Product Designer (Mobile Apps)

Product Designer (Mobile Apps) (Remote)

*No Visa Sponsorship is available for this position.

About the Cornell Lab of Ornithology

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is a globally recognized leader in technology, data management, and large-scale citizen science supporting birds and biodiversity conservation. We curate more than a petabyte of digital assets, one billion bird sightings, and leverage innovative big data analysis tools and machine learning to produce web applications and services to empower a global community of bird and nature enthusiasts, researchers, conservationists, and educators. Merlin Bird ID is a mobile application that helps millions of people worldwide identify birds. Merlin is in an exciting growth phase as birdwatching has increased since the pandemic and Merlin released automated sound identification features. eBird is the world's largest, fastest growing biodiversity databases with contributions from every country across the globe.

he Opportunity

The Cornell Lab of Ornithology is seeking a creative, mission-driven Product Designer to focus on Merlin Bird ID and eBird mobile apps. This role will join a team that shares the mission of connecting people to nature and conservation through birds. As part of a team of software engineers, content creators, machine learning researchers, and conservation scientists this role will be the lynchpin in translating new ideas for how to engage a global community in participating in watching birds into features. The data collected through these features and apps is directly tied to data products used in conservation decision-making and positive environmental outcomes.

The Product Designer's primary responsibility is to ensure products are highly engaging, inclusive, usable, and professionally executed. Merlin and eBird apps reach people in every country in the world and all features are in multiple languages with careful consideration for online and offline use cases. This role translates complex, abstract concepts and new ideas into designs that are easy for the public to understand, use, and enjoy. The Product Designer is also responsible for user research and feature requirements gathering, wireframing, prototyping, usability testing, and final design specifications. The Product Designer will receive ongoing feedback about how their design decisions impact users and must efficiently evaluate input and iterate solutions.

• User Interface (UI) and User Experience (UX) Design for Mobile Apps: Design usable, inclusive user interfaces and associated components, templates, data visualizations, illustrations, and animations for mobile applications.
• Feature Requirements: In collaboration with technical project manager and project leaders, develop ideas for new project features that align with Lab's strategic goals, and deliver designs for these concepts.
• User Research, Usability, and Accessibility: Conduct user research, usability and accessibility testing, analyze data, and report results at all phases of design and development; recommend and implement solutions. Provide advice and guidance on the design and implementation of UX research methodologies; perform user research to better understand audiences, analyze data, and report results.

What We Need

Required Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in information science, computer science, human-computer interaction, digital design, or other relevant field or equivalent combination of education and experience.

• Three (3)+ years of experience designing for native Android and iOS platforms.
• Three (3)+ years of experience in User Interface (UI) design.
• Three (3)+ years of experience in User Experience (UX) design.
• Highly proficient with standard design and prototyping tools, (e.g. Figma, ProtoPie, Sketch, Adobe Suite).
• Experience building, using, and maintaining design systems for digital products
• Experience designing, building, and testing interactive prototypes, wireframes, and high-fidelity mockups.
• Comfortable soliciting and receiving feedback from collaborators and working directly with team of software engineers.
• Ability to iterate quickly across all phases of a project and develop new concepts for features.
• Experience conducting user research and usability testing for digital products.
• Familiarity with inclusive design principles.
• Experience in and/or demonstrated commitment to supporting diversity, equity, access, inclusion, and wellbeing.

• Ability to cultivate and develop inclusive and equitable working relationships with students, faculty, staff, and community members.
• Ability to work in a team-based environment, supporting and inspiring teams, while offering direction, vision, and planning deliverables.
• Strong verbal and visual presentation skills to clearly articulate designs to technical and non-technical people using everyday language, and provide instruction effectively to all levels of management, staff, new partners, funding agencies, project participants, and visitors.
• Ability to be flexible and open-minded, open to new ways of working.
• High level of integrity and dependability with a strong sense of urgency and results-orientation.

• Ability to prioritize activities and exercise sound judgement.

If you have all those things, great! We have a few more things that we would prefer you to have, but it's ok if you don't.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Graduate degree preferred.
• Deep understanding of birds and the birding community.
• Experience watching birds and working on projects to advance birdwatching and bird conservation.
• At least five (5) years of experience using eBird, Merlin, and other Cornell Lab of Ornithology resources.
• Experience in technical project management.
• Experience designing for tablets, wearables, voice, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.

Application Information:

• A Cover Letter and Resume are required for further consideration for this position. When applying through our system, please remember to attach your application materials (Cover Letter and Resume) in PDF format.
• Visa Sponsorship of any kind is not available for this position.

What We Offer

Rewards and Benefits

• This position is based in Ithaca, New York, however, the successful applicant may perform this role remotely anywhere within the United States. Employees who work remotely may receive multiple W-2 Forms depending on their work location.
• The New York Convenience of employer guidelines require New York State individual tax reporting and withholding for this position. Additional individual state income tax filings may also be required if working temporarily outside of New York State.
• Cornell receives national recognition as an award-winning workplace for our health, wellbeing, sustainability, and diversity initiatives.
• Our benefits programs include comprehensive health care options, generous retirement contributions, access to wellness programs, and employee discounts with local and national retail brands. We invite you to follow this link to get more information about our benefits: https://hr.cornell.edu/benefits-pay.
• Follow this link to learn more about the Total Rewards of Working at Cornell: https://hr.cornell.edu/jobs/your-total-rewards.
• Our leave provisions include health and personal leave, three weeks of vacation and 13 holidays: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving and the day after, and an end of the year winter break from December 25-January 1.
• Cornell's impressive educational benefits include tuition-free Extramural Study and Employee Degree Program, tuition aid for external education, and Cornell Children's Tuition Assistance Program.

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