Job Information
Charles River Analytics User Interface (UI) Designer – Research, Illustration, and Innovation in Cambridge, Massachusetts
User Interface (UI) Designer – Research, Illustration, and Innovation at Charles River Analytics (View all jobs) (https://cra.com/job-listings/)
Cambridge, Ma
Charles River Analytics creates solutions and technology to tackle the world’s most challenging problems. Our team of technological entrepreneurs works together to push at the forefront of enhanced AI, robotics, smart sensing, and human-centered computing. The resulting research and development help to continuously advance government programs and discover new possibilities in the commercial marketplace. We are a 100% employee-owned company, encouraging participation, innovation, and responsibility from our entire staff. At Charles River, we take great pride in our success in attracting and retaining the most talented and creative problem-solvers in our field. Are you interested in being an Employee Owner (https://cra.com/esop/) at one of Boston's Best Places to Work (https://cra.com/excelling-workplacebr-boston-business-journal-names-charles-river-analytics-one-best/) ? If this sounds like you, then we’d love to hear from you!
We are looking for a passionate User Interface (UI) Designer with outstanding skills in graphic design and illustration, along with experience in research-driven design. The ideal candidate should be adept at illustrating user interface concepts, communicating interface decisions, and relating them to foundational principles in human factors, human-computer interaction, and usability.
In this role, you will work with small teams of research scientists and software engineers to design innovative interfaces as part of a user-centered design process. You will employ principled and creative approaches to move from early research wireframes to high-fidelity design concepts and support development into functional software systems. You will work with our scientists and software engineers to determine design requirements, iterate on novel interaction approaches, and assist in implementing these designs in live software systems. You will support the evaluation and application of research ideas throughout the systems engineering process. You will communicate the overall process and results of your work with the team to key stakeholders, clients, and end users through concept illustrations, PowerPoint briefings dynamic prototypes, and/or short interaction videos.
Responsibilities include understanding requirements and conceptualizing new user interfaces and interactive data visualizations while leveraging clean, clear, and balanced user interface elements; illustrating and articulating design ideas using conceptual wireframes, storyboards, high-fidelity mockups, and final graphics; leveraging and contributing to a set of design assets and visual patterns; rapidly iterating through multiple concepts and prototypes; delivering prototypes and communicating functions and requirements to describe interactions; capturing and developing process artifacts; communicating design concepts visually, clearly, and concisely to different audiences (e.g., product teams, customers, and end users); extending, maintaining, and supporting others in using design systems and libraries to empower the overall team. In addition to researching and designing quality user interfaces, the candidate must be able to clearly present design rationale through written, visual, and verbal means to project teams, stakeholders, users, and clients.
How you’ll help us grow
Research, design, and support the development of novel user interface designs, data visualizations, and interaction approaches
Able to quickly learn by example, by trial and error, and by searching and reading
Develop content and supporting visual artifacts to contribute to proposals, reports, and papers, and present work at briefings and conferences as appropriate
Interact with customers, users, and subject matter experts to analyze and understand domain challenges and needs within a problem domain
Collaborate with the team to define and respond to requirements, and develop visual concepts to support solving complex problems
Flexible work across a diverse set of projects and timelines
Independently seek and learn from feedback to grow technical skills and employ new work going forward
Work with Principal Investigators and project technical leads to identify and apply cutting-edge HCI design methodologies and points of intersection across multiple similar domains
Work with software engineers to develop envisioned technology solutions
What you’ll need
U.S. Citizenship
Degree in Graphic Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, Interaction Design, Cognitive Systems Engineering, or a related field (e.g., Computer Science with HCI or Interaction Design focus) or a strong track record conducting user research and developing effective user interfaces
Ability to take early sketches and wireframes and turn them into high-fidelity interface mockups with modern design sensibilities, as well as developing supporting graphical elements such as storyboards, concept-of-operation graphics, and process artifacts
Ability to define and translate user needs and system features into actionable design requirements and to work with software engineering teams to define the direction of technical solutions
Excellent graphic design, visual communication, and functional reasoning skills, with superior attention to detail
Expert knowledge of design and prototyping tools, including Adobe Creative Suite (e.g., Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop), as well as experience with Figma
Strong portfolio showcasing your interface design process and outcomes, demonstrating high quality of work and strong visual aesthetic design sense
Experience directly interacting with customers, stakeholders, or users to define design requirements and deliver design products
Ability to flexibly work on a diverse set of projects with different timelines and needs
Proven experience designing user interfaces
Independent ability to research and apply leading design trends, data science, visualization, and interaction techniques
Demonstrated ability to generate clear and grammatical written materials
Not required but we’d love to see
Experience with Agile or Scrum development processes
Experience performing literature reviews and using the results to recommend system improvements or enhancements
Experience working on Government research and development contracts
Proven ability to generate inputs to proposals, publications, or similar written materials
2+ years of hands-on experience creating and evaluating user experiences
Military Service or DoD work experience
Experience documenting your design process and products for technical and scientific presentations
Experience in multimodal interfaces, autonomous systems, human-robot interaction, or human/AI teaming (including Generative AI), and designing for augmented-, mixed-, and virtual-reality (AR, MR, and VR) interfaces
Why Charles River?
Charles River Analytics is a 100% employee-owned company that thrives on collaboration and values each employee-owner. We offer competitive compensation plus bonuses, profit-sharing, and an attractive benefits package. Our benefits include 100% employer-paid medical and dental insurance as well as vision, life, and disability insurance; paid maternity/paternity leave; tuition reimbursement; monthly gym allowance; free parking; generous paid time off; and a casual environment. We are also accessible by public transportation. We offer a hybrid onsite/remote (60/40) schedule with tremendous flexibility. At Charles River, we truly value work-life balance