John Snow, Inc., and its nonprofit affiliate JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc., are public health research and consulting firms dedicated to improving the health of individuals and communities throughout the world.

Purpose of the role:

• The Senior HCD Designer supports the HCDExchange team with activities across the HCDExchange portfolio where the application of HCD is critical. It focuses on the HCD lifecycle, particularly advancing our work to embed HCD into programs and conduct design research, synthesis, prototyping, facilitation, design strategy, and business development. The Designer plays a critical role in meeting the new HCDExchange goal of increasing access to and use of HCD in global health programming through country-based workforce development, knowledge generation and exchange, and technical assistance in the Global South.

This consultant will support HCDExchange in implementing its three core services:

• Workforce Development of HCD talent in Africa and Southern Asia
• Build and serve the HCDExchange Knowledge Hub
• Provide Consulting Services to embed HCD into public health programs.

Roles and responsibilities

Provide support on design-related work for the HCDExchange.

• Support the design components of the development, testing, and implementation of the Insights Platform.

Support efforts towards localization and democratization of HCD in the Global South.

• Collaborate with young and early career design professionals to understand their needs and challenges.
• Develop tools, resources, and networking opportunities that empower career advancement by integrating HCD into public health programming.
• Provide leadership on workforce development activities such as creating learning and engagement opportunities for young professionals, providing mentorship, and contributing to problem-solving through design challenges/sprints.

Work with the HCDExchange design team to develop and execute a strategy for strengthening understanding of HCD within the HCDExchange and in the CoP.

• Contribute to efforts to understand and articulate the value of design in public health programs and bring mastery of the design process and exceptional execution skills, with the ability to own and guide design-related activities within a broader team environment.
• Build a work plan to execute this strategy in collaboration with communications and community activities.
• Foster a diverse and collaborative practitioner community to share expertise, insights, and best practices.
• Connect stakeholders, including public health implementers, designers, learning institutions, and donors, to facilitate partnerships and knowledge exchange.
• Advance the understanding of high-quality HCD practice in global health and highlight the crucial role of HCD within the ecosystem.

Participate in and drive in-person and online events on learning in HCD+Public Health.

• Share in co-creating community events (including webinars and workshops) and provide guidance on pressing HCD topics and areas of focus for event content.
• Facilitate and/or co-facilitate learning engagements and discussions, including learning circles and technical exchanges, and support in synthesizing learning for dissemination.
• Present learnings of the practice area in public convenings (e.g., conferences, partner meetings)

Provide HCD support in curating and utilizing learning in HCD+Public Health.

• Supporting the strategy on how to disseminate and utilize these solutions in the context of HCD+Public Health programming.
• Participate in community events to engage with partners on HCD-related topics.
• Create content and drive engagement with members on the X-Change platform to sustain an interactive platform.
• Work with HCDExchange colleagues to craft messaging for disseminating learning products.
• Work with the Project Director and Program Manager to support community engagement opportunities specific to that region, leveraging our contacts/relationships learning materials and ensuring alignment with the HCDExchange tone and values.
• Lead work on alignment between design and content creation for effective knowledge dissemination.
• Collaborate closely with the integrated HCDExchange team to co-create solutions through the HCDExchange knowledge hub services and products for the HCD and Global Health Ecosystem, including:
  • Blogs and thought pieces that can be put up as regular content
  • Learning and reflection sessions with individual practitioners and partner organizations.

Support client engagement work.

• Support work on Consulting Services and other capacity development initiatives for HCDExchange’s internal teams and clients. This includes attending client meetings, translating client needs, and providing technical inputs into scopes of work, proposals, and budgets, and implementing client engagement work plans.
• Collaborate with locally-based designers to co-create effective programs, solve design challenges, and build the capacity of health organizations to integrate design into their practices.
• Support the Consulting Services in delivering innovative and impactful solutions to clients.
• Seek new funding opportunities to support knowledge and workforce initiatives.

Provide support for the management team.

• Seek and foster partnerships and collaborations for the HCDExchange services.
• The Sr. HCD Designer will be called upon to coordinate and support team meetings, such as the Delivery Team meeting, monthly retros, and team building, and guide team members related to their work in administration, youth engagement, and learning dissemination.
• Preparing and delivering updates on the work streams s/he oversees at the monthly donor meetings and other periodic reports.
• Provide training and mentorship to staff members on HCD.
• Acting as a representative for the project and Senior Management Team in external meetings as required
• Provide support on any other duties (HCDExchange, JSI) based on the evolving needs of the program and as may be assigned by the supervisor.

Application Requirements

Required skills and experience.

• A minimum of 7-10 years of experience in design, with proven experience leading human-centered design projects and teams.
• Experience in applying HCD methods and processes across varied contexts and organizations.
• A record of strong client-facing engagement and the skills to turn client needs into clear, articulated scopes of work and budgets.
• End-to-end experience managing design activities across the human-centered design process, including solid design research skills, iterative design and prototyping, and usability testing facilitation.
• An excellent portfolio showcasing in-depth knowledge and experience in interaction design and service design across varied users, business problems, systems, and services.
• Experience conducting research activities and eliciting and interpreting insights from various audiences into usable learnings that communicate the audience’s experiences.
• Experience planning and facilitating co-creation and ideation workshops and synthesizing workshop learnings to drive strategic decisions.
• Ability to build capacity and create resources that enable other members of the organization’s team to take on facilitation roles.
• Experience building and iterating on prototypes and testing them with relevant audiences for feedback.
• Experience in design tools such as Mural, Sketch & Figma.
• Strong presentation design, concise, influential communication.

Other Qualifications

• Formal education in Qualitative research, ethnography, innovation, business, and/or Design (Visual, graphic, Interaction, Product, Industrial, Service, etc). A master’s degree would be considered a plus.
• Minimum 5 years of experience applying human-centered design and systems thinking to create solutions as a consultant in a design firm or a social impact organization, particularly in projects related to global health, is preferred.
• Expert knowledge of HCD and design thinking methods and tools: Strong research, synthesis, ideation, and visual storytelling skills. Strong ability to present information concisely, insightfully, and in a structured manner, both written and oral. Ability to communicate the power of design to stakeholders from varied backgrounds.
• Knowledge of emerging research approaches, tools, and ways to present findings.
• Experience working remotely with a diverse team: Strong grasp of remote interactive working tools like Miro, Zoom, and Google Slides, among others. Ability to engage with diverse teams through remote channels and collaborate seamlessly to conduct remote research and generate high-quality outputs.
• Work well independently and in teams.
• A portfolio of HCD projects with a clear summary of contributions to the project
• Past design experience with Global Health and/or Youth and young professionals is a plus.