Civic Design and Training Specialist

The Bloomberg Center for Public Innovation at Johns Hopkins University (the Center) is looking for Civic Design and Training Specialist. The first of its kind in the world, the Center aims to advance the field of public sector innovation by marrying cutting-edge practice with world-class research in order to transform the culture of government, deliver exceptional results for residents, and inspire trust in public service.

In order to drive better impact for residents, the Civic Design and Training Specialist will help the Center to scale our training and technical assistance delivery to local governments on a variety of topics including data analysis, human-centered design, inclusive innovation, project management, culture change, and storytelling. We believe that these are essential skills for government leaders to possess and that public servants should be empowered to apply public innovation approaches to understand challenges, develop creative solutions, and drive implementation – regardless of their political orientation, role, or position.

Reporting to the Training and Learning Lead, the Civic Design and Training Specialist supports internal and external training. Additionally, this position includes the creation, development, and evaluation of training activities and workshops using cutting-edge Civic Design tools and techniques. The ideal candidate has deep experience in design with a passion for training and teaching to cities and partners.

Specific Duties & Responsibilities

Training Experience Design and Development (75%)

• • Design workshops for external clients that contextualize the Path to Public Innovation and other core Center methodology to help senior leaders to improve program design and service delivery in cities.
  • Collaborate with internal stakeholders to understand the unique instruction needs for grant and training programs; develop strategies to scope and fulfill program delivery needs for each circumstance.
  • Help to coordinate the schedule of training activities for all training events.
  • Create tools for grant programs and robust technical assistance offerings designed for high-level government officials to effect change in cities through civic, human centered, co-design, equitable and inclusive design.
  • Develop plan and process templates that clients can use to improve service and program delivery.
  • Conceive and create resources to support robust qualitative design research in cities.
  • Create templates for visual frameworks – such as journey maps, service blueprints, and ecosystem maps – that help clarify complex challenges in human behaviors, relationships, workflow, and processes as models for Center’s.
  • Partner with subject matter experts and program partners to evaluate curriculum and training program effectiveness.
  • Prepare, disseminate, and analyze evaluations of training material.
  • Identify best practices and promising approaches to enhance and improve content, instruction, and delivery.
  • Monitor trends and develop new tools and approaches to spread leading-edge research in civic design and public innovation.
  • Continuously update and refine existing class training decks and scripts, as well as coaching tools, including in Miro.
  • Provide quality assurance for training experiences and ensure consistent delivery standards across programs
  • Help coordinate and administer observation of programs with contracted coaches and facilitators.
  • Prepare reports, summaries, presentations, visuals, recommendations, and other work products and present them to city leaders, BCPI staff, and other partners.
  • Support city teams in adopting agile ways of working.
  • Perform other related duties as needed.

Instruction (25%)

• • Train staff and consultants on the successful delivery of the Path to Public Innovation and other methodology.
  • Deliver training experiences on the Path to Public Innovation and other methodology to external clients, including high-level government officials.
  • Deliver in-person and virtual instruction to external clients as part of grant programs and robust technical assistance offerings designed to effect change in cities.
  • Employ best practices to provide a relevant, timely, and impactful training experience for city leaders and their collaborators inside and outside of government.
  • Perform other related duties as needed.

Special knowledge, skills, and abilities

• • Knowledge of design-based innovation methodologies, including expertise in determining when and how to use specific approaches, frameworks, deliverables, and facilitation methods.
  • Ability to use and apply an intentional civic design process that includes research, ideation, and delivery with key stakeholders and community members centered in the process.
  • Experience instructing and delivering course content to adult learners.
  • Familiarity with general principles of adult education and the design and delivery of educational modules.
  • High proficiency in training, knowledge sharing, and design tools, such as Canvas, Google Workspace, Slack, Miro, Airtable, etc.
  • Strong interpersonal skills with an ability to build good relationships with peers and to interact with diverse stakeholders.
  • Strong written and verbal communication skills.
  • Ability to effectively and engagingly present information to learners.
  • Excellent organizational and time management skills.
  • Strong attention to detail and accuracy.
  • Adaptability and flexibility.

Minimum Qualifications

• • Bachelor’s Degree.
  • Three years experience required.
  • Additional education may substitute for required experience and additional related experience may substitute for education, to the extent permitted by the JHU equivalency statement.

Classified Title: Training Specialist 
Job Posting Title (Working Title): Civic Design and Training Specialist   
Role/Level/Range: ATP/04/PD  
Starting Salary Range: $62,900 – $120,000 Annually (Commensurate w/exp.) 
Employee group: Full Time 
Schedule: Monday – Friday 9am-5:30pm 
FLSA Status: Exempt 
Location: Hybrid/Homewood Campus 
Department name: ​​​​​​​Ctrs for Govt Excellence & Public Innova 
Personnel area: Academic and Business Centers