Staff Service Designer

Code for America believes government can work for the people, by the people, in the new digital age, and that government at all levels can and should work well for all people. For more than a decade, we’ve worked to show that with the mindful use of technology, we can break down barriers, meet community needs, and find real solutions.

Our employees build and transform government and community tools and services, making them so good they inspire change. We merge the best parts of technology, nonprofit, and government to help support the people who need it most.

With a focus on transparency and fairness, and deep empathy for partners in government and community organizations and the people that our partners serve, we’re building a movement of motivated change agents driven by meaningful results and lasting impact.

At Code for America, you contribute to exciting work while learning and developing in a supportive and flexible environment. Our compensation and benefits are holistic and thoughtfully curated to represent our employees and our mission. Help us drive real generational change that lasts.

 

Code for America is looking for a talented Staff Service Designer who will work with a multidisciplinary team of designers, researchers, engineers, and policy experts to analyze problems and create solutions for public services that are simple enough for everyone to use. As an experienced individual contributor (IC), you’ll be responsible for seeing the bigger picture of the front-to-back, end-to-end, and digital and non-digital touchpoints that make up the experience of someone interacting with a government program or service in the US. You will be expected to identify and advocate for elegant yet practical service design solutions to measurably improve program outcomes for families while minding technology and policy constraints. 

About the role:

As a Staff Service Designer at Code for America, you will play a critical role in transforming public services by designing end-to-end experiences that meet real human needs. You'll lead service design efforts across multiple projects focused on improving complex government systems. You will work within cross-functional teams to map current and future states, co-create solutions with partners, and drive systemic change that improves outcomes for millions. In this role, you’ll also mentor junior designers, shape strategy with internal and external stakeholders, and champion human-centered design best practices across the organization.

This role will report to the Design Manager and is expected to travel no more than 10% of the time. 

Code for America is based in California and can employ those who reside full-time within the United States. This is a remote position.

In this position you will:

• Design Process
• Independently lead service design execution across multiple large and complex projects or workstreams as an individual contributor.
• Demonstrate strong analytical and creative thinking on how to improve the end-to-end, front-to-back, and multi-modal user experience across your assigned product, project, or portfolio. 
• Understand the relevant policies, infrastructure, technology, and system constraints that affect the experience within a given government service. 
• Highlight potential gaps and areas of opportunity for improvement across the whole service, including client,staff, or processes, focusing holistically on all channels of interaction.
• Use common service design methods and artifacts to document proposed service interventions and clearly communicate your understanding to the team and government partners of current and proposed future state of a service, such as journey maps, service blueprints, system diagrams, and ecosystem maps. 
• Define ways in which a service intervention’s impact can be measured and how impact metrics ladder up to stakeholder goals and user needs.
• Participate in planning and carrying out user research activities and synthesizing research findings, typically in partnership with qualitative user researchers; 
• Create and test design interventions and/or hypotheses by creating low, mid, or high-fidelity prototypes. Use these to generate useful feedback and iterate towards the best solution for people impacted
• Partnership and Collaboration
• Partner closely with individual contributors and managers from other disciplines (e.g., engineering, research, product, data science, and program) to find elegant but practical solutions to design challenges.
• Design and facilitate collaborative sessions/workshops with internal and external stakeholders to gather input on design directions, identify priority user stories to focus on, and drive alignment around strategic design directions.
• Develop and maintain collaborative, professional  relationships with government partners, CBOs, and advisory consultants necessary to achieve successful project outcomes.
• Deliver presentations to internal and external partners that capture attention and convey key messages succinctly, using storytelling techniques and visual communication to highlight client and worker experience.
• Participate in project or portfolio conversations and provide your input as a service design subject matter expert to inform strategic decisions about project and product direction 
• Team Health and Mentorship
• Participate in operational and best-practices initiatives within the Service Design discipline and the broader User Experience department.
• Act as a mentor to support more junior design staff in their work by pairing, coaching, and raising the quality bar of outputs.
• Deliver constructive critical design feedback to UX and service design peers.
• Serve has a champion of Service Design across the organization, participating in teaching and learning opportunities, and evangelizing human-centered design. 
• Contribute to the organization's credibility and thought leadership in design.
• Other duties as assigned
  
  
  

About you:

This position is a perfect fit for an experienced service designer or design strategist who wants to apply their skills to improving large-scale government programs through technology-forward interventions, while thoughtfully considering complex technical, policy, and operational constraints.

• 6+ years of service design and/or design strategy experience, with 2 years at a senior or staff level  
• Direct experience working in government services, public policy, civic service design, civic tech, or social impact design in the public sector
• Demonstrated ability to design, test, implement, and measure complex multi-channel experiences that include technology systems, business processes, policy constraints, and client-facing artifacts
• A portfolio of service design work that outlines your design process, deliverables, and impact
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple high-priority initiatives and complex workstreams, including early-stage discovery as well as delivery of tactical design improvements to existing processes and technical systems 
• Experience mentoring designers and communicating the value of design to stakeholders and cross-functional partners.
• Willingness to travel for research and partner collaboration (up to 10% of the time)
• Ability to work collaboratively within a multidisciplinary team 
• Ability to work in a fast-paced, agile software development environment
• Passion for our mission of making government services better for people who need them. 
• Curiosity about emerging AI tools and a commitment to using them responsibly and effectively
• A deep commitment to Code for America's mission of making government services work well for the people who need them most

 

It’s a bonus if you have:

• Experience working on projects or technologies related to Medicaid and/or SNAP at the state or federal level
• Native or professionally proficient fluency (written and verbal) in Spanish

What you’ll get -

Salary: 

Code for America’s salary bands are transparent as a part of our commitment to transparency and fairness. As part of our hiring practices, we aim to target the midpoint of the 2nd quartile of the range for all new hires.

Offer targets vary based on market / geographic location. The offer targets for this role range from $128,945 to $157,850, annually. Your Recruiter will discuss compensation in more detail & answer any related questions, during the initial Recruiter phone screen.

Benefits and perks: 

This role includes a comprehensive benefits package including the following:

• Values:
  • Leadership and teammates who share a strong work ethic and values, and who respect and care for one another
  • A collaborative, cross-functional, hardworking, and joyful environment
• Employee Enablement Support: 
  • Laptop provided
  • A one-time $700 payment for remote environment setup; $200 stipend (in first paycheck) and up to $500 reimbursement, in accordance with our equipment policy
  • Cell phone and/or internet reimbursement of $50 per month 
• Professional Development:
  • $500 annual (per calendar year) stipend towards professional development; prorated at time of hire
  • Up to $500 of professional development funds can be rolled over each year, up to a maximum of $1000
  • Training / guidance for staff required to utilize AI as part of their role, plus opportunities for employees to gain AI-related skills to support job and career growth
• Retirement & 401k Plans:
  • Employees receive a 100% employer match on the first 3% of contributions.
  • Employees with 3+ years of service receive an additional 50% match on contributions between 3% and 5%, for a maximum employer contribution of 5%
• Medical:
  • At least one no cost health insurance option for full-time employees for employee-only coverage
  • A minimum of 80% of the cost of dependent coverage
• Remote Work:
  • Code for America employees may work remotely across the US
  • Code for America employees main residence must be within the US
  • Full-time employees work 40 hours per week, Monday - Friday
  • Collaborative working hours: we aim to hold all internal meetings between 10 AM - 3 PM PT. We expect all Code for America staff to be available during these set working hours
• Time Off: 
  • Open personal time off (subject to manager approval), a minimum of 14 paid holidays, and an org-wide closure from Christmas Day through New Year's Day
  • Paid sick time; up to 96 hours annually
  • 17 weeks of paid parental and family leave
  • 3 weeks of paid sabbatical after 5 years of service

 

Timeline:

From the time you are contacted by a Recruiter, you can expect a 1-2 month, or longer, hiring process. The specific hiring process and timeline goals for this role will be covered during the initial Recruiter phone screen. Code for America's standard interview process details are also available on our careers page.

Equal Employment Opportunity: 

Code for America is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will not be discriminated against because of race, color, creed, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, religion, national origin, citizenship status, disability, ancestry, marital status, veteran status, medical condition or any protected category prohibited by local, state or federal laws.

Code for America Workers United:

This position is covered by a Collective Bargaining Agreement between Code for America and Code for America Workers United, affiliated with OPEIU, Local 1010. The agreement was ratified on January 13, 2026, and is currently in effect.

 

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