The Ascension Studio is seeking a Senior Communications Designer to collaborate in our work creating the future of people-centered healthcare.

Background

Ascension, one of the largest non-profit healthcare systems in the United States, has established an in-house, interdisciplinary team tasked with designing the technology-enabled services and experiences of healthcare across the entire spectrum of care delivery. 

The Ascension Studio creates seamless, end-to-end experiences for those we serve through a cohesive ecosystem of well-designed, user-friendly services, products and solutions. From problem discovery to product delivery, we put people at the heart of everything we do.

This person can be located in Austin, Chicago, or St. Louis.

#ascensionstudio

What You Will Do
 

About The Role

The role of the Communications Design team within the Studio is to collaborate in designing our technology-enabled products and services, emphasizing all communicative aspects of those experiences. This could include, for example, visually-driven north star visions of future patient experiences, exploring overarching strategy through visual forms, the visual design and micro-copy of our digital interfaces, integrated digital/physical wayfinding systems within our facilities, the conversational experience of our call centers, training materials for new product launches and communications that support patient familiarity and use of our services. This work ranges across many different forms of media including digital applications, websites, videos, product and architectural graphics, presentations and printed collateral.  

This team - in deep collaboration with colleagues in research, product management, technology, clinical practice, and more - uses human-centered design methods and a strategic mindset to understand the needs and motivations of our patients and clinicians and brings those solutions to life. The work includes research and synthesis to understand latent user needs, design explorations to iteratively generate design options, ample prototyping to bring ideas to life, collaboration with research, product, marketing, and clinical colleagues and a relentless passion for engaging directly with the user to continuously improve their experience.

The Communications Design team also supports the creation of many Studio team communications such as presentations, videos, websites, and events, primarily for internal audiences including executive leadership, internal project teams, and business partners. We are adept at providing big picture strategic support and thinking as well as discrete project design and refinements on large and small projects.

In your role as a Sr. Communications Designer, you will collaborate in designing our patient-facing products and services with a particular emphasis on all communicative aspects of those experiences. This could include, for example, the conversational experience of our call centers, the visual design and micro-copy of our digital interfaces, integrated digital/physical wayfinding systems within our facilities, and communications that support patient familiarity and use of our services.

The role will also support substantial creation of many team communications such as presentations decks, information graphics, videos, websites, and events, primarily for internal audiences including executive leadership, internal project teams such as research and product teams, and business partners.

Please include a link or a copy of your portfolio in your application.

Responsibilities

• Serve as lead communications designer on multiple projects 
• Support stakeholders in creation of digital and print artifacts
• Establish communications design best practices and educate team collaborators on communications design techniques

• Collaborate with counterparts in Marketing and Communications to ensure proper integration of the Ascension brand experience, brand voice, language research, and editorial and style guidelines in our product experiences, and in service of having the Marketing and Communications team and the Consumer and Clinical Products team insights mutually informing each other in the creation of new product experiences and their corresponding go-to-market campaigns.

• Collaborate with external contractors and partners as needed

What You Will Need
 

Requirements:

• Strong portfolio of work in various communications media that reflects experience in both digital and non-digital communications. 
• Fluency across a variety of communications approaches, such as illustrations, storyboards, journey maps, service blueprints, frameworks, audio/visual communications, etc.
• Excellent written and visual communication skills
• Rapid prototyping to bring concepts to life in service of learning and advancing understanding of user needs and behaviors
• Conducting feedback discussions with users and internal stakeholders to refine concepts
• Strong knowledge of user-centered design principles
• Excellent interdisciplinary team collaboration skills, including team leadership

Education:

• High school diploma/GED with 2 years of experience, or Associate's degree, or Bachelor's degree required.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Communication Design, Graphic Design, Interaction Design, Service Design, Industrial Design, or similar field preferred.

Work Experience:

• 3 years of experience in communication or visual design required.
• 5 years of experience in communication or visual design preferred.

Additional Preferences
 

Additional requirements:

• Empathy for the user and a deep understanding of user-centered design (UCD) practices and principles.
• The ability to tell compelling, persuasive, strategic stories though visual design.
• Relentless passion for engaging directly with the user to continuously improve their experience.

Why Join Our Team
 

Ascension is a faith-based healthcare organization dedicated to transformation through innovation across the continuum of care. As one of the leading non-profit and Catholic health systems in the U.S., Ascension is committed to delivering compassionate, personalized care to all. In FY2020, Ascension provided $2.4 billion in care of persons living in poverty and other community benefit programs. Ascension includes more than 160,000 associates and 40,000 aligned providers across a national network of ministries. We offer rewarding careers across more than 2,600 sites of care – including 146 hospitals and more than 50 senior living facilities – in 19 states and the District of Columbia.

Equal Employment Opportunity Employer
 

Ascension is an equal opportunity employer (EEO) and affords equal opportunity to all associates and applicants without regard to race, color, religion, national origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, physical or mental disability, veteran status, genetic data, or other legally protected status.

For further information regarding your EEO rights, click on the following link to the “EEO is the Law” poster:

http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf

EEO is the Law Poster Supplement

Please note that Ascension will make an offer of employment only to individuals who have applied for a position using our official application. Be on alert for possible fraudulent offers of employment. Ascension will not solicit money or banking information from applicants.

This employer participates in the Electronic Employment Verification Program. Please click the E-Verify link below for more information.