Product Designer at Youth Development Labs: (Deadline 2 January 2023)

Product Designer at Youth Development Labs: (Deadline 2 January 2023)

Product Designer 

REMOTE, CONTRACT

ABOUT YLABS

YLabs is a leading global design and research organization working to improve health and economic opportunity for young people 10–24 years old. Founded in 2014 at the Harvard Innovation Lab, YLabs partners with young people in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and Central America to design, test, and advocate for youth-driven solutions that address key challenges to young people’s health and economic opportunity worldwide. YLabs’ focus areas are sexual/reproductive health, HIV/AIDS, mental health, and economic inclusion. Find out more about our projects here. 

Our team of physicians, designers, economists, developers, public health professionals, and educators bring a unique mix of human-centered design, adolescent health, economic and health outcome evaluation, behavioral science, and implementation know-how to the global problems facing youth.

YLabs is committed to building teams and policies that promote equity, justice, and belonging at work.  We strongly encourage people from all cultures, races, educational backgrounds, socio-economic classes, sexual orientations, age, gender, and physical abilities to apply. We do not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment because of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability, familial status, marital status, caregiver status, or any other category protected by applicable federal, state, or local law.

JOB SUMMARY

YLabs is seeking a Product Designer who will create innovative and intuitive digital interfaces, with a focus on user experience and web design best practices. You will have the opportunity to work with multidisciplinary teams to build impactful products based on the needs of users, stakeholders, and our partners. You will conduct and synthesize research, build and test low-fidelity prototypes, and launch pixel-perfect interfaces collaboratively with product teams.

The ideal person will be excited to work with a dynamic, global, cross-functional team of designers and healthcare professionals flexing their creative problem-solving muscles. This person is interested in both the “big picture” strategy of the design work and is also an expert in Figma, using data to drive product decisions. A quick thinking, curious, and empathetic designer who has experience in end-to-end service and product design will thrive in this role.

This is a full-time 12-month contract, with the possibility of extension. 

YOU WILL

• Product Design: Design UI deliverables that are grounded in users’ needs. This includes conveying concepts through wireframes, flows, mockups and prototypes, and communicating with product managers, designers, and developers to launch.
• Responsive Design: Design mobile-first digital experiences while taking into consideration responsive design best practices and contextual user interfaces suited for young people and their communities.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work with designers, technical experts, developers, and external stakeholders to achieve project priorities. Translate and communicate design insights across departments and stakeholders, and simplify complex ideas into succinct data points and recommendations for iteration.
• Capacity-building: Utilize and involve junior designers in the design process, building their design capacity and fluency with visual and digital product design.
• Data-driven Iteration: Collecting strategic feedback and metrics from your designs and creating improvements on the platform based on data. Formulate product ideas and features and inform decision making through an analytical and metric-driven lens.
• Strategic Thinking and Alignment: Approach and map out ideas or problems with holistic systems thinking providing perspective on various components and how they affect each other.

YOU HAVE

• At least 3-5 years of experience in design strategy, UX/product design, and UI design is required.
• Must have experience successfully launching digital products.
• Experience and confidence in all stages of digital design, including wireframing, testing, prototyping (low, medium and high fidelity), and creating pixel-perfect designs ready for launch .
• Experience working with developers, writing annotations and leading design development handoffs, and conducting design quality assurance (QA).
• Experience working with and alongside project and product managers.
• Experience working with agile methodologies.
• Proven experience and portfolio that demonstrates your proficiency in crafting innovative, data-driven design solutions within complex, multi-sided service systems.

YOU ARE 

• Passionate about YLabs’ mission to design solutions with youth that measurably and meaningfully improve their lives.
• An organized and prioritization pro, who is proactive, flexible, and adaptable.
• Visually driven.
• Enthusiastic to work as part of a dynamic and supportive multi-disciplinary team of designers, public health specialists, writers, and evaluation experts.
• A natural collaborator who understands how to build strong relationships across a product team, external partners, and its various stakeholders.
• Adaptable, optimistic, and flexible when faced with changing circumstances and challenges.

DESIRABLE

• Experience with Human-Centred Design methodologies and activities.
• Experience working with and designing for youth demographics.
• Experience with data synthesis (ie. Google Analytics) and using data to inform and bolster your designs.
• Portfolio work that includes elegant data visualization within digital products.
• Experience working in NGOs and in healthcare.
• Able to suggest new tools, frameworks, and approaches that will help the team level up in product and UI design.
• Experience working in Rwanda and/or East Africa broadly; proficient Kinyarwanda is a plus.
• Eligibility to work in Rwanda is a plus.

ABOUT YLABS’ COMPENSATION

YLabs adheres to Project Fair’s principles and standards  to establish equity in pay with the overriding principle of “equal pay for work of equal value” outlined in the Sustainable Development Goals. All salary ranges are based on level within the organization and are competitive to regional and national salary benchmarks, based on the respective office location.

PAY RATE

The pay range for this position is 17,437,500 to 24,750,500 RWF per year, commensurate with experience.

LOCATION 

This position requires the candidate to already have legal authorization to work in Rwanda, or one of the East Africa Common Market countries (Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi, Uganda). There is no requirement for this role to be based out of our Kigali office, although if you choose to work remotely, it will be necessary to travel to the Kigali office at times, and we expect you will work within GMT+0 to GMT+4 when you are not onsite.

HOW TO APPLY 

To apply, send a resume, cover letter, and link to your portfolio to talent@ylabsglobal.org with the subject line: Product Designer – East Africa. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.

This posting will be open from November 23rd, 2022 to January 2, 2023.  Once the application period closes, all applications will be reviewed by our Hiring Committee. YLabs recognizes the effort that goes into submitting an application, therefore, all candidates will be notified of their application status once the hiring process begins.

All YLabs offers of employment are conditional on satisfactory background check and criminal record clearances. The ideal start date for this role is February 20th, 2023.

Please note: Due to the end of year holiday period, YLabs will be closed between December 19th, 2022 and January 2, 2023. First round interviews will be conducted during the second week of January.