Web Site Designer/Developer (Potential to be Hired at Senior or Principal Level)

Description

The University of Arizona Libraries is looking for two creative, enthusiastic, and dedicated individuals who are passionate about user-centered design and interested in being part of a dynamic, collaborative environment at a large academic library.

Our talented staff is energized by building and contributing to excellent user experiences. With these positions we aim to improve the discoverability, accessibility and usability of our digital products and services while maintaining a strong focus on user-centered design.

As an academic library we are responsible for supporting multiple audiences (undergraduate students, graduate students, faculty, staff, community users, and donors) while providing a broad range of collections and services. We need to reflect the enormous value that our complex organization provides through an intuitive and engaging web presence.

As a part of the library’s web team, you’ll have opportunities to do different types of design work on a range of projects, and to work with departments across the organization. You will be especially involved in supporting Marketing Communications and Special Collections by designing websites that promote library events, services, and resources.

Working closely with other designers, developers, and user experience and communications professionals, you’ll create useful, usable, and accessible web products that help our users achieve their academic and personal goals.

You’ll have support for your work and operate in a respectful environment where we value risk-taking, learning, and open communication. We share responsibility for our successes and failures, we see opportunities in challenges, and we value diverse viewpoints and the learning that comes from challenging our assumptions.

We have a great team committed to using the best tools and approaches to support our work. We build web sites mobile-first, using HTML5, CSS3, and the front-end build tools that work best for us. We make design decisions and test our assumptions with the help of in-house user research and content strategy experts. We take deliberate steps to back each other up in our work and we share in successes and learn from failures together.

In addition to an agile workflow approach that is continuously being improved, we use the communication and development tools that work best for us. Currently we use Redmine for issue tracking, Git for version control and Gulp and Sass for front-end development. We deploy new code often and iteratively so that our work provides value to users sooner, and we have automated tools that help us do so with confidence. Don’t worry – we don’t expect you to know all the tools we use coming in, but we hope you’d be excited to learn! We’re always working on improving our workflow process and tools we use to get our work done and we expect you to contribute to that endeavor.

As indicated below, the Posted Rate of Pay varies based on the level of position:
Web Site Designer/Developer: $16.78 – $22.04 Per Hour
Web Site Designer/Developer, Senior: $47,059 – $62,830 Annually
Web Site Designer/Developer, Principal: $55,213 – $72,980 Annually

Outstanding UA benefits include health, dental, and vision insurance plans; life insurance and disability programs; paid vacation, sick leave, and holidays; UA/ASU/NAU tuition reduction for the employee and qualified family members; state retirement plan; access to UA recreation and cultural activities; and more!


Duties and Responsibilities:

Designs innovative, useful, usable, and engaging library websites and tools:

• Leads and coordinates design work for websites, digital exhibits and custom web applications.
• Empowers the web team to meet user and organizational goals by building design into every site and tool we make.
• Understands and applies the principles of user-centered design.
• Applies principles of usability and accessibility to all design and development.
• Makes thoughtful design decisions based on user research, organizational goals, and stakeholder feedback.
• Provides visual design support for new and legacy websites.
• Supports library websites, web content, and digital marketing efforts:
• Works closely with the user experience librarian and content strategist to produce designs that put our content in the spotlight.
• Applies consistent branding and messaging to help the library communicate clearly and effectively across channels.
• Collaborates with stakeholders and other library units:
• Serves on the website steering group and contributes to planning for future phases of web design and development.
• Communicates regularly with key stakeholders in other library departments including Marketing Communications, Access and Information Services, Research and Learning, Special Collections, and the Office of Digital Innovation and Stewardship.
• Facilitates conversations, presents concepts thoughtfully, and translates technical jargon into plain language for stakeholders.
• Solves problems and constantly improves processes and practices:
• Continually learns about new tools and techniques in web design, front-end development, digital marketing, and user experience design.
• Contributes to improving the processes and tools we use to do our work.
• Isolates, identifies, articulates and resolves problems.
• Performs testing and debugging.
• Assists with maintenance of and improvements to the Libraries’ web products.
• Educates others about design work and helps to establish and document best practices.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Strong communication skills, including active listening and the ability to effectively collaborate with diverse faculty, staff and students.
• Evidence of excellent web design skills.
• Demonstrated evidence of experience designing responsive websites.
• Enthusiasm in learning about design and frontend development.

Arizona Board of Regents Minimum Qualifications:

To be considered at the level of Web Site Designer/Developer:

• Three years of progressively responsible web site design and/or development experience; OR, an Associate’s degree in a related field AND two years of web site design and/or development experience; OR, Any equivalent combination of experience, training and/or education.

To be considered at the level of Web Site Designer/Developer, Senior:

• Five years of progressively responsible web site design and/or development experience; OR, Associate’s degree in a related field AND four years of web site design and/or development experience; OR, Bachelor’s degree in a related field AND two years of web site design and/or development experience; OR, Any equivalent combination of experience, training and/or education.

To be considered at the level of Web Site Designer/Developer, Principal:

• Six years of progressively responsible web site design and/or development experience; OR, Associate’s degree in a related field AND five years web site design and/or development experience; OR, Any equivalent combination of experience, training and/or education.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Proficiency in writing semantic, standards-compliant, and accessible HTML.
• Demonstrated experience with version control systems (currently we use Git).
• Proficiency in writing CSS and JavaScript to progressively enhance content.
• Skill in selecting and using front-end development tools (currently we use Sass and Gulp).
• Experience designing for content management systems (currently we use Drupal and Omeka).