*THIS POSITION IS REPOSTED - Previous applicants are still under consideration and do not need to reapply*
The mission of the South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) is to serve students, support teachers, empower parents, and engage the community so that every student graduates prepared to reach their full potential.
WHY THIS ROLE MATTERS
SCDE’s IT Office is modernizing the agency’s technology across the board — standing up modern internal tools, data dashboards, a unified analytics platform, and a knowledge base. It’s the kind of work that rarely comes along: a chance to shape products early and put your mark on systems that will serve the agency for years.
You’ll join the Application Development & Product team as the person responsible for making sure these products work for the people who actually use them. That means real research with real users, real ownership of the design direction, and real influence on systems that touch every corner of the agency. Most early-career designers wait years for that kind of scope — here it’s the job from day one.
This is a growth position. You’ll start with foundational work and take on more as the modernization scales — with mentorship, professional development support, and a front-row seat to a multi-year transformation.
WHAT YOU’LL WORK ON
Your work maps directly to the agency’s modernization priorities:
User Research, Personas & Journey Mapping
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Plan and conduct user research activities — structured interviews, contextual inquiry, surveys, card sorts, and moderated usability tests — with SCDE staff, educators, district administrators, and public users to understand how they work and where current tools fall short.
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Build and maintain user personas that represent SCDE’s key audiences: agency staff navigating internal tools, district technology coordinators managing shared services, educators accessing data dashboards, and parents and community members using public-facing portals. Keep personas grounded in real research data and update them as discovery continues.
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Map end-to-end journey maps for critical workflows across SCDE’s modernization portfolio — including the service request intake process, district support desk interactions, data reporting cycles, and employee onboarding — to identify pain points, redundancies, and opportunities for design intervention.
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Synthesize research findings into actionable artifacts: persona profiles, as-is and to-be journey maps, opportunity frameworks, and user stories that clearly inform design direction and product backlog priorities.
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Partner with product managers to define research questions, scope discovery sprints, and communicate persona and journey insights to technical and non-technical audiences across OIT and agency program offices.
UX Design & Prototyping
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Translate persona insights, journey map findings, and stakeholder requirements into information architecture diagrams, user flows, wireframes, and interactive prototypes in Figma.
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Design responsive, accessible interfaces for SCDE’s internal tools, staff-facing platforms, and data dashboards — including the unified analytics platform, the knowledge base and virtual agent, and the role-based public website called for in the modernization plan. Use journey maps to validate that designs address the real pain points identified in research.
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Contribute to a shared component library and design system in Figma to ensure visual consistency and accelerate delivery across product teams.
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Create detailed design specifications, annotated handoff assets, and interaction documentation for development teams; participate in implementation reviews to ensure design fidelity.
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Follow SC.gov brand guidelines and accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA / Section 508) in all design work.
Collaboration & Delivery
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Work within Agile/Scrum teams: contribute to sprint planning, backlog refinement, design reviews, and retrospectives as the design voice on the team.
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Coordinate with the Web & Digital Services, Digital Employee Experience, and District Shared Services teams to maintain design continuity and consistent persona definitions across SCDE’s product portfolio.
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Present design work, persona research, and journey mapping insights to both technical teams and agency leadership in clear, stakeholder-appropriate language.
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Monitor post-launch analytics, usability signals, and support feedback to identify improvement opportunities; update journey maps and propose iterative design refinements as real usage data emerges.
WHAT YOU’LL LEARN & HOW YOU’LL GROW
This role offers early-career designers a rare combination of scope, mentorship, and mission:
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You’ll ship real products used by educators and administrators across 80+ school districts in South Carolina — work that builds a portfolio most designers spend years trying to get.
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You’ll develop deep expertise in persona development and journey mapping across complex, multi-stakeholder environments — a skillset in high demand across government, healthcare, and enterprise design.
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You’ll build fluency in accessibility, government design systems, and data visualization while working alongside senior engineers, a CISO-led security team, and product leadership.
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You’ll gain hands-on experience with AI-enabled product design as SCDE rolls out intelligent search, virtual agents, and data-driven features with appropriate guardrails.
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You’ll have access to professional development funding, design tool subscriptions (Figma, etc.), and training and certification programs.
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You’ll be positioned for a career in civic technology, product design, or public-sector digital services — a field with strong demand and meaningful impact.
This position is located in the Office of Information Technology.
Candidates must submit a portfolio or curated work samples as part of the application. Portfolios should demonstrate design process — not just polished final screens — and may include professional work, internship projects, capstone assignments, or self-initiated design challenges. Submissions may be shared as a PDF, live Figma link, personal site, or Behance profile. Work will be reviewed during the interview stage. Candidates selected for interview may be asked to walk through one or more case studies.
As a part of a competitive compensation package, we offer comprehensive benefits that include generous paid time off, preeminent health care benefits, professional development opportunities, pension, a 401(k), and a hybrid work schedule with opportunity for remote work.
The South Carolina Department of Education offers an exceptional benefits package that includes:
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Health, Dental, Vision, Long Term Disability, and Life Insurance for Employee, Spouse, and Children.
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15 days annual (vacation) leave per year.
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15 days sick leave per year.
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13 paid holidays.
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State Retirement Plan and Deferred Compensation Programs (401(k) and 457 options).
ONLY THOSE APPLICANTS CHOSEN FOR AN INTERVIEW WILL BE NOTIFIED BY LETTER THAT THE POSITION HAS BEEN FILLED.
http://www.ed.sc.gov/jobs/human-resources/title-ix-nondiscrimination/
