Head of User Experience And Service Design

Recruitment #24-005485-0002
DEPARTMENT: LABOR – Family and Medical Leave Insurance
DATE OPENED: 1/18/2024 08:55:00 AM
FILING DEADLINE: 2/1/2024 5:00:00 PM
SALARY: $129,076.00 – $156,408/with potential growth up to $175,928 year
EMPLOYMENT TYPE: Full-Time
WORK LOCATION: Baltimore City
TELEWORK ELIGIBLE: Yes

Introduction
Maryland’s Family and Medical Leave Insurance(FAMLI) system ensures that all workers in Maryland have paid time off for medical and family reasons. As a digitally native government service, we are striving to make our program inclusive, simple, and easy to use. We’re engaging the people who depend on us—workers, employers, caregivers, and insurers—to learn what they need. And we respond to these needs swiftly, respectfully, and meaningfully.
As a part of the Digital Services team you will be on the front line of making paid leave for Marylanders possible. Through human-centered approaches to product development we aim to create pathways for all Maryland employees and employers to interact with our program and receive this critical benefit in times of need.
FAMLI is a $2 billion social insurance system, delivered as a digitally-native public-facing service. Our Digital Services Team is central to bringing a modern, product-oriented approach to creating, launching, and continuously improving the digital platform powering family and medical leave in Maryland. This team is responsible for providing intuitive and user-oriented experiences to workers who need to take paid leave, to employers who need to interact with our office, and to the government employees processing claims and interacting with the public.
The Head of User Experience and Service Design will have the opportunity to help shape the foundation for all of FAMLI’s digital products as one of the first senior technologists. In the near term, we will be looking to outside vendors and a core staff of staff engineers to quickly ramp up and begin developing our platform. We will depend on the Head of User Experience and Service Design for user research and product direction guidance, oversight and supervision. The Head of User Experience and Service Design will work closely with our new leadership team to make critical decisions about the technology platform we are building and our long-term plan for maintaining and continuously improving it.
You will be joining us at the very beginning of our journey to make FAMLI a reality in Maryland and will be able to help chart our course. To do our best work as the Digital Services Team, we work with the FAMLI service delivery teams, our community engagement and policy teams, and our Maryland Department of Labor colleagues. If you’re ready to help advance these efforts by putting your technical expertise to use in a dynamic, mission-driven organization, this is the role for you. The Head of User Experience and Design reports to the Director of Digital Services within the Division of Family and Medical Leave Insurance at the Maryland Department of Labor.
The Head of User Experience and Design defines the program’s approach for ensuring that the end-to-end digital service is built using human-centered and trauma-informed design and research principles. The Head of User Experience and Design works closely with the Director of Digital Services and the Principal Engineer to develop short and long term plans for implementing and iterating on the digital services that are critical to providing access to paid leave for eligible Maryland employees.
This is a greenfield opportunity to be a part of building the tools and organization that will be delivering critical benefits to millions of Marylanders.

GRADE
26

LOCATION OF POSITION
Maryland Department of Labor
1100 N. Eutaw Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21201
With option to telework part-time.

Main Purpose Of Job
The Head of User Experience and Design reports to the Director of Digital Service within the Division of Family and Medical Leave Insurance at the Maryland Department of Labor. The Head of User Experience and Design defines the program’s approach of ensuring that the end-to-end digital service is built using human-centered and trauma-informed design and research principles. The Head of User Experience and Design works closely with the Director of Digital Services and the Principal Engineer to develop short and long term plans for implementing and iterating on the digital services that are critical to providing access to paid leave for eligible Maryland employees.

POSITION DUTIES
Duties of this position include but are not limited to:

Provides services design expertise on the end-to-end digital service to build systems that are human-centered and effectively meet the needs of the program’s users.
Reviews and approves all front-end web designs developed by both staff and contractors.
Owns the strategies for incorporating user research and feedback into the continuous development of the digital program.
Works closely with the Director of Digital Services and Principal Engineer to make build vs buy decisions for critical parts of the FAMLI Digital Services tools.
Represents the capabilities, needs and constraints of the user experience team to the Director of Digital Services.
Works with the Digital Services team to set and meet quality standards for our products and services.
Hires and manages performance of the FAMLI product team.
Provides coaching and guidance to help user experience team members grow their skills and connect their career goals with their work at FAMLI.
Represents the capabilities, needs and constraints of the User Experience and Product Ownership team to the Director Digital Services.
Works with the Maryland Department of Information Technology to help build and implement standards for agile delivery of human-centered products for Marylanders.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS
Experience:
7 plus years of experience cumulative in user research, user research ops, and/or service design, including:

Working iteratively with users of digital products to build out, improve, and maintain digital products;
Making effective digital product trade-off decisions that balance feasibility, user needs, value, and time;
Working in a highly dynamic, fast-paced team environment;
Deploying knowledge of modern digital product delivery practices;

DESIRED OR PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS
Desired or Preferred Qualifications

Training or experience in trauma informed design principles and/or users research methodologies.
Experience managing cross-functional development teams to develop and launch or grow existing products, platforms, or services.
Experience building alignment with business, policy and compliance stakeholder.
A strong understanding of the elements of working as part of a team on agile projects with agile rituals and ways of working (scrum, kanban, etc).
A history of having generated creative ideas to complex problems and followed through on the implementation of solutions.

You’ll fit right in at FAMLI if:

You value autonomy in your work, strive to achieve mastery in your field, and are energized by a mission-driven organization.
You’re a strong and inclusive leader who works well with people.
You’re an excellent collaborator.
You are excited about solving complex human and organizational issues.
You’re an organized person who has experience coordinating complex projects.
You’re great at delegating ownership to capable people.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS
All candidates are subject to a background check against files maintained by the Division of Unemployment Insurance (Labor/DUI) to determine whether any monies are owed to the Labor/DUI as a result of unemployment insurance overpayment/fraud. Any unpaid debt may have an impact on whether or not a candidate is offered employment.

SELECTION PROCESS
All information concerning the qualifications, including any required documentation (diploma, transcript, certificate, etc.) must be submitted and received by the closing date. Information submitted after this date will not be considered. Applications that meet minimum and/or selective qualifications will be referred to the hiring unit for interview selection. Units will select those candidates most closely demonstrating the qualifications for interview.
A resume and cover letter are strongly encouraged for this positions. Please upload one Word or PDF file that includes your combined cover letter and resume using the “Transcript” upload function, or vis the JobAps “Other” tab. (It is not necessary to upload college transcript or driver’s license.)

EXAMINATION PROCESS
The assessment may consist of a rating of your education, training, and experience related to the requirements of the position. It is important that you provide complete and accurate information on your application. Please report all experience and education that is related to this position.
The examination for this recruitment will be an evaluation and rating of the information provided on your application. Therefore, it is essential that the application is filled out completely and accurately, listing all relevant education and experience, addressing the specific qualifications shown above and submitting any required documentation (diploma, transcript, certification, license, etc.). Please include clear, detailed and specific information on your application regarding experience qualifications related to the minimum qualifications, desired, and/or selective qualifications of the position.

BENEFITS
This is a full-time, permanent position and eligible for full State benefits, which include:

Flexible hours and hybrid teleworking
Paid holidays 12-13 per year
6 personal days granted at the beginning of every year
Generous paid leave package (annual, sick, personal and compensatory leave)
State Pension (“defined benefit” plan)
Tax-Deferred supplemental retirement savings plans (401k and 457)
Free parking
Comprehensive, subsidized health, dental and prescription plans with little to no deductibles, free generic prescriptions, and free preventative health services
Flexible Spending Account plans for Health Care and Daycare
State Employees Credit Union

To learn more, please click this link: STATE OF MARYLAND BENEFITS

FURTHER INSTRUCTIONS
U.S. Military Veterans may qualify for additional bonus points towards certification. Any job offer will be contingent on the candidate providing a U.S. Military form DD 214 verifying honorable discharge from service prior to starting employment (and may be requested prior to interview). Permanent State employees do not need to submit proof of Veterans’ status.
If you are unable to apply online, or encounter difficulty attaching required or optional documentation, you may submit via mail or deliver in person. Please be sure to include your name, identification number (Easy ID#) and job announcement number on any documentation to ensure timely processing.
PLEASE DO NOT FAX OR EMAIL UNSOLICITED DOCUMENTATION
Completed applications, required documentation, and any required addendums may be mailed to:
MDOL Office of Administration
Attn: Tiffany Lott-Mallard 23-005485-0002
1100 N. Eutaw Street, Rm. 101
Baltimore, MD 21201
The MD State Application Form can be found online
Please contact Tiffany.Lott-Mallard1@maryland.gov or 410-767-2096 for additional information concerning this recruitment. Online applications are strongly preferred. A resume and cover letter are strongly encouraged for this position. Please upload one Word or PDF file that includes your combined cover letter and resume using the “Transcript” upload function, or via the JobAps “Other” tab.”

Maryland Department of Labor, is an equal opportunity employer. It is the policy of DOL that all persons have equal opportunity and access to employment opportunities, services, and facilities without regard to race, religion, color, sex, age, national origin or ancestry, marital status, parental status, sexual orientation, disability or veteran status.