UX / UI Designer

Introduction
As IBM Z Designers you are part of a community of innovators creators and design thinkers. Our systems power the world’s most important industries and our clients are the architects of the future. Transforming our business to deliver on that future is at the heart of our Design mission.

As an IBM Z UX Advisory Designer you will assume ownership of design deliverables on your product either as an individual contributor or leader of a design team. Fusing your understanding of customer needs deep domain knowledge and familiarity with the positioning and strategy behind your products you are seen as a subject matter expert in your domain leading your team to develop high-quality experience-led solutions that meet end-user expectations while delivering business value. You are adept with conducting UX research and comfortable developing and executing research goals and plans. You have a passion for technology and the capacity to learn and understand complex technical details. You will also assume a degree of responsibility in meeting business success metrics.
Having built expertise in the UX craft competency in design research and effective collaboration skills working in multidisciplinary teams you will apply your knowledge and expertise to advocate for customer needs and drive exemplary product experiences. You will continue to develop the depth and breadth of your T-Shape skills especially in the Business Acumen and Industry/Technology areas. You will actively contribute to our design community’s health culture and success through your involvement in community-focused initiatives and through mentorship of junior teammates and other colleagues.

Your Role and Responsibilities
Strategic Responsibilities

• Demonstrate deep domain knowledge and understanding of key users and the market.
• Demonstrate fluency in your portfolio’s business strategy and the value proposition of the product(s) within your scope.
• Align the design work of your team with product strategies and user experience insights/requirements.
• Influence decisions tied to the business strategy and processes of your products.
• Establish and own design goals for your product (aligned with business strategy) and measure progress towards those goals.
• Participate in portfolio Commitment pitches MMT OMT Lean Governance etc. meetings.
• Be an SME that acts as the voice of the customers.

Cross-Functional Responsibilities

• Lead design efforts for a product(s) / project(s).
• Drive the execution of an experience roadmap based on awareness of user and business needs.
• Advocate for end user experience steer development in a different direction when needed.
• Partner with Product Management and development to cultivate manage and administer sponsor user relationships.
• Incorporate IBM development practices with design practices.
• Work with Agile product team leaders to measure progress and review design outcomes (via playbacks).
• Be an active member of your squad(s) by attending and presenting playbacks coaching designers providing input in the prioritization of the product backlog.
• When applicable participate in planning and other product delivery processes.
• Champion design as driving force for innovation motivating your team to push the boundaries and identify opportunities for Intellectual Property (IP) as an outcome.
• Drive consistency and quality of design deliverables.
• Participate in cross-disciplinary collaboration to facilitate innovation.
• Identify process improvement opportunities at a program level.

Functional Responsibilities

• Execute product/project design deliverables in alignment with project timeline and roadmap milestones.
• Define user experience goals and design principles.
• Align 3-in-a-box teams to the design strategy.
• Help define product value proposition with PM.
• Determine types of research needed on individual initiatives and develop research goals and plans.
• Evaluate early ideas for products workflows or features to determine viability.
• Utilize research insights to drive prioritization of product backlog and roadmap.
• Create advanced prototypes documenting end-to-end experiences.
• Develop strong storytelling capabilities.
• Build your eminence in the design world outside of IBM and contribute to IBM and IBM Design to grow your presence internally.
• Build your eminence with our customer base and the external business industry you engage with.
• Support and guide individual designers through leadership coaching and mentoring.
• Critique design work; inspire and motivate the team to pursue design excellence.
• Engage with broader IBM Z Design community.
• Facilitate and lead design thinking workshops.
• Actively lead efforts benefiting the design community (e.g. innovation processes design direction community building).
• Shares expertise at studio-wide events.
• Develop Experienced-level skill in design for AI.
• Develops Experienced-level skill in IBM Experience Standard.

Required Technical and Professional Expertise
Minimum Professional Requirements: 8+ years of Industry experience

• A minimum of 3 years of experience in executing UX deliverables on design projects.
• A minimum of 4 years of experience in product or service design.
• A minimum of 2 years of experience working with product managers and engineers.
• A minimum of 4 years of experience in a hands-on UX design role.
• A minimum of 4 years of experience with design tools such as Figma and Adobe XD as well as analytics tools.
• Exposure to Agile processes (e.g. SAFe) enterprise design thinking managing allocation and prioritization discussions and the IBM Universal Experiences.
• Portfolio of projects that demonstrate your skills as a UX designer and researcher.

Required Technical Expertise

• Expert-level UX design skills including wireframing & prototyping
• Expert-level competency with common design tools such as Figma Adobe XD etc.
• Demonstrated experience conducting design research and familiarity with research tools such as UserInterviews Alchemer and UserZoom.
• Experience in defining and executing UX Metrics assessments.
• Competency with standard presentation programs Powerpoint & Keynote.
• Strong portfolio showing a breadth of complex technically-oriented projects.

Preferred Technical and Professional Expertise

• None