Staff Designer

About the role

As an Open Privacy Staff Designer, you will share responsibility for setting the direction of the look and feel of Open Privacy’s software projects and websites. You will work closely with the director of engineering and the research director to define and implement a coherent style for Open Privacy projects. While this posting is limited to a 6-month contract, our hope is to extend the position if additional funding is secured in 2020.

Must be eligible to work in Canada. Ideally, the staff member would be based in or near Vancouver, but we will consider remote work for the right applicant. We regret that we are unable to hire remote applicants outside Canada at this time.

Responsibilities

• Design new interfaces, provide input on existing flows, and incorporate user feedback for Cwtch, our metadata-resistant group messaging platform (primary focus).
• Contribute to other Open Privacy projects, including the website and communication/fundraising campaigns.

Requirements

• Design knowledge and expertise in various free and open-source software applications (ability to work directly with SVGs is a must).
• A portfolio demonstrating work products aligned with Open Privacy’s mission.
• Experience in UI/UX and iconography (primary focus), with secondary consideration for experience producing infographics, flyers, or other non-profit-relevant materials.
• Experience interfacing with basic web, desktop, and/or mobile application development.
• Experience within and/or working with marginalized communities.
• Interest in privacy-enhancing technologies.
• Design philosophies that prioritize inclusion and consent over conformance to mainstream/prescriptivist trends.

Studies show that people from marginalized communities are less likely to apply if they don’t meet every criterion. We encourage you to apply even if you don’t feel 100% qualified—the primary consideration for interviews will be your portfolio. No formal credentials are necessary, and candidates with atypical learning backgrounds are encouraged.

Tools & Technologies

Familiarity with the following tools will be useful, but experience with similar tools will be considered, and we are open to advocacy for other FOSS tooling:

• Inkscape
• Qt / QML
• Git / Gitea
• Jekyll / Markdown

Most communication is done via Signal and Cwtch groups, with occasional meetings on other platforms.