Humanities Design Architect

HUMANITIES DESIGN ARCHITECT
(Faculty Position)

The Scholars' Lab at the University of Virginia Library seeks a Humanities Design Architect who can create and guide exciting, professional user experiences, who possesses broad, synthetic knowledge of humanities and social science scholarship, who is passionate about the quality of his or her code and stylesheets, and who wants to be part of a team that does great work in the rapidly-expanding digital humanities. As Humanities Design Architect with UVa Library's Scholars' Lab, you will be responsible for the design and implementation of effective and inspiring digital resources for teaching and scholarship. We are looking for someone who is highly technically skilled and a talented designer, and who has a deep background in humanities or social science scholarship. This position is for a true "hybrid" or "alternative academic" -someone who can communicate effectively with faculty and graduate students, and focus intently on the presentation and interaction layer for next-generation digital scholarship.
Not only should you enjoy designing beautiful and functional interpretive scholarly interfaces, but you should enjoy working in close collegial partnership with teammates and scholarly stake holders to solve problems in software engineering and the digital humanities. You will need to fit into a fast-paced, interdisciplinary environment where technology enables creative vision - and where you can take good advantage of the time that all Scholars’ Lab and Department of Digital Research & Scholarship faculty and staff are granted to pursue professional development and their own (often collaborative) R&D projects. The Scholars' Lab has been awarded major funding for a two-year project related to work on geospatial and archival information. There is a possibility that this position will be funded beyond the initial 2 year period.

Primary Responsibilities:

• Conduct UX/UI research for user models
• Drive the functional requirements
• Create wireframes and prototypes
• Conduct informal usability tests
• Work closely with R&D Team

Specialized Knowledge and Skills:

• Experience with interaction across a variety of media (web, mobile) with a strong desire for innovation
• Experience as a project manager or technical team leader on scholarly projects
• Experience with user-centered design patterns and methodologies
• Experience running user testing and conducting accessibility testing
• Comfort with complexity and ambiguity, and the challenges of the humanities and social sciences
• Advanced understanding of UI client technologies such as Javascript, AJAX, HTML, CSS, etc.
• Creation of standard UX deliverables: Site maps, Process flows, Personas, Use Cases, Concept Models
• Strong presentation and communication skills
• Expertise in current design tools
• A research agenda related to the user experience of digital humanities and social science projects

Education: Master's Degree in Humanities or Social Sciences Experience: 3 years experience

Salary and Benefits: Salary is commensurate with experience and competitive depending on qualifications. This position has general faculty status with excellent benefits, including 22 days of vacation; TIAA/CREF and other retirement plans along with generous funding at the Library and University level for travel and professional development.

To Apply: Review of applications will begin on immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Applicants must apply through the University of Virginia online employment website at https://jobs.virginia.edu/ Search by posting number 0606751, complete application, and attach cover letter and resume, with contact information for three current, professional references.

For assistance with this process contact Al Sapienza, Director Library Human Resources at (434) 243-8636.

The University of Virginia is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer strongly committed to achieving excellence through cultural diversity. The University actively encourages applications and nominations from members of underrepresented groups.

Apply Here