UX Designer (Summer 2023 Internship)

About Us:
We are Smart: a global savings and investments technology provider on a mission to transform retirement, savings, and financial well-being around the world. We partner with financial institutions and advisers to deliver user-centered retirement savings and income solutions that are digital, customized, and cost-efficient.

Smart, founded in the UK, operates in the USA, Europe, Australia and the Middle East with close to a million savers entrusting over $3 billion in assets on the platform. Smart supports its clients with a 800 strong global team and saw over 2,000% growth in assets on its platform since 2018.

Quick Facts:
Location: There is a preference that this position is based in Nashville, TN, but we are open to remote working arrangements for candidates in the US.

Employment Type: This is a temporary internship, hourly position with no company benefits. Applicants must be currently based in the US. We are not accepting contractors or applicants from agencies at this time.

Interview Process: The interview process for this position includes a few up front applicant skills questions at the initial stage. If you pass the first stage, you will be invited to a video interview with the team that includes you presenting a client-facing case study from your prior work experience(1 hour).

Required Materials: We are asking that all applicants upload their portfolio in the application.

Reporting To: UX Designer

The Role:
We're looking for a UX Designer intern to help shape the user experience for our products and services that deliver engaging content and experience. The ability to conceptualize, understand the business requirements, and build creative user experiences from the product journeys is part of this role.

The role sits within the User Research & Design team, working closely with the Product Management on US specific initiatives. In addition to focusing on the US, this role also partners with the Global Design team to manage branding consistency across markets, receive design critiques and knowledge share. As a result, this role requires coordinating schedules with teammates across different time zones.

The scope of the project(s) will cover facets of the product life cycle, including the following:

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• Collaborate with the Product Strategy team and other project stakeholders to understand business needs
  
• Conduct primary/secondary research that informs our design approach
  
• Create user flow maps, wireframes that develop our product strategies and designs using Miro (and similar whiteboarding tools)
  
• Move from low fidelity to high fidelity designs and clickable prototypes using Figma

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The desired outcome is to support our UX team develop and deliver product designs and prototypes while developing their UX design skills, along with other hard and soft skills that make them a good team player and individual contributor.

This role will interact with various stakeholders, including clients, business partners, subject matter experts, developers, and technical writers, which requires the individual to communicate well and explain the user design best practices and renderings, which creates positive client experiences.

What You’ll Do:

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• Work alongside Product Managers, Product Owners and a UX Researcher to carry projects through from research to design and implementation
  
• Create user flows and designs for new product features - web and mobile applications
  
• Deliver wireframes, annotated designs to software developers and engineers
  
• Work with Product Managers to understand business needs and user feedback to create user-centric designs
  
• Create, maintain and enhance prototype designs in Figma or similar tools
  
• Incorporate company style guides, design systems, design patterns
  
• Work with the Research Team to inform and validate designs
  
• Detecting and resolving UX issues such as visibility, consistency, responsiveness, etc
  
• Include consumer input, user stats, and usability results into the design for enhanced user experience

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What You’ll Need:

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• Candidate towards an undergraduate degree in User Experience Design, Human Computer Interaction, or equivalent
  
• Experience designing for both web and mobile platforms
  
• Specific experience with Figma and leveraging design systems, libraries, and components
  
• Experience coordinating and delivering multiple projects in parallel
  
• Knowledge of the retirement or financial services industry (preferred)
  
• Experience working in an agile software development environment (preferred)

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Portfolio:
Please include a link to your portfolio (and password if it is protected) or upload it as an attachment in your application.

If you are invited to a team interview, you will need to present a commercial, client-facing (i.e., not for personal or educational purposes) case study (or two) that demonstrates your experience with the following:

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• mobile/responsive web design
  
• creating user flows, wireframes, prototypes
  
• using/maintaining/creating design systems
  
• developer-ready (annotated) documentation

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Within each case study, you need to express your design process, thinking and decision-making skills, as well as the final deliverables.

Mental and Physical Requirements:

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The person in this position:

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• May need to remain stationary for long periods of time
  
• May need to occasionally move about
  
• May need to lift, push, pull, carry, move, or otherwise move objects weighing up to 25 pounds
  
• Will need to operate a computer and/or other electronic devices, such as a phone, calculator, copy machine, or computer printer (possibly for extended periods of time)
  
• Will need to communicate with others and must be able to exchange accurate information
  
• Must be able to absorb, analyze, and retain information

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If you need help applying, please contact HR@smartretire.com for assistance. Smart is an equal opportunity employer valuing diversity in people and ideas.

Interested in joining a mission-driven certified Great Place to Work®? Apply today!

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