Senior Service Designer

Role Overview

• Design and steward end-to-end service journeys across the full Authentic Work Platform lifecycle: onboard, create, get ready, deliver, score, report, and support.
• Apply systems thinking to map and improve complex relationships across users, programs, policies, processes, and technical platforms.
• Develop and maintain service blueprints, journey maps, ecosystem maps, and information architecture artifacts that guide platform strategy and execution.
• Help product and technology teams prioritize work by clearly linking user needs, service insights, and platform goals.
• Partner with product and technology leadership to shape platform strategy, major service investments, and cross-program design decisions.
• Ensure key capabilities and components (e.g., onboarding, help, scoring workflows, reporting patterns) are designed once and reused effectively across domains.
• Plan and conduct generative and evaluative research across diverse user groups, including students, educators, administrators, coordinators, and providers.
• Synthesize qualitative and quantitative data into clear, actionable insights that inform product, service, and platform decisions.
• Translate research findings into compelling narratives and design artifacts that support alignment and decision-making at multiple levels.
• Act as a steward of the platform-wide service experience, helping align designers across teams through shared principles, patterns, and journey frameworks.
• Facilitate workshops and working sessions that bring together design, product, engineering, and operational stakeholders.
• Contribute to the evolution of shared design standards, service patterns, and ways of working—without dictating solutions or overriding team ownership.
• Communicate complex ideas clearly and accessibly, using plain language and inclusive design practices.
• Design service experiences that responsibly enable, constrain, or integrate AI—balancing authenticity, transparency, user control, and policy requirements.
• Consider equity, accessibility, security, privacy, and accommodations as first-class design inputs, especially in high-stakes contexts.
• Account for operational realities such as reliability, fault tolerance, and scalability when shaping service concepts and recommendations.
• Contribute to the growth of service design practice at College Board through mentorship, shared tools, templates, and evolving methods.
• Stay current on emerging trends in service design, systems thinking, and platform design, bringing fresh perspectives to the team.

Requirements

• A portfolio demonstrating end-to-end service design work for complex systems or platforms.
• A bachelor’s degree in a related field (e.g., interaction design, HCI, information science, industrial design, computer science, social sciences, graphic design) and/or equivalent professional experience designing for complex service ecosystems.
• Significant experience in service design, with a track record of leading end-to-end service projects that connect user needs, business goals, and delivery systems.
• Experience applying systems thinking to identify pain points, map complex relationships, and improve processes across touchpoints.
• The ability to shape and communicate service strategies through tools like service blueprints, ecosystem maps, and journey maps.
• A commitment to designing ethically responsible and inclusive services that consider equity and long-term impact.
• Fluency in service design artifacts such as service blueprints, journey maps, ecosystem diagrams, and information architecture.
• Experience planning and conducting generative and evaluative research and translating insights into clear design direction.
• The ability to influence and align cross-functional teams without formal authority.
• Excellent communication and storytelling skills, tailored to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Proficiency with tools such as Figma, Miro, Dovetail, and research synthesis tools.
• A proactive, self-directed mindset, with the confidence to navigate ambiguity and take ownership of outcomes within cross-functional teams.
• Curiosity and a growth mindset—you stay up to date on design trends, tools, and practices, and regularly bring fresh thinking to your team.
• The ability to travel at a minimum of 3-5 times a year to College Board offices or on behalf of College Board business (including but not limited to traveling to client/user sites to engage with stakeholders).

Benefits

• Annual bonuses and opportunities for merit-based raises and promotions
• A mission-driven workplace where your impact matters
• A team that invests in your development and success