Summary

The UX Architect works closely with SMS business leadership, product owners, engineers, and our customers to craft experiences for any channel or platform and draws on thorough knowledge of the UX lifecycle (research, concepting, iterative design, testing) to help lead the definition and creation of innovative design solutions that address customer needs to marry them with SMS’ business goals. They engage in effective dialog with the engineering team, with a focus on optimizing business agility, value, and innovative User Experience design and direction.

The UX Architect participates in these areas of UX discipline:

• User Research
• Information Architecture
• Wireframes/Prototypes
• Content Strategy
   

Responsibilities

• Create elegant, smart, and intuitive designs for web, desktop, and mobile applications
• Work with a team of UXers to deliver innovative, delightful user experiences that meets stakeholder expectations
• Communicate design strategy to product owners, clients, developers and other team members and be able to articulate creative rationale
• Support development of presentations, storyboards, and client feedback mechanisms to communicate design process
• Collaborate across functional groups and across design teams early and often
• Work closely and often with leads, stakeholders, clients and IT
• Use design thinking methodologies to empathize, learn, ideate, challenge stakeholders and UX peers, ideate and iterate
• Take a user-centered design approach and rapidly test and iterate concepts
• Collaborate across functional groups and across design teams early and often
• Manage design deliverables with Agile project management techniques 
• Support internal brainstorms, ideation, and design thinking workshops  
• Research and share knowledge of the industry’s latest UX trends and tools
• Contribute to UX vision and strategy
• Drive the design review cycle and gather on design requirements independently
• Raise the bar for product quality by advocating for user centered product roadmaps
• Work with team members across time zones
• Ensure confidentiality of internal and external data
• Perform ad-hoc projects and other duties as assigned

   Professional Skills

Instructions: Select pertinent skills from the list below and delete as necessary, then select a level from the Professional Skills Guide. If appropriate add a few words describing specific requirements under each skill.

These are the professional skills we would expect from an individual fully established in this role.

• Customer Service (Proficient)
• Verbal Communication (Advanced)
• Written Communication (Proficient)
• Teamwork (Proficient)
• Relationships (Proficient)
• Negotiation (Proficient)
• Organizational Awareness (Proficient)
• Learning Agility (Advanced)
• Analysis (Proficient)
• Problem Solving (Proficient)
• Process Orientation (Proficient)
• Prioritization (Proficient)

Role Specific Skills

• Proficient with UX tools (e.g. Sketch, Axure, InVision, Photoshop, Illustrator) to produce wireframes, prototypes and workflows
• Ability to storytell and frame problems for a diverse audience of stakeholders, helping them envision potential design opportunities
• Working knowledge of usability principles and techniques
• Able to proactively manage stakeholder expectations
• Passionate and vocal advocate about all things UX and other areas of design and innovation
• Ability to create lightweight prototypes to test ideas

People Management Skills

• Not applicable to this role

Qualifications

    Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent experience
• 2+ years of experience creating iterative design, working closely with team leads, peers, customers and developers from inception through implementation
• Experience designing and shipping software design experiences
• Experience collaborating with Product Management and Engineering counterparts
• Experience contributing to a project’s entire product lifecycle