Superbloom

The deadline for applying to this role has passed.

We’re looking for a part-time design researcher to help us with human centered design research.

The project

  • You’ll help develop and conduct user interviews, surveys, and focus groups; you’ll synthesize research and develop outputs, including a report, to make the findings understandable and actionable by the project team; and you’ll work with clients to help them make the most of the research findings.
  • This is a part-time position, minimum 20 hours per week, from approximately November 2020 to March 2021, with the opportunity to renew. We are a US 501(c)3 organization that has the ability to hire in the US and Germany, and contract internationally.

About us

We are a small US 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, founded in 2014 with the goal of making security tools easier to use. We believed – and still do – that security doesn’t have to be confusing to end users. We’ve contributed design to a variety of tools that enhance security, such as Tails to I2P to NoScript. We’ve held salons and a residency around designing for security. But we’ve done a lot more than usable security. Just in the last year, we’ve launched a decentralization pattern library; a report on trust and transparency in nonprofit funding; a campaign to save internet freedom tech; a community around human rights centered design; a series of videos about trust and responsibility in design; and much, much more.

(We’re actually doing a rebranding process, moving away from the name “Simply Secure.” More info over here on the blog!)

About you

  • You love talking to research participants and understanding social and technical systems
  • You have experience with human-centered or participatory research (specifically field research)
  • You like working independently and in collaboration with a fully remote, distributed team
  • You have excellent project team communication and meeting facilitation skills
  • You are able to manage a balance of strategic planning and tactical execution
  • You are experienced with engaging in client-centered communication
  • You are comfortable advocating for yourself and your work to make sure that you’re getting what you need to be successful
  • You understand the nuances of writing for an international audience and how to make your words direct and accessible without simplifying your message
  • You write clear, concise, and engaging research synthesis to be read by a broad non-technical audience
  • You are familiar with working in the nonprofit space
  • You are available at least 20 hours/week with overlap during our prime work hours (11-6pm Central Europe / 10-5pm UK / 8-6pm US Eastern / 8-3pm US Pacific)

Nice to have

  • Knowledgeable about one or more of the following areas: open source software, internet freedom, tech criticism and activism, human rights
  • Comfortable with collaborative work tools (we currently use Notion, Miro, and Google Suite)
  • Comfortable with exploring and evaluating new tools
  • Comfortable in cross-cultural communication, e.g. experience with international work
  • Aware of best practices around informed research consent, safeguarding confidential research information, and anonymizing participant data (if this is new to you, we’re happy to help you learn!)

Sound like a good fit?

Please send us:

  • Resume
  • Examples of your work. With each link or document you send, please tell us about the timeline and process: how did these outputs get created? Who was involved, what did the process look like, how long did it take?

Send these documents to Nicola Pratt at nicola [ at ] superbloom [ dot ] design by Wednesday, November 25, 2020.

To help us combat bias while we review applications, please remove your name from the documents you send. One person on our team will keep a list assigning a code name to your application while we review it. If we’d like to interview you, we’ll match your code name to your real name, and get in touch. (If removing your name from your work screws up the formatting, don’t worry, this is not a graphic design job! You can also put an obviously fake name in place of your real name to keep the formatting consistent.)