UI/UX Designer

The Washington Health Benefit Exchange is a public-private partnership that operates the WAPlanfinder mobile app and Washington Healthplanfinder, the eligibility and enrollment portal used by one in four Washington residents to obtain health and dental coverage. Through Washington Healthplanfinder, individuals and families can compare and enroll in health insurance coverage and gain access to financial help and public programs like Washington Apple Health.

The mission of the Exchange, a state-based marketplace, is to radically improve how Washington residents secure health insurance through innovative and practical solutions, an easy-to-use customer experience, our values of integrity, respect, equity and transparency, and by providing undeniable value to the health care community.

The Exchange is also committed to identify and reach groups at risk for obstacles to access coverage, which includes supporting those who need assistance overcoming barriers to seek, find, and use their health insurance coverage. Specifically, the Exchange is embracing the following equity statement:

Equity is a fundamental pillar to the society we seek to build. The process of advancing toward equity will be disruptive and demands vigilance, dismantling deeply entrenched systems of privilege and oppression. We must focus our efforts on people and places where needs are greatest, especially communities of color, and go beyond remedying a particular inequity to address all determinants of health.

Our goal is that all Washingtonians have full and equal access to opportunities, power and resources to achieve their full potential.

SUMMARY

The UI/UX Designer will be a partner in informing direction for our digital products to improve the usability, accessibility and joy associated with our digital customer experiences. The Designer will work in an exciting team environment, of UI/UX designers, product owners, developers, UX research, copy writers, and accessibility specialists to collectively assess the needs and goals of our customers and translate this into optimal user experiences.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

• Work within the Digital Design Team with other designers, solving complex problems using research and analytics to validate and inform UI and UX decisions for product teams.
• Work alongside research to understand the end-to-end user journeys, pain points and accessibility needs to better inform product direction and ensure an optimal user experience.
• Translate data and user insights into interactive flows, design artifacts (wire frames, mockups, prototypes) and requirements for intuitive and functional web and mobile design.
• Experience creating and maintaining design systems to ensure efficient handover from design to development.
• Ensure that the product design adheres to the style guides and advise on UI consistency throughout the product UI.
• Work collaboratively with software development, design, content strategy, data analysts, and UX research to enhance the customer experience and ensure user stories are meeting objectives, goals and UI/UX requirements.
• Advocate for users fostering a shared understanding of the user-centric intersection between design, marketing, product, and technology.
• Provide insight to project teams on UI and UX design best practices and customer experience usability needs to deliver optimal UX solutions.
• Knowledgeable in a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative research methods as well as human-centered digital design principles and utilizing this data to produce solutions.
• Work with UX research, product teams and business to evaluate outcomes and provide recommendations on how best to improve the overall product design.
• Improve and innovate on the most efficient ways to work by experimenting with new tools, exploring untouched user journeys, new processes, and collaboration ideas.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills; Ability to take complex information and distill it into easy-to-understand language. Proficient in writing for the web.
• Maintain and promote cooperative relationships with partner organizations, consumer workgroups and stakeholder organizations through inclusion in the process to continually improve the Washington Healthplanfinder consumer experience.
• Look beyond health/insurance industry sector, monitoring all relevant technology and design trends and building a structure for feeding these back into our online experiences.
• Other duties as assigned.

QUALIFICATIONS

Required:

• Bachelor’s degree required AND two years demonstrable professional UI/UX design (NOTE: Qualifying experience may substitute year for year for education.)
• Experience in user-centered design, critical thinking, problem solving, web interaction design including an understanding of inclusive and responsive design.
• Experience in a wide array of quantitative and qualitative research methods.
• Proficiency in digital design tools such as Adobe XD, Figma, Axure, or similar design tools with a strong ability to create interactive prototypes.
• Knowledge in HTML, CSS, Bootstrap, etc.
• Demonstrates skills of UX leadership shifting from a tactical individual contributor to working strategically.
• A self-starter who can manage their projects and holds themselves accountable to do their best work.
• Strong interpersonal skills: ability to work with all levels of internal management and staff, as well as outside clients, vendors, diverse populations, stakeholder groups, partner agencies and customers.

Desired:

• Experience problem solving for complex digital systems.
• Experience working with design handoff tools such as Zeplin.
• Experience with accessibility compliance guidelines for digital interfaces.
• Experience working in Agile/Scrum software development. Jira and Confluence project management tools.
• Proficient with both Mac and PC.

APPLICATION INSTRUCTIONS

This position will be open until we find a suitable number of candidates to review. If interested, please submit an application with a cover letter as soon as possible. The Exchange reserves the right to close the recruitment at any time.

SALARY INFORMATION

The posted salary is the full salary range. The range of consideration for new hires is from $66,980.00 to $83,725.00. Offer will depend on qualifications.

BENEFITS

Take a peek at our benefits package.

WORKING CONDITIONS

Core business hours are 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Travel requirements will be limited to local travel, however there may be occasions in which an employee is required to travel and work irregular hours to attend meetings or trainings. Duties of this position require the use of standard office furniture and equipment (e.g. desk, filing cabinet, computer, printer, telephone, fax machine, copy machine, etc.).

The working conditions and physical demands are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

In alignment with the Governor's proclamation and WAHBE's duty to provide and maintain a safe work environment free of known hazards, to reduce business and community disruption associated with COVID-19 surges, and to reduce the risk to the public we serve, all employees must provide evidence that they have received the COVID-19 vaccination in full as a condition of employment, or have received an approved medical or religious exemption.

SPECIAL REQUIREMENTS

A criminal background screen will be conducted for candidates under final consideration, and if hired, every five years of employment where highly sensitive data is processed or maintained by the position. The result of this background screen must meet the Exchange’s eligibility standards.

OTHER INFORMATION

The above statements are intended to describe the general nature and levels of work being performed. They are not intended to be construed as an exhaustive list of responsibilities, duties and skills of personnel so classified.

This is not an employment agreement or contract. Management has the exclusive right to alter this job description at any time without notice.

The Washington Health Benefit Exchange is an Equal Opportunity Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, age, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or protected veteran status.

We participate in E-Verify. You can view the Department of Justice's Right to Work poster here.

‍