User Experience (UX) and Accessibility Specialist

Chicago Public Schools (CPS) is a district on the rise, serving over 325,000 students in 500+ schools and employing over 45,000 people, most of them teachers. CPS has set ambitious goals to ensure that every student, in every school and every neighborhood, has access to a world-class learning experience that prepares each for success in college, career, and civic life. Aligned with our transformed philosophy, we are steadfastly focused on ensuring that the District provides resources equitably to support every student, every school, and every community. Six core values guide the work we do every day for our students – student-centered, whole child, equity, academic excellence, community partnership, and continuous learning. Each role in the district supports our vision that every student deserves a rigorous, joyful, and equitable learning experience.

Located within the Office of Teaching and Learning (T&L), the Department of Curriculum, Instruction, and Digital Learning (CIDL) oversees the district's comprehensive Pre-K through 12th-grade curriculum and digital ecosystem, Skyline. Skyline includes a wide range of functionality to help support all of the content and instructional needs of every educator and student at Chicago Public Schools (CPS).

Reporting to the Manager, Digital Learning Design and Instructional Gen AI, the UX Specialist enhances the district’s Digital Learning Environment, which is key to supporting digital curriculum and learning materials.

The UX Specialist will be held accountable for the following responsibilities:

• Provide consistent, effective engagement and support of teachers, students, community members and other end users to develop a deepen understanding of users’ unique needs and inform continuous improvement of role-specific workflows and the digital learning environment that supports the district’s digital curriculum (E.g., Skyline); Serve as users’ UX champion
• Conduct user experience interviews, data collection and testing
• Develop use cases and personas through user interviews engaging district stakeholders
• Design interfaces for desktop and mobile products, as necessary
• Provide regular formal updates, reports and data around programs, projects and initiatives, including those required via normalized project platforms
• Review Service Now (SNOW) tickets, stakeholder outreach emails, other user feedback and support requests to inform UX prioritization
• Support WCAG (Web Content Accessibility Guidelines) compliance across Skyline teacher-facing and student-facing materials
• Maintain deep knowledge of accessibility for digital learning materials and collaborate with internal teams and external stakeholders/vendors to support compliance
• Other duties as assigned
  
  

• Bachelor’s Degree from an accredited college or university
• Valid Professional Educator License issued by the Illinois State Board of Education
• User Experience certification, preferred
  
  

• Minimum of five (5) years of experience in educational technology or digital media, including a minimum of three (3) years of professional experience in UX design.
  
  

• Deep expertise in UX design for K-12 users
• Ability to develop a deep understanding of users' unique needs through formal and informal interactions/data collection and serve as their UX champion
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
• Deep knowledge of effective communication skills and problem-solving strategies
• Evidenced success in collaborating with culturally and educationally-diverse teams
• Knowledge of and commitment to decentralized decision-making and accountability for results
• Ability to effectively communicate with teams to focus resources (both human and financial) toward the achievement of expected results
• Ability to facilitate group processes in consensus building, conflict resolution, planning, and decision-making
• Demonstrated passion for designing modern digital experiences
• Ability to engage end users and design discipline leaders to maximize the value of design and ensure the interests of teachers, students and parents are satisfied