User Experience Designer (mid to senior-level)

Freedom of the Press Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to protecting and defending public interest journalism, is hiring a User Experience Designer.

We are looking for a mid-level to senior person who is creative, kind–and passionate about press freedom and digital security! We warmly welcome applicants from underrepresented communities, cultures and backgrounds, such as people of color, TLGBQIA+ folks, single parents, people from working class backgrounds, and people with non-traditional educations.

About this role

As the designer working with a small software development team, you will be responsible for improving the user experience of SecureDrop , an open source whistleblower submission system used by more than 70 news organizations world-wide. You will help us to address challenges at the intersection of UX, accessibility, and security:

• Imagine you’re blowing the whistle on government abuse. How do you get in touch with a news organization? How do you stay safe and anonymous?

• Imagine you’re a journalist receiving a stash of documents. How do you protect yourself against malware? How do you protect your source while examining these documents?

You’ll work on interaction design, visual design, prototyping, user research—all in close collaboration with the development team. While SecureDrop will be your focus, you will also partner with our web development team on improving our websites, including freedom.press and our second flagship project, the US Press Freedom Tracker.

You have…

• 3+ years of experience in a designer role as part of a team, or comparable experience, including:
  • helping to take a product feature from concept to delivery and use
  • breaking down design solutions into prioritized, shippable increments
  • building and sharing design prototypes at different levels of fidelity and interactivity
  • Comfort working as part of a fully distributed team
  • At least 4 hours time zone overlap with US Pacific Time or US Eastern Time working hours for real-time collaboration

Great to have…

One or more of the following is a plus

• Experience working on products dealing with related challenges, e.g.:
  • apps focused on privacy or anonymity
  • product development in a security-sensitive context
  • products or services developed for journalists
  • messaging apps, especially ones that include security/privacy features
  • applications translated into multiple languages
  • resilient applications built for low connectivity or slow internet connections
• Experience working on open source projects or in partnership with community contributors
• Understanding of CSS (web development experience is not required)
• Experience implementing accessibility standards and best practices
• Familiarity with technologies that protect digital security, anonymity or privacy (e.g., 1Password, Tor Browser, Signal)
• Familiarity with user research methodologies and light-weight user-testing tools (e.g., UserFeel.com, UserTesting.com)
• Orientation towards lean UX practices, including in documentation of design guidelines and research findings

Are you unsure you have the expertise or experience we’re looking for? If you are excited about the work we do, we would love to talk to you! Please don’t hesitate to reach out for a quick, informal call to help you decide whether you’d like to apply for this role.

Working with us

The SecureDrop team is fully distributed. With the stated time zone overlap in mind, all candidates will be considered for remote work with occasional travel.

This is a full-time role at a competitive non-profit salary. If it is your preference, we are open to discussing part-time arrangements.

For US full-time employees: Our budgeted salary range for this position is $95,000 to $115,000 per year. FPF provides health, dental and vision insurance (via Aetna); 20 days of personal time off and 13 holidays; and a 401(k) program. FPF matches your 401(k) contributions dollar for dollar, up to 4 percent of your gross salary.

If you’d like to be a part of our team, please send a short cover letter and your resume (preferably with links to a portfolio or other samples of your work) to jobs+ux@freedom.press. Please apply by February 14, 2022. Our goal is to make a hiring decision by March.