UX Strategist - Remote

About SimpsonScarborough
At SimpsonScarborough, we use insights-driven branding and integrated marketing to build higher education brands that inspire, endure, and elevate the all-important work of colleges and universities in shaping our future. To date, we've worked with over 300 institutions of higher learning.

Our agency is fully remote, with more than 40 employees across the country. Despite the distances that separate us, we are united by a culture of curiosity, collaboration, and collegiality, as well as in the belief that effective brands are rooted in insightful research and inspiring strategy.

About the User Experience Strategist Position

Right now, we are looking for a User Experience Strategist to join our growing digital team. As User Experience Strategist, you will be an integral part of all of our digital engagements. Your work will bind brand strategy and analytics to inform design and technology solutions for all of our client engagements. Specifically, you will be responsible for building information architecture strategies including site maps and taxonomy trees. You will contribute to the development of wireframes, user journeys, audience personas, and optimization exercises. You will collaborate with team members on content strategies, workshops, and usability-testing.

A successful candidate should be familiar with the dynamic-nature of university websites, including their audience characteristics and expectations. You should have an understanding of the role WCAG plays in UX decisions, best practices for SEO, and a working knowledge of how university website governance impacts your work.

Experience

• 3-5 years of experience in User Experience, digital strategy, or related field
• Higher education marketing agency experience desired
• Internal college/university experience a plus
• Bachelors degree minimum required, User Experience Design, Human Computer Interaction (HPC), Information-Library Sciences, Research, or Anthropology preferred

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with the Director of User Experience to lead client engagements.
• Work directly with project teams to gather requirements from research, stakeholder interviews, competitive analysis, etc.
• Work directly with Account Leads, Development Leads, and stakeholders to clarify and define project requirements as they apply to the user experience
• Work directly with the design and content team to collaborate on solutions
• Develop information architecture strategies.
• Ask smart questions, take risks and champion new ideas.

Requirements

• Three or more years of UX experience. Preference will be given to candidates who have experience designing complex solutions for complete website environments.
• Expertise in standard UX software such as Sketch and InVision are a must. Basic HTML5, CSS3, and JavaScript skills are a plus but not required.
• Knowledge of higher education CMS types is important - most common are Wordpress, Drupal, Cascade, and Omni.
• Ability to work with clients to understand detailed requirements and design complete user experiences that meet client needs and vision.
• Extensive experience in using UX design best practices to design solutions, and a deep understanding of mobile-first and responsive design.
• A solid grasp of user-centered design, planning and conducting user research, user testing, A/B testing, rapid prototyping, heuristic analysis, usability and accessibility concerns.
• Ability to clearly and effectively communicate design processes, ideas, and solutions to teams and clients.
• Ability to work effectively in a team setting including synthesizing abstract ideas into concrete design implications.
• Be excited about collaborating and communicating closely with teams and other stakeholders via a distributed model, to regularly deliver design solutions for approval.
• Be passionate about resolving user pain points
• Be open to receiving feedback and constructive criticism.
• Be passionate about all things UX and other areas of design and innovation. Research and showcase knowledge in the industry's latest trends and technologies.

Salary starting at $75,000.

SimpsonScarborough offers a full benefits package, including nationwide health coverage, dental, vision, a 401k, unlimited PTO, paid parental leave, and over 15 holidays per year. Salary will be commensurate with experience. Please submit your resume to this posting. If you would like to include a cover letter, please do, although it is not a requirement.

SimpsonScarborough provides equal employment opportunities to all employees and applicants for employment and prohibits discrimination and harassment of any type without regard to race, color, religion, age, sex, national origin, disability status, genetics, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state or local laws. This policy applies to all terms and conditions of employment, including recruiting, hiring, placement, promotion, termination, layoff, recall, transfer, leaves of absence, compensation and training. Come as you are; we will be proud to have you on our team!