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SF Seeks Tech Types to Work on Key Online Offerings

San Francisco Digital Services, which helps agencies at the consolidated city/county improve online services, is seeking to hire four technologists now and others later this summer.

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San Francisco Digital Services, which uses technology to help city/county agencies improve public services, is seeking some help in doing that.

The department, formed in June 2016, is seeking four technologists in products and design to “change culture and practices,” helping develop and improve online offerings and potentially reshape the consolidated city/county’s approach to digital services. All four positions opened within the last month and will, generally, stay open until they’re filled.

"The most transformative at this point are the product and design directors," Carrie Bishop, chief digital services officer for San Francisco, told Techwire. "By bringing experienced design and product leaders into the city (to work alongside our technical director), we are showing that we’re invested in making our city digital. These crucial positions will help us grow a team so that the city can benefit from the incredible talent we have in San Francisco. We are committed to proving to our residents that everyone can benefit from digital city services."

Digital Services also plans to open 13 more positions this summer, seeking additional designers, engineers and product managers, Techwire has learned. Among the current openings:

• Digital Services seeks a Senior Product Manager, the oldest of the four positions listed, to reshape the application process for more than 600 permits as a new Permit Center is built to aggregate 11 now-separate departments. A broad goal is ensuring residents can do as much permitting work online as possible before visiting an office. Digital products include smart online applications; tools to help residents check city rules and fees; back-office integration; and notifications and status tracking.

The successful candidate will own the overall vision, strategy and project roadmap for digital permitting; work with a multi-disciplinary team of at least 10; engage with departments and customers; help manage vendor relationship, and define performance measures.

Minimum qualifications include an associate degree and five years' product management experience; desired qualifications include experience with product metrics and analytics, defining KPIs and gaining insight from data. Salary range is $105,794 to $143,364 annually.

• The agency is looking for a Product Director to aid in the top priorities of redesigning the city’s website “from the ground up” and facilitating permitting redesign. The director will be expected to mentor product managers, shape the team and force relationships with agencies citywide, according to the listing.

“You will help people across the city see the power of great product design to enable excellent service delivery, representing Digital Services to staff at all levels in the city, and providing expert input where it is needed in other departments,” the listing says. Other responsibilities include participating in budget development, leading recruiting and selection on product positions; defining and enforcing product standards and practices, and ensuring quality.

Minimum qualifications include a college or university degree and five years’ experience; desired qualifications include experience with iterative, user-centered product development. Salary range is $125,736 to $160,446 annually.

• Digital Services seeks a Design Director to lead its design team and stand alongside Bishop in senior leadership, helping sustain the team by “aligning vision, values and goals.” The successful candidate will have an “unprecedented opportunity to shape how the city meets user needs,” setting citywide design standards; guiding adoption of user-centered design; demystifying jargon and helping people accept “new user-centered ways of working” that include qualitative research methods and prototyping.

“You will help departments frame problems to solve, support research efforts citywide, and help to break down problems into manageable pieces,” according to the listing.

Minimum qualifications include a college or university degree, five years’ experience including three years supervisorial; desired qualifications include experience with iterative, user-centered product development. Salary range is $125,736 to $160,446 annually.

• The agency seeks a Front End Designer to join the team working with the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development and others to help residents find and apply for affordable housing. The agency is growing the team that maintains and iterates on the DAHLIA affordable housing service and the Salesforce implementation that manages affordable housing operations. The successful candidate will have experience with HTML and CSS, “broad experience” in UX design and some experience in user testing and research. He or she will be charged with building and maintaining services, doing research through creating test scripts and interactive prototypes, and collaborating with city staff to rethink non-digital services.

Duties include maintaining an active pattern library; building new features and epics based on research; and working with developers, product managers and stakeholders; desired experience includes content writing, designing for accessibility, and designing for English content to be translated. Salary range is $122,512 to $154,102 annually.

Theo Douglas is Assistant Managing Editor of Industry Insider — California.