Staff Designer – Civic Engagement

Description

New York City's planning agency plans for the city's future, aiming for lively, well-connected neighborhoods with access to housing and jobs, sturdy infrastructure, and an appealing public realm. It works with communities on inclusive plans, widens access to housing and economic opportunity, and plans for long-term sustainability.

The agency supports the City Planning Commission, which reviews hundreds of land use applications each year. It also advises on citywide strategy and capital planning, analyzes data, carries out policy research, and builds open data and civic engagement tools. It maintains the official City Map, which shows streets, parks, and other public places.

The Community Planning and Engagement division is the hub for the agency's coordinated community planning work. Its team drives new ideas and steady improvement in how neighborhood and citywide plans are developed, working across agency divisions, partner agencies, and New Yorkers.

This Staff Designer role is a Graphic Artist position that sits in this division and works with agency teams, partner agencies, and New Yorkers to explain city planning topics, internal and public processes, and ways people can help shape local and citywide plans.

Responsibilities

• Help shape the visual design of engagement plans for neighborhood and citywide initiatives, working with teams across the agency and coordinating with Communications on externally facing materials.
• Work with teams to set design goals and strategies for initiatives and help build each project's visual identity.
• Create key materials such as illustrations, maps, display boards, graphic organizers, tools, and activities.
• Suggest new approaches to civic engagement and work with agency staff to apply civic engagement principles through an equity lens.
• Make materials that explain the agency's planning tools and processes and how people can take part in neighborhood planning and citywide policy work.
• Run user research, prototyping, and usability testing so materials meet the needs of their audience.
• Produce explainers such as illustrations, infographics, presentations, and short videos for web and social channels, in coordination with the Communications team.
• Create reports, brochures, and one-pagers, mainly for engagement settings, with teams across the agency.
• Build agency staff skills by leading workshops and training on design principles and best practices.
• Create and maintain templates for standard presentations and reports that follow agency standards.
• Give design guidance and feedback to project teams to keep improving their work.

Requirements

• A design background such as graphic design, urban design, or architecture.
• Experience creating illustrations and tools for engagement.
• Experience facilitating inclusive processes that increase participation in community planning and policy development.
• Experience engaging communities in design processes.
• Creative problem solving, strong interpersonal, project management, and communication skills.
• Proven ability to work independently with minimal supervision.
• Proficiency with Adobe Creative Suite and Microsoft Office.
• Authorization to work in the United States is required.
• Minimum qualifications, one of the following: a master's degree in design, graphic arts, visual arts, marketing, computer science, or digital media from an accredited college, plus two years of paid full-time work as a designer, commercial artist, or graphic artist, including 18 months supervising and planning artwork made by staff.
• Alternatively, a bachelor's degree in one of those fields plus four years of the same kind of experience, including 18 months supervising and planning staff artwork.
• Alternatively, an associate degree in one of those fields plus six years of the same kind of experience, including 18 months supervising and planning staff artwork.
• Alternatively, a high school diploma or equivalent, plus two years at an approved trade or technical school in design, graphic arts, visual arts, marketing, or digital media, plus six years of the same kind of experience, including 18 months supervising and directing staff artwork.
• Alternatively, a high school diploma or equivalent plus eight years of the same kind of experience, including 18 months supervising and directing staff artwork.
• Alternatively, a mix of education and experience matching any of the above. Accredited college study in those fields counts toward experience at 30 semester credits per year. Trade or technical school study in design, graphic arts, visual arts, marketing, or digital media counts at one year of full-time study per year of experience, for the high school option. The 18 months of supervisory experience is required in every case.
• Preferred: experience with video editing software such as Adobe Premiere and After Effects.
• Preferred: experience teaching, writing curricula, or developing workshops.

Conditions

Full-time permanent role in the Graphic Artist title, with appointment subject to Office of Management and Budget approval.

Only candidates with permanent Civil Service status in the Graphic Artist title, those reachable on the Graphic Artist active list (exam 4123), or those serving in a comparable civil service title can be considered.

Remote work may be possible up to 2 days per week under the Remote Work Pilot Program agreed between the City and DC37.

The company is an equal opportunity employer that bars discrimination and harassment based on legally protected status or characteristics.