Web Applications Specialist I (Content Strategist)

at  The City of Vancouver

QUALIFICATION REQUIREMENTS

Education and Experience:

• Certification or degree in Information Technology or a related field supplemented by courses in User Experience or Interactive Design and plus sound related experience in a web design/development/publishing environment including or an equivalent combination of training and experience.
• Experience with digital content management systems; OpenText preferred.
• Experience with interaction design methods, user experience process, usability best practices, and web accessibility standards
• Awareness and experience with common Project Management processes

Knowledge, Skills and Abilities:

• Considerable knowledge of relevant best practices, including user experience and search engine optimization; considerable knowledge of accessibility issues and guidelines
• Sound knowledge of UX wireframing/prototyping tools (i.e. Figma, Balsamiq)
• Considerable knowledge of the principles, methods and techniques related to web design and functionality.
• Strong writing skills, including writing in plain language, with experience in communications/marketing
• Strong problem-solving approach, and ability to understand content in the context of various business models; and the ability to synthesize complex or technical information to produce clear, concise and compelling content
• Ability to manage project timelines, manage resources and communicate with project stakeholders
• A good understanding of front-end design patterns and UI best practices as well as an ability to influence others in the adoption of best practices
• Constantly drive innovation by staying current with technology, trends, and new ideas for digital content production and process improvements
• Ability to recognize opportunities to improve business processes related to customer experience
• Ability to remain up-to-date on digital products and service opportunities, UX best practices, and UX solution options
• Ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing to internal and external parties
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships
• Ability to communicate UX requirements with both internal and external development teams
• Ability to source and use industry best practices in UX, content strategy, and interface design
• Proficiency with Adobe Creative suite, SurveyGizmo (or other survey creation software) and knowledge of HTML and CSS is considered an advantage
• Proficiency with MS Office Suite
• Ability to work after hours, weekends, holidays, on a standby rotation is preferred

Where operationally appropriate and subject to change, the City of Vancouver has a Flexible Work Program. This program allows staff to work remotely 1 – 4 days a week from locations that are a daily commutable distance from their work at a City worksite. At this time this position is eligible to be part of the Flexible Work Program.
Business Unit/Department: IT, Digital Strategy & 311 (1070)
Affiliation: CUPE 15 Non Pks
Employment Type: Temporary Full Time
Position Start Date: November 2024
Position End Date: June 2025
Salary Information: Pay Grade GR-025: $43.78 to $51.7 per hour

MAIN PURPOSE AND FUNCTION

The Content Strategist, Digital Channels, plays an integral role in supporting the family of City websites, primarily vancouver.ca and associated digital applications. Acting with minimal supervision to provide their strategic and technical judgement on complex initiatives with a digital component. This role supports business units in delivering a digital content strategy for highly visible projects, ensuring a consistent and high quality user experience across the public website. The role serves as a key project contact for various lines of business, building relationships within the business to achieve strategic digital communication objectives.
The Content Strategist plans, designs and delivers a variety of web content assets (e.g. text, graphics and maps, video and audio, born digital materials and digitized items, application interfaces, etc.) on behalf of all departments, including materials of a high priority and complex nature within the City’s content management system (CMS) to ensure they: provide a cohesive, task-oriented user experience across the City of Vancouver website; align to departmental and corporate business objectives, and enhance quality of web service interactions

SPECIFIC DUTIES/RESPONSIBILITIES

• Develops and implements Digital Content strategy for complex initiatives
• Recommends solutions and alternatives related to online functionality, usability, accessibility, content and presentation, which balances user needs and business drivers.
• Creates and documents site assets, including web page metadata tags (title, key words, and descriptions), maintain accessibility standards, content matrixes, etc. to ensure continuity in the overall maintenance of site assets.
• Provides web and content strategy and best practices counsel to internal and external contacts.
• Communicates content, provided by City business units, from multiple angles: visually, textwise, and page wise within the vancouver.ca website.
• Manages the development and documentation of standard operating procedures to support the day-to-day needs of the site, working with site resources to ensure adherence to procedures, design and content standards (DSG and CSG), as well as accessibility standards, providing regular reviews and modifications where necessary.
• Contributes to ongoing assessment of processes and procedures and identify areas of concern and continual improvement
• Identifies opportunities for improvements to User Experience and ensure User Centric approach drives solutions to site interactivity
• Improves overall website performance (in terms of click through and conversion rates) by leveraging insights gathered from data, both qualitative and quantitative.
• Creates and maintains the standards and taxonomies for the website, recommending changes and improvements; and integrates information on the website from across all communication channels.
• Identifies and implements audience-specific digital solutions across a variety of online platforms
• Supports and upholds internal Design Style Guide, User Experience Charter, and Accessibility standards when producing content and materials for web.
• Designs tools such as wireframes, prototypes, concept maps, mockups, user flows, and storyboards to support stakeholder buy-in, and provide clarity on the user journey
• Conducts formative and summative usability testing by reviewing content and ensuring it is presenting as expected, and contributes to ongoing assessments of processes and procedures and identifies areas of concern, and continual improvement
• Investigates, analyzes, and specifies digital product and service requirements to meet the business needs of clients.
• Researches and explores ideas by brainstorming, collecting and analyzing statistics, and sketching options.
• Advises stakeholders of the value of UX design principles.
• Presents and pitches content strategy, information architecture, user journey ideas to stakeholders.
• Supports software tool development when needed.
• Other duties/responsibilities as assigned.

Stakeholder Relations

• Establishes and maintains liaison with business units and other applicable internal and external contacts.
• Helps coordinate meetings and communicates with project stakeholders on content strategy related deliverables.
• Provides advice and assistance to users and senior staff regarding enhancements and functionality of various projects while promoting user centric thinking and approach to projects.
• Plans, organizes and participates in consultations with key stakeholders from multiple operational units, delivering strategic recommendations with confidence
• Other duties as assigned