Creative Technologist (UX Designer)

Are you a techie who’s a creative at heart? At August Jackson, our creative work across live events and experiences is amped up through our digital solutions. We are seeking a Creative Technologist (UX Designer) who has digital activation design and front end development experience and can be the nexus of all things digital, helping us connect the dots among creative, design and technology.

The Creative Technologist (UX Designer) understands the creative process and can drive prototyping and activation, with a responsibility for building web projects as well as mobile and other digital experiences. You are hands-on in all aspects of user experience including: gathering and understanding needs, building high and low fidelity prototypes and working collaboratively with the team to execute. You may find yourself deploying your practical design and coding skills to prototype a digital activation, and then using your creative and technical know-how to oversee the development of the final product.

We’re looking for someone who is unafraid to take risks, explore new technologies and assert ideas while working comfortably and collaboratively with the rest of the team and clients. All in the spirit of putting our clients’ purpose into practice by transforming their objectives into digital activations.

JOB RESPONSIBILITIES

Act as a Digital Strategist/SME: discovery, pitch and client consultation, internal education and process definition as well as staying on top of relevant emerging technologies

• Understands business and client current state and can map out the future state
• Conducts full discovery assessments and analyses
• Can pull findings into a dynamic presentation and articulation of ideas and recommendations
• Stays current in emerging tools and technologies and educates internally
• Acts as a thought leader internally and externally and facilitates innovation workshops with clients and partners

Develop Ideas for Clients: brainstorming/ideating around user experience design and associated tech stack development for deliverables

• Brainstorms concepts with Creative team (and Design and Production when appropriate)
• Makes informed tech-stack, tool(s) and application recommendations for technical solutions outlined
• Leads the development of function requirements, information architecture, personas, user flow, user journey, wireframes and prototypes as applicable
• Conducts prototype testing
• Quickly develops prototypes in addition to production-ready projects

Select Vendor Partners: project-specific vendor solicitation, selection and on-boarding

• Aligns appropriate team of vendors and freelancers with project specifications and requirements
• Creates digital briefs, SOW documents, functional specs and obtains cost estimates and quotes
• Negotiates favorable financial terms

Manage Digital Vendor Partnerships: procurement, on-boarding, meeting (sprint and scrum) facilitation, feedback centralization, liaising among all stakeholders (EL, Creative, Design, Production and Vendor Partners)

• Works with Production to identify appropriate team, timelines and meeting cadence
• Collaborates with Design, Creative and Production during development and centralizing and managing feedback and quality control
• Acts as the “face” of the project to clients and vendor partners—mediating the needs of disciplines and vendors
• Translates visual designs into efficient front-end components
• Works closely with vendor partners to ensure the integrity and feasibility of the UI throughout the design and development lifecycle
• Partners with vendor partners to ensure the front-end prototype code developed can be seamlessly integrated

Consultative Partner to Production: working closely with the Digital Producer to define overarching and project-specific processes, deliverables, timelines, meeting and review cadences

• Oversight of development and quality control
• Performs de-bugging procedures, code improvement and re-designing tasks
• Documents development processes, procedures and application version histories
• Provides on-site IT/tech/end-user support for events
• Interfaces with client-side developer teams to ensure integration and security requirements (ARB/SSO/MDM/WCAG/other)
• Works with creatives, tech leads and tech artists to create immersive experiences on a variety of platforms
• Breaks down the technical needs and scopes out projects with producers and technical team
• Develops technical architecture for projects which may sometimes involve various devices, sensors, and localized network services
• Ensures adherence to best practices, standards and brand consistency

THE REQUIREMENTS

• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, information technology, information systems, or a related field
• Extensive experience in designing, deploying, and optimizing technical solutions
• Experience in a creative environment building brand experiences and/or websites that are global and localized
• A minimum 5 years of front-end web development experience and familiarity with design systems, components, and module development
• A deep understanding of the principles of User Experience, User Interface Design and Typography with the ability to roll up your sleeves and dig into code to build great experiences
• Relevant experience analyzing user experiences and turning them into usable, interactive prototypes and/or products
• Advanced proficiency in dynamic languages, web frameworks and multiple API’s
• Advanced proficiency in design tools: Figma, Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesign
• Advanced proficiency in web tools: JavaScript; web applications using modern frameworks and libraries such as React, Angular, Node, Coffee Script, TypeScript, SASS, etc.
• Proficient experience and understanding of vector and motion graphics: SVG, HTML5, Canvas and Animation via JavaScript and CSS
• Experience working with OpenGL and/or WebGL a plus
• Expert-level understanding of CSS – you know the browser quirks and how to work around them

Just as important, they are also:

• Great with people of all levels;
• A confident and engaging communicator;
• Has excellent analytical and problem-solving skills;
• Highly organized with flawless attention to detail, and;
• Unfazed by tight deadlines and conflicting priorities.