You’ll work closely with young people and communities to design, evaluate and scale innovation for youth.

You’ll work closely with young people and communities to design, evaluate and scale innovation for youth.

SOCIAL IMPACT DESIGNER, OAKLAND & GLOBAL

YLabs are seeking a Social Impact Designer to bring creativity and design expertise to our team to design and scale social innovation projects to improve health and economic opportunity for disadvantaged youth. You’ll be working at the cutting edge of design for social impact with a team that combines expertise in health, economics and design. You’ll bring a strategic, thoughtful lens to our design - you're some-one who enjoys creating new solutions and taking them to scale. You’ll work closely with young people and communities to design, evaluate and scale innovation for youth.  With our partners, you'll explore community perspectives, build and test prototypes and support them to implement and scale-up successful solutions. As project lead, you will be supporting project planning, communications, partner relations, and leading our fieldwork with young people and their communities.

You are:

  • Looking for a new challenge, with the opportunity to support the development of a design team in a new non-profit studio

  • Motivated by designing exceptional solutions to some of the toughest challenges facing young people

  • Comfortable training and mentoring others in human-centered design (from Harvard professors to Rwandan teenagers)

  • Skillful in navigating different cultural and geographic contexts

  • A natural collaborator who understands how to build strong relationships with our clients, partners, and donors

  • Passionate about social impact, global health and youth. You have experience designing and/or implementing solutions in resource-constrained environments.

  • Excel at skillfully synthesizing design research and craft well-written insights to inform creative design solutions. Able to easily communicate and envision concepts and ideas to team members, partners, and funders.  

  • Excited about international travel and have experience traveling or spending extended time in developing country contexts

  • Able to work in fast-paced, dynamic start-up environment and comfortable with ambiguity.

  • Interested in learning and developing new skill sets in design, health and development

  • Excited about the opportunity to create a vibrant, creative and collaborative working culture in our studio.

  • Empathetic, proactive and flexible

You have:

  • Expertise in human-centered design / design thinking

  • Exceptional communication skills with clients and beneficiaries

  • Experience leading and supporting multi-disciplinary teams

  • Exceptional written communication skills (content and proposal writing)

  • Worked or lived in Sub-Saharan Africa or Asia

  • Skills and experience on building and fostering partnership relations

  • Strong management and coordination skills with experience managing projects to deadlines

  • Excellent written English - and able to write for multiple audiences

  • Experience with storytelling through various mediums and formats

  • Six years + of experience in a relevant design discipline (Communications design, Interaction design, Systems / Service Design, Business Design, Industrial Design)

Desirable:

  • Second language: French, Swahili, Urdu

  • Previous experience working on health, education or employment programs

  • Prototyping/making experience

  • Knowledge of Creative Cloud and/or other design software

This role is based in Oakland, California and involves 40-50% international travel. All costs related to international travel and fieldwork are covered. Applicants must be legally able to work and live in the US. Please note that we cannot sponsor visa applications for this role.

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

To apply, send a resume, cover letter and link to your portfolio to [email protected]. All your information will be kept confidential according to EEO guidelines.