Senior Designer
Organizational Summary
Data & Society Research Institute is an independent nonprofit research organization, studying the social implications of data-centric technologies, automation, and AI. We recognize that the same innovative technologies that may benefit society can also be abused to invade privacy, provide new tools of discrimination, foreclose opportunity, and harm individuals and communities. Through original research and inclusive engagement, we work to ensure that empirical evidence and respect for human dignity guide how technology is developed and governed.
About the Senior Designer (The Role)
The Senior Designer will oversee Data & Society’s visual presence on social media, our website, and through all publications and visual communications products. The Senior Designer will leverage the established brand guidelines to further develop and refine Data & Society’s design ethos and provide creative leadership for the visual direction of its outputs and brand, proposing new digital and design products and piloting approved projects. In addition, the Senior Designer will ensure a regular stream of persuasive, original digital assets to tell the story of our work. The Senior Designer will be a true brand champion who interprets, translates, and extends our brand products into new audience experiences. This position will report to the Director of Communications, and will not have people manager responsibilities.
The Candidate (You)
The ideal candidate will be passionate about creativity and design, and is a self-starter who can manage projects from concept to completion while maintaining a high standard of excellence. You are someone who is comfortable accepting feedback, and has exceptional judgment, professionalism, and discretion. Your attention to detail is unmatched and you have superior organizational skills. You do not shy away from communicating with your colleagues and partners across all levels of the organization. You embrace teamwork, contribute to our culture, and have a collaborative spirit.
Primary Responsibilities
Working closely with colleagues in an art direction role to ensure Data & Society’s brand identity, outputs, and other works are visually and expertly represented across all organizational products and sites;
Managing design associates and contractors and delegating responsibilities and projects as needed;
Concepting, scoping, presenting, refining, and executing resonant contemporary design concepts for new research releases—including reports, supplementary materials, web and social media assets;
Proposing, piloting, and presenting new digital content ideas to increase internal and external awareness of key events and organizational changes, including the launch of new research, special events, and other relevant topics of interest;
Proposing and presenting new digital/design content for branding of Data & Society’s identity externally;
Ensuring timely project scoping, resourcing, and delivery; on the design side, this includes recruiting and managing trusted third-party collaborators including programmers, layout designers, illustrators, audio producers, photographers, and filmmakers and managing their contracts in addition to collecting and channeling feedback from a project-specific cross-team;
Overseeing management of all digital media assets to ensure accessibility and consistent storage practices and file naming conventions are standardized;
Ensuring that all design freelancers are following digital assets and project management protocols;
Participating in orientation sessions with new staff and current staff about D&S’s design process;
Providing counsel to the Director of Communications and selected vendors and supporting on design matters related to D&S’s upcoming newly revamped website;
Improving content and product design, user-experience (UX), web traffic and digital presence, including a new focus on accessibility to launch sometime in calendar year 2025; and
Performing other related duties as assigned.
Skills and Qualifications
At minimum, a BFA in Graphic Design or similar, and/or 7 years of comparable digital design and audiovisual training and experience with a diverse portfolio of digital projects;
Demonstrated skill in diplomatic cross-disciplinary facilitation, lateral communication, and design team management;
Demonstrated skill in designing graphics that communicate through both images and text;
Expertise with Adobe Creative Suite (InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver), Sketch, Wordpress, Asana (or similar tools), Figma (or similar tools), and Google Office is required;
Familiarity with html coding is preferred;
Familiarity with video production is preferred;
Project management experience required, with comfort accepting feedback and staging collaborative revision cycles for academics and other non-design professionals;
Experience working with clients in tech, government, campaigns, or nonprofits is preferred;
Demonstrated ability to design long reports in addition to newsletter and social media images;
Demonstrated ability to design assets for events is preferred;
Record of experience in managing freelancers and/or commissioned illustrations by outside artists.
Core Competencies
Exceptional judgment, professionalism, and discretion;
Self-starter with the ability to see a project from start to finish;
Excellent attention to detail and superior organizational skills;
Ability to adapt and respond to challenging questions and feedback;
Inclusiveness;
Communication across all organizational levels and teams;
Cultural humility;
Conflict resolution;
Managing complexity;
Commitment to advancing organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion;
Collaborative spirit; and
Participatory management style.
Organizational Values and Participation
Commitment to advancing organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Actively participate in programs and professional development opportunities that work to ensure we continue our commitment to being an anti-racist and anti-discrimination organization.
To attend, where able, whole-organization activities such as staff meetings, retreats, town halls, listening sessions, workshops, training and social events.
To participate, where able and appropriate, in contributing to the culture of D&S by participating in working groups and committees (eg. DEIA Working Group, Remote Working Culture Committee, etc).
To Apply, please submit the following items:
A cover letter explaining your interest in this role, and why you would be a good fit for this position. Please include a link to your digital portfolio that shows examples of inclusive design that represents diverse communities. In addition, portfolios that include samples that include text-only graphics, and commissioned pieces of artwork are preferred, if available.
Your resume/CV is required.
Applications will be reviewed beginning July 22, 2024.
Practical Considerations
Data & Society has committed to safety requirements to protect our staff from the COVID-19 pandemic. We require that prospective employees are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 before joining our organization. Please note that any reasonable accommodation request is not guaranteed to be approved, and we will comply with ADA-related requirements to evaluate the accommodation against business needs.
This is a full-time, remote position in the Communications Department. Data & Society is based in New York City, and will for the foreseeable future operate as a Remote-First organization. While this role will start as completely virtual, it will likely involve onsite components in the future.
You must be living and authorized to work in the United States; we are unable to sponsor visas.
The salary range for this role is $85,000 to $95,000 annually, commensurate to experience. This salary offer will include a generous benefits package including medical, dental, and vision insurance and access to a range of opt-in products and services including additional insurance and 401k management as well as paid time off, and paid federal holidays.
The salary range for this position is noted within this job posting. Where a prospective employee or employee is compensated within this salary range is dependent upon, among other factors, actual compensation for current/former employees in the subject position; market considerations; budgetary considerations; tenure, and standing with the organization (applicable to current employees); as well as the employee’s/applicant’s overall qualifications: knowledge, skills, pertinent experience, and abilities.
