The University of Southern California's (USC's) Information Technology Services is seeking a talented Manager of Design Experience with an exceptional commitment to service excellence to join its team. As the Design Experience Manager, you will be an integral member of the Application Services team, collaborating with diverse and talented colleagues to solve complex information technology challenges, improve customer experience, and generate value for our campus stakeholders across various departments and constituencies. This role requires a dynamic individual with strong leadership abilities and a deep understanding of human-centered design principles and practices, including accessibility standards for technology. You will leverage user research, market analysis, and customer feedback to inform design and product decisions and digital solutions.

Join us to lead a talented team and enhance the customer experience throughout our vibrant campus community.

THE TEAM

ITS has embarked on a major digital transformation initiative to continually improve services for faculty, staff, and students in support of USC's ascent as a leading institution of higher education. The ITS vision aligns strategy, business, and services, affirms ITS cultural values, empowers cross-functional teamwork, embraces world-class best practices, and promotes innovation, excellence, agility, and efficiency. To achieve this vision, ITS is committed to providing a modern technology infrastructure that is resilient and delivers the performance necessary to meet the demands of a growing customer base, training in the latest technologies for its highly productive and motivated workforce, outstanding customer experience, and technology services that are aligned with the university's mission to provide exceptional learning opportunities for students. ITS is creating a workplace where employees can develop cutting-edge skills, take pride in the services they provide, and have access to the roles and career paths that align with their abilities and potential.

We are looking for top talent to join us on our journey.

ITS CULTURE

USC's ITS organization represents a diverse and talented team committed to supporting a collaborative culture and delivering secure and innovative IT services, core to the mission of USC. ITS values accountability, excellence, and commitment to exceptional customer experience. ITS strives for a supportive and inclusive culture that encourages employees to do their best work every day and where individuals are recognized and celebrated for their contributions.

Join the ITS team and work as a trusted partner in shaping the university's environment of innovation and excellence.

MINIMUM QUALIFICATIONS

The candidate for the position of Manager of Design Experience must meet the following qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in engineering, computer science, computer information systems, business management, a related field, or equivalent combination of education, training, and experience.

• Six years of experience in information technology.

• At least three years of experience managing a team or in a leadership role.

• Portfolio demonstrating clean, polished design aesthetic and passion for pixel perfection, consistency, and usability.

• Experience with design principles (e.g., responsive, mobile-first, and/or data-driven design), with a proven record of designing and delivering end-to-end user-centered products.

• Excellent managerial skills and a proven track record of hiring and developing strong UX and UI design and research individual contributors.

• Demonstrated ability to create informed, user-centered design by leveraging user research, market analysis, data, and customer feedback with technical constraints and opportunities.

• Involvement with with Lean and/or Agile methodologies and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG).

• Ability to prioritize and manage work in a fast-paced environment, with problem-solving and decision-making skills.

• Understanding of research methodologies, including user interviews, direct observation, ethnography, contextual inquiry, and usability studies.

• In-depth knowledge of standards and appropriate methods for managing different problems and scenarios, uncovering a root cause, and evaluating the risks and benefits of different solution options.

• Experience with large and complex systems and proven methods and tools to enforce brand identity and consistency across all projects.

• Knowledge with UX governance processes and development and understanding current front-end web technologies, native interface guidelines, web services, and APIs.

• Proven ability to comply with and enforce pertinent policies, procedures, regulations, and requirements while managing numerous necessary resources to resolve problems promptly and effectively.

• Develop and manage diverse, high-performing teams, providing regular, frequent performance coaching/mentoring, and encouraging effective behavior for individual and team success.

• Experience developing customer relationships and delivering customer-focused service, understanding and supporting customer needs, and articulating strategies that motivate others to action.

• Exceptional written and oral communication skills.

• Demonstrated ability to provide detailed information and summaries to management-level individuals and groups and experience presenting technical topics to non-technical audiences.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

The ideal candidate for the position of Manager of Design Experience has the following qualifications:

• A master's degree in IT, Business, Psychology, or similar fields.

• More than eight years of user experience, product management, and/or higher education.

• Five years or more in a management or leadership role.

• Knowledge and familiarity with managing IT projects, systems, and staff.

• Experience with software as a service (SaaS) solutions within a higher education environment and implementing or supporting student information systems.

• Ability to lead and manage a team, set goals, delegate tasks, and provide guidance and support to staff members. Strong leadership skills are crucial for overseeing IT services effectively.

• Willingness to stay updated with technological advancements and trends, integrating innovative solutions that enhance the institution's IT services.

• Ability to collaborate with various departments, understand their needs, and effectively align IT initiatives to support academic and administrative functions.

• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills and can present the business side of technical topics to non-technical audiences.

• Persuasively and effectively interact with various stakeholders and diverse individuals and groups.

• A Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) or equivalent.

• In addition, the successful candidate must also demonstrate, through ideas, words and actions, a strong commitment to USC's Unifying Values of integrity, excellence, diversity, equity and inclusion, well-being, open communication and accountability.

THE WORK YOU WILL DO

The Manager of Design Experience leads a team of innovative user experience (UX) researchers and designers to manage UX consistency across all ITS applications. Responsible for measuring and validating the effectiveness of UX initiatives. Enables collaboration between the UX research and design team and the change, project management, and engineering teams to ensure the implementation of user-centric designs. As an ITS leader, models and cultivates ITS culture, values, and behaviors.

JOB ACCOUNTABILITIES:

The Manager of Design Experience:

• Communicate and present design- and decision-making rationale to stakeholders. Work collaboratively with others across the organization (e.g., business analysts, developers). Design engaging experiences while balancing user needs, business objectives, and technical realities.

• Oversee UX research and the application of human-centered design (HCD) processes and approaches. Drive the user-centric approach for a broad range of university platforms (e.g., websites, applications).

• Build business cases for product and/or application improvements. Provide constructive feedback to the UX and/or cross-functional teams to improve overall user design. Effectively prioritize and manage projects according to importance, urgency, and impact.

• Manage team member development, helping them set and achieve goals for career growth. Fosters an inclusive environment that values differences and creates a sense of belonging and appreciation for team members. Lead by example, demonstrating strong ethics, high accountability, and actively drive the process of embedding the ITS values and behaviors. Contribute to a culture of trust and transparency. Drive best-in-class customer service to USC through effective team-member engagement.

• Supports the vision for product strategy and design. Works with other ITS leaders, customers, partners, and stakeholders to develop and manage a holistic strategy for delivering service quality and continuous service improvement. Supports governance for design experience through the implementation of standards, procedures, and quality measures.

• Builds and maintains strong relationships with ITS leaders, customers, partners, and stakeholders by participating in governance boards, councils, meetings, and campus-wide technology initiatives to understand current and future business needs, and to ensure that consistent, reliable service is delivered to a broad range of university stakeholders.

• Works closely with ITS leadership to identify, implement, and support cost- effective, leading solutions for all aspects of software engineering by maintaining currency with industry innovations; providing thought leadership around process optimization; and administering the department budget by creating, planning, monitoring, reconciling, and directing resources.

• Responsible for USC digital products' consistency and usability through qualitative and quantitative user-research methodologies, university policies, processes, procedures, and standards.

This position's annual base salary range is $160,000 - $180,000. When extending an offer of employment, the University of Southern California considers factors such as (but not limited to) the scope and responsibilities of the position, the candidate's work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, federal, state, and local laws, contractual stipulations, grant funding, and external market and organizational considerations.

#LI-MM1

Minimum Education: Bachelor's degree Combined experience/education as substitute for minimum education Minimum Experience: 3-6 years Minimum Field of Expertise: Portfolio demonstrating clean, polished design aesthetic and passion for pixel perfection, consistency, and usability. Experience with design principles (e.g., responsive, mobile-first, and/or data-driven design), with a proven record of designing and delivering end-to-end user-centered products. Excellent managerial skills and a proven track record of hiring and developing strong UX and UI design and research individual contributors. Demonstrated ability to create informed, user-centered design by leveraging user research, market analysis, data, and customer feedback with technical constraints and opportunities. Involvement with with Lean and/or Agile methodologies and Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG). Ability to prioritize and manage work in a fast-paced environment, with problem-solving and decision-making skills. Understanding of research methodologies, including user interviews, direct observation, ethnography, contextual inquiry, and usability studies. In-depth knowledge of standards and appropriate methods for managing different problems and scenarios, uncovering a root cause, and evaluating the risks and benefits of different solution options. Experience with large and complex systems and proven methods and tools to enforce brand identity and consistency across all projects. Knowledge with UX governance processes and development and understanding current front-end web technologies, native interface guidelines, web services, and APIs. Proven ability to comply with and enforce pertinent policies, procedures, regulations, and requirements while managing numerous necessary resources to resolve problems promptly and effectively. Develop and manage diverse, high-performing teams, providing regular, frequent performance coaching/mentoring, and encouraging effective behavior for individual and team success. Experience developing customer relationships and delivering customer-focused service, understanding and supporting customer needs, and articulating strategies that motivate others to action. Exceptional written and oral communication skills. Demonstrated ability to provide detailed information and summaries to management-level individuals and groups and experience presenting technical topics to non-technical audiences.