IT Program Manager (Service Designer), GS-2210-15, FPL GS-15 (DH) (TERM)

The U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid Technology Directorate provides secure information technology services supporting FSA’s strategic objectives. The IT Program Manager (Service Designer) will lead human-centered discovery, service design, usability testing, scalable solution design, and design-led organizational change while collaborating with multidisciplinary stakeholders.

Responsibilities:

• Leading discovery and design efforts rooted in empathy for students, families, and financial aid administrators
• Ensuring FSA services are intuitive and accessible to users of all backgrounds, and that every interaction builds trust and confidence in the program
• Looking beyond the screen to understand and improve the end-to-end journey of applying for and receiving aid, mapping processes, policies, and touchpoints across agencies and partners, identifying pain points and opportunities for more seamless, equitable services
• Designing solutions that account for the full ecosystem, not just individual transactions
• Leading usability testing with diverse users, incorporating feedback into design iterations
• Ensuring that final solutions can scale to millions of FSA users while maintaining clarity, accessibility, and reliability
• Championing design to drive organizational change, challenging outdated processes and building alignment across stakeholders
• Proactively pushing through barriers to user-focused innovation and modeling a bias for action to unlock better outcomes for students and families within a complex federal environment
• Working hand-in-hand with product managers, engineers, policy experts, and contractors to ensure design decisions are fully integrated into development
• Mentoring others in human-centered and service design practices, elevating the organization's overall design maturity and building a culture that values design as essential to delivering public services that work for everyone

Requirements:

• 1. Experience leading or serving in a senior role of a multi-disciplinary project involving the design, development, and implementation of a new system or a major enhancement to an existing IT system
• 1. Experience serving as a design lead, overseeing adoption of new functionalities and/or technologies for users
• 1. Experience communicating technical concepts to non-technical audiences and translating business requirements into technical user stories
• 1. Attention to Detail - Is thorough when performing work and conscientious about attending to detail
• 1. Customer Service - Works with clients and customers (i.e., any individuals who use or receive the services or products that your work unit produces, including the general public, individuals who work in the agency, other agencies, or organizations outside the Government) to assess their needs, provide information or assistance, resolve their problems, or satisfy their expectations; knows about available products and services; is committed to providing quality products and services
• 1. Decision Making - Makes sound, well-informed, and objective decisions; perceives the impact and implications of decisions; commits to action, even in uncertain situations, to accomplish organizational goals; causes change
• 1. Information Management - Identifies a need for and knows where or how to gather information; organizes and maintains information or information management systems
• 1. Interpersonal Skills- Shows understanding, friendliness, courtesy, tact, empathy, concern, and politeness to others; develops and maintains effective relationships with others; may include effectively dealing with individuals who are difficult, hostile, or distressed; relates well to people from varied backgrounds and different situations
• 1. Oral Communication- Expresses information (for example, ideas or facts) to individuals or groups effectively, taking into account the audience and nature of the information (for example, technical, sensitive, controversial); makes clear and convincing oral presentations; listens to others, attends to nonverbal cues, and responds appropriately
• 1. Problem Solving- Identifies problems; determines accuracy and relevance of information; uses sound judgment to generate and evaluate alternatives, and to make recommendations
• 1. Teamwork- Encourages and facilitates cooperation, pride, trust, and group identity; fosters commitment and team spirit; works with others to achieve goals
• 1. Technical Competence- Uses knowledge that is acquired through formal training or on-the-job experience to perform one's job; works with, understands, and evaluates technical information related to the job; advises others on technical issues
• 1. Skill human-centered design and user experience methods
• 1. Skill in service design and systems thinking
• 1. Skill in prototyping, testing, and iterating solutions at scale
• 1. Skill in navigating bureaucracy and driving design-led change
• 1. Ability to collaborate across disciplines and build a culture of design
• Education cannot be substituted for experience for this position and grade level