Overview

We at Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF) are seeking our first in-house Product/UX Designer. As a completely distributed organization, we have built our processes and workplace culture around remote collaboration. Our ideal candidate thrives in a small team environment and enjoys finding creative solutions to complex challenges. We are looking for someone who is curious, organized, and has a desire to make the world a better place!

PCF is a nonprofit working to build a more open, collaborative, and inclusive world. The PCF team is fully distributed across 7 countries and communicates through chat applications, project management software, emails, and video conferences. Our flagship initiative, Amara, is a platform for collaborative subtitling and translation of video. Individuals, communities, and some of the largest companies from around the world use Amara to subtitle video. The platform has enabled tens of millions of viewers to fully engage with videos that would otherwise be inaccessible.

The right fit for our team is passionate about designing highly usable and innovative software. PCF’s first in-house UX designer will help cultivate a user-centered design culture in a 100% remote organization. The UX designer will work closely with our Product Manager and 5-person engineering team to bring new features and functionality to life on the Amara platform.

The position is part-time, contract-to-hire, up to 20 hours per week with possibilities for growth.

RESPONSIBILITIES

  • Gain a deep understanding of the user-experience for Amara (a SaaS solution for captioning and translating video)
  • Conduct design and user research to identify new user needs and better understand known issues
  • Define problems, map user journeys, prototype interactions
  • Work closely with Product Manager and Engineering team to turn designs into functional software
  • Develop and iterate on design processes
  • Lead cross-team collaboration in design processes
  • Champion user needs with the flexibility to adapt design solutions to development and time constraints

Qualifications

Required:

  • At least 3 years of experience in product and UX design
  • A strong portfolio that illustrates your experience and skillset
  • Foundation in interactive design tools
  • Experience working in a cross-functional agile team
  • Ability to deliver clean, well-thought-out interface design elements
  • Ability to understand overlapping user needs and conceptualize solutions
  • Ability to work remotely and autonomously, as well as collaboratively
  • Strong communication skills
  • Attention to detail

Nice to Have:

  • Front end web development skills (HTML / CSS / JS)
  • Experience working in a startup environment or building design processes
  • 2+ years of remote work experience

ABOUT AMARA

While internet video has exploded, language is still a significant barrier to education, economic opportunity, political participation, and other areas of cultural life. Amara connects millions of people to help break down these barriers and allows hundreds of organizations to make their content more accessible through innovative technology.

Try the Amara Editor yourself or watch it in action in this video.

Amara is a project of the Participatory Culture Foundation (PCF), a nonprofit 501c3. We are driven by our mission to help build a more collaborative, inclusive world – whether by making more content accessible or helping people engage with one another across languages and cultures. We believe a participatory and inclusive world leads to a more understanding and caring society.

ABOUT PCF

PCF develops technology and services that ensure everyone has access to all that the internet has to offer. From the abundance of free education available, to gaining insights about the many different cultures around the globe, information is critical to building a more equitable and peaceful society.

HOW WE COLLABORATE

Amara and PCF are based out of Massachusetts, but the team is global and works virtually. Our new designer will be collaborating with a talented and passionate team striving to make a positive social impact.

The team has members working from many different time zones. We encourage applicants from any location, but some overlap with EST working hours is preferred for this role.

We are an inclusive workplace where all team members have a voice. We encourage participation and engagement. Our different backgrounds, life experiences and perspectives make us unique and help us innovate. On our team you’ll find incredibly talented professionals who are also musicians, avid dessert connoisseurs, beer brewers, master chess players, gardeners, and many other stripes!

OUR COMMITMENT TO DIVERSITY
The work of the Participatory Culture Foundation is strengthened by the diversity of our network and our differences in background, culture, experience, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, and much more. We encourage applications from people of color, women, the LGBTQIA community, and persons with disabilities.

TO APPLY
Please include the following with your application:

  • Resume
  • Cover letter
  • Include a link to up to 2 recent UX design projects (SaaS design projects preferred)