, strategic planning, and project management.
 
We help our partners and collaborators: 

• Build a shared understanding of service challenges and outcomes. 
• Define strategic approaches for improvements—particularly those that reimagine City services and programs to be more equitable, accessible, and trauma responsive. 
• Define project scopes to drive improvements forward in the short and long term. 
• Create and test prototypes of service concepts to ensure effective delivery. 
• Plan and support the implementation of service improvements at scale. 
• Coach and consult on applying participatory service design approaches and building deeper relationships with communities. 

As a team, we value:

• Lived experience and dignity: We center the needs and voices of the people who stand to be the most impacted by our work.
• Interdependence and solidarity: We center practices and outcomes that are mutually beneficial, use research to understand historical and cultural contexts, and build on existing efforts. 
• Collaboration and accountability: We build and nourish relationships based on care, honesty, and reciprocity, and take responsibility for the intended and unintended consequences of our actions.
• Transformation and impact: We assess root causes of inequity and dysfunction and develop plans, strategies, and tools that help people move through change. 

For more information, 

• Visit our website at phila.gov/service-design-studio and Twitter @DesignStudioPHL.
• Read our yearly reports.

Job Description

Salary: The maximum salary for this role is $95,000.

Position summary:

As a Service Design Strategist with a focus on design research, you’ll:

• Lead research-driven service improvement projects and initiatives.
  • Manage multiple, concurrent projects and priorities, including delegating and coordinating tasks and responsibilities across team members.
  • Navigate ambiguity and challenges with creative problem-solving, a focus on generating solutions, and grace. 
  • Set and provide a direction and vision for and with a project team. 
  • Provide mentoring, guidance, and support to project team members.
• Contribute to the growth of the Research and Evaluation Practice within the PHL Service Design Studio and the broader field of design research.
  • Report to and be mentored by the Research and Evaluation Practice Lead.
  • Collaborate with colleagues to grow the Practice for long-term sustainability.
  • Lead skill-share sessions with colleagues to help them apply research and evaluation methods to their work.

In the near-term, you’ll be working with a cross-agency team to deliver projects connected to Executive Order 2-24—ensuring a local government that’s visible, responsive, and effective.

Essential functions:
Research planning and design

• Define research purpose and develop research questions that reflect project objectives and explicitly demonstrate a commitment to equity. 
• Understand approaches to sampling, including an intentional focus on historically marginalized communities and those most impacted by service changes.
• Develop data collection tools and research protocols. 
• Experience with collaborative or participatory approaches to research and/or evaluation to define research goals, collect data and generate insights. 
• Select appropriate methods to accurately answer research questions. 

Data collection

• Conduct secondary research, including document reviews, literature reviews, and desk research.
• Practice ethical research, including informed consent, trauma-informed approaches, and privacy protections. 
• Recruit participants, which includes thinking through supportive approaches to enabling participation of those with varying lived experiences by offering compensation, food, travel reimbursements, childcare, convenient locations, and/or times. 
• Collect qualitative data via interviews or focus groups. 
• Ensure data integrity through rigorous data collection and management. 

Analysis and reporting

• Code qualitative data with an explicit focus on equity. 
• Collaboratively work with stakeholders to generate insights from data and make meaning. 
• Generate findings and recommendations from data. 
• Clearly communicate findings and recommendations to meet audience needs, including ensuring accessibility, through reports, presentations, and summaries. 

Design strategy

• Collaboratively generate a broad range of solutions and future vision with diverse audiences. 
• Design tools like blueprints, process flows, systems maps, etc. to communicate current state and future opportunities.
• Develop actionable strategies and recommendations for improvement. 
• Create roadmaps or plans for long- and short-term improvements and initiatives. 

Prototyping

• Develop low- and high-fidelity prototypes of service concepts and improvements (or collaborate with technical experts to do so).
• Test prototypes for usability, accessibility, and effectiveness with stakeholders. 
• Iterate on prototypes with feedback from stakeholders and implementation requirements.

Project management

• Create a project scope of work. 
• Develop and maintain project plans and timelines. 
• Ability to manage multiple, concurrent projects and priorities, including by delegating and coordinating tasks and responsibilities across team members.
• Lead project partners, project team, and work streams effectively. 
• Proactively and clearly communicate the status of project work to stakeholders. 
• Navigate ambiguity and challenges with creative problem-solving, a focus on generating solutions and grace. 

Leadership

• Set and provide a direction and vision for and with a project team. 
• Provide mentoring, guidance and support to project team members.
• Contribute thought leadership within the City and to the larger design community. 
• Understand and negotiate City structures to advocate for people-centered service design. 

Standards development

• Contribute to the development and maintenance of SDS’s standards, tools, and other resources.
• Support other SDS colleagues in applying practice area standards to their projects. 

Competencies, knowledge, skills, and abilities:

• Values-based practice: Demonstrate commitment to equitable process and outcomes, prioritize the voices most impacted by change and service challenges, and practice emotional intelligence and cultural humility.
• Systems thinking: Understand and work across the complexity and interconnectedness of systems, issues, organizational structures, and ways of working.
• Inclusive facilitation: Facilitate meetings, workshops, and conversations that encourage active participation, rebalance power asymmetries, practice cultural humility, and help groups build consensus or make decisions collectively.
• Communication: Practice clear, accessible, and honest articulation of complex ideas and approaches through spoken, written, and visual formats.
• Collaboration: Manage conflicts with sensitivity, give and request thoughtful feedback, and practice emergence towards shared goals and agreements.
• Relationship building: Build a culture of mutual care, deep listening, reflection, and celebration.
• Continuous learning: Engage in ongoing reflection and learning as well as be aware of and adapt to current trends and practices in design, government, and analogous fields of practice.

Qualifications

A successful candidate will have:

• A design-related degree or relevant industry experience. 
• Four to five years of professional experience practicing service design and managing projects and project relationships with colleagues, clients, and other stakeholders. 
• Strong background in design research methodologies, including qualitative and quantitative approaches.
• Experience in conducting ethnographic research, user interviews, contextual inquiries, usability testing, and other human-centered research methods.
• Proficiency in synthesizing and analyzing research findings to uncover patterns, themes, and opportunities for service improvement.
• Proficiency in qualitative and quantitative data analysis techniques, including coding, thematic analysis, and data visualization.
• Commitment to ethical research practices, including informed consent, confidentiality, and respect for participant rights and dignity.
• Demonstrated experience in applying service design methodologies and tools to analyze, design, and improve service experiences.
• Strong understanding of human-centered design principles and the ability to advocate for the needs of community members and direct service staff throughout the service design process.
• Proficiency in service design techniques such as customer journey mapping, service blueprints, and prototyping.
• Proven ability to develop and articulate strategic recommendations based on research and insights.
• Project, time, and relationship management skills.

HOW TO APPLY

Complete applications are due on Sunday, June 9, 2024, by midnight ET.

NOTE: To ensure our hiring process is unbiased, we will not be facilitating one-on-one informational sessions with professional peers while we’re actively hiring.

You should submit the following through Smart Recruiters:

• A cover letter highlighting the values that underpin your work and your experience with service design and design research. (No more than 300 words.)
• Your resume or curriculum vitae.
• At least three work samples that demonstrate your expertise in service design and design research. Samples could include research protocol and workshop plans, findings and recommendations reports, and service blueprints and other design outputs.

Our hiring process is as follows:

• A hiring committee will review complete applications.
• Top candidates will participate in a 1.5-hour virtual interview and portfolio review with the PHL Service Design Studio (SDS) team.
• Final candidates will participate in a 30-minute virtual conversation with SDS leadership.
• We'd like the new employee to start in August or early September 2024.

Additional Information

Start date
We'd like the new employee to start in August or early September 2024.

Work schedule
The team works 37.5 hours a week. Currently, we’re on a hybrid schedule, but soon we’ll transition back into the office full time. However, a lot of flexibilities will remain with your schedule.

Residency
A successful candidate must be a city of Philadelphia resident within six months of hire.

Discover the Perks of Being a City of Philadelphia Employee:

• Transportation: City employees get unlimited FREE public transportation all year long through SEPTA’s Key Advantage program. Employees can ride on SEPTA buses, subways, trolleys, and regional rail for their daily commute and more.
• Parental Benefits: The City offers its employees 6 weeks of paid parental leave.
• We offer Comprehensive health coverage for employees and their eligible dependents.
• Our wellness program offers eligibility into the discounted medical plan
• Employees receive paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays
• Generous retirement savings options are available
• Pay off your student loans faster - As a qualifying employer, City of Philadelphia employees are eligible to participate in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. Join the ranks of hundreds of employees who have already benefited from this program and achieved student loan forgiveness.
• Unlock Tuition Discounts and Scholarships - The City of Philadelphia has forged partnerships with over a dozen esteemed colleges and universities in the area, ensuring that our employees have access to a wide range of tuition discounts and scholarships. Experience savings of 10% to 40% on your educational expenses, extending not only to City employees but in some cases, spouse and dependents too!

Join the City of Philadelphia team today and seize these incredible benefits designed to enhance your financial well-being and personal growth!

*The successful candidate must be a city of Philadelphia resident within six months of hire

Effective May 22, 2023, vaccinations are no longer required for new employees that work in non-medical, non-emergency or patient facing positions with the City of Philadelphia. As a result, only employees in positions providing services that are patient-facing medical care (ex: Nurses, doctors, emergency medical personnel), must be fully vaccinated.

The City of Philadelphia is an Equal Opportunity employer and does not permit discrimination based on race, ethnicity, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, national origin, ancestry, age, disability, marital status, source of income, familial status, genetic information or domestic or sexual violence victim status. If you believe you were discriminated against, call the Philadelphia Commission on Human Relations at 215-686-4670 or send an email to [email protected].

For more information, go to: Human Relations Website: http://www.phila.gov/humanrelations/Pages/default.aspx