Principal Service Designer-11-145-Orange County - Center for Applied Research and Innovation

Mission Statement

The Salvation Army, an international movement, is an evangelical part of the universal Christian church. Its message is based on the Bible. Its ministry is motivated by the love of God. Its mission is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination.

Position Summary

The Principal Service Designer leads strategic service and systems design efforts that improve how programs work and how people experience them. This role applies systems thinking and human-centered research to translate insight into real, implemented change that strengthens outcomes for people served and supports frontline teams.

The Principal Service Designer partners with leadership, staff, people with lived expertise, service providers, and city agencies to frame complex challenges, align cross-functional teams, and turn insight into actionable service strategies. As a senior contributor on CARI's interdisciplinary design team, this role helps identify, test, and scale innovative solutions addressing at least one of the Social Work Grand Challenges, with a special early emphasis on homelessness.

Sitting at the intersection of design, applied research, and implementation, the Principal Service Designer works closely with the Director of Design Strategy & Research and the design team to deliver high-impact redesign efforts and strengthen CARI's innovation infrastructure, including the emerging CARI 3:20 Innovation Lab, a faith-based, applied innovation and learning lab supporting experimentation, co-design, and capacity building across programs and partners.

This role is ideal for a creative, entrepreneurial designer who wants their work to matter, someone who enjoys complexity, builds alongside practitioners, and believes design can be a force for social good.

Essential Functions

Service Design & Systems Redesign (Primary Responsibility)

• Lead end to end service and systems redesign across Salvation Army programs addressing homelessness and housing stability including Anaheim Emergency Shelter, Pathways, Center of Hope, and the Life Transformation Program
• Design and deliver macro level service redesign efforts that improve outcomes across Orange County service touchpoints
• Map current program journeys, workflows, and system interactions to identify friction points, equity gaps, and opportunities for redesign
• Supervise paid CARI interns
• Co-design future program services with frontline staff, people with lived experience, and community partners using trauma informed and dignity centered practices
• Create implementation-ready artifacts including service blueprints, workflow diagrams, pilot plans, SOP updates, training tools, and measurement frameworks
• Support program teams through pilots and implementation using feedback loops, rapid iteration, and learning cycles
• Partner closely with the Director of Design Strategy and Research to ensure ethics, research insight, and evaluation are embedded in design work
• Build playbooks, templates, and decision frameworks that support replication and scale

Applied Research & Ethics

• Conduct qualitative research including interviews, focus groups, observation, participatory methods, and ethnographic fieldwork
• Support survey design and quantitative data collection in partnership with the Director and data collaborators
• Analyze and synthesize mixed-methods data to surface patterns, barriers, and system-level insights in collaboration with the design team
• Apply ethical research practices, including informed consent, confidentiality, participant dignity, and trauma-informed engagement
• Follow research protocols, data privacy standards, and ethical data-handling practices appropriate for work with human subjects

CARI 3:20 Innovation Lab & Learning (Secondary Responsibility)

• Partner with the Director of Design Strategy & Research to help stand up and operationalize the 3:20 Innovation Lab
• Support the co-design of curriculum, workshops, and applied learning experiences grounded in real service challenges
• Co-facilitate design sprints, innovation workshops, and community-based labs aligned to CARI's strategic priorities
• Contribute to playbooks, templates, and decision frameworks that support replication and scale.

Collaboration & Culture

• Work closely in an interdisciplinary design team alongside leadership, people with lived experience, student staff and community collaborators
• Model collaboration, curiosity, humility, flexibility, and a sense of humor in high-complexity environments
• Support a learning-oriented, mission-aligned team culture grounded in faith, dignity, and shared purpose
• Identifies and defines new interdisciplinary research projects that consider real-life experiences, equity, and faith-based values.
• Contribute to CARI fundraising efforts by helping secure new grants and also demonstrating impact through compelling program design, outcome-based evidence and impactful storytelling.
• Translates research findings into practical guides and tools for decision-making by Salvation Army leaders and teams.
• Takes on other tasks as needed.

Working Conditions

Ability to walk, stand, bend, squat, climb, kneel, and twist on an intermittent or sometimes continuous basis. Ability to grasp, push, pull objects such as files, file cabinet drawers, and reach overhead. Ability to operate computer, fax, and telephone. Ability to lift up to 40 lbs.

PAY RATE: $75k-$90k/yr.

Minimum Qualifications

• By virtue of its direct contact with, and representation to people who engage in Salvation Army programs, people who demonstrate an understanding of The Salvation Army's Christian mission are required for this position.
• 3-5 years of professional experience in service design, systems design, human-centered design, or related fields
• Demonstrated experience redesigning services or systems with measurable impact
• Strong facilitation skills and experience working across multiple stakeholders
• Portfolio required, demonstrating service redesign work and implementation outcomes
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in a mission-driven, faith-based environment
• Experience working in homelessness, housing, health, or social services systems
• Experience facilitating community-based innovation events, design sprints, or hackathons
• Experience supporting learning labs or innovation teams

Skills, Knowledge & Abilities

• Human-centered design, service design, and applied design research.
• Qualitative research methods and working knowledge of quantitative research and survey design
• Ethical research with human subjects, including informed consent, confidentiality, and data privacy
• Research protocols and ethics-informed practices (IRB-adjacent experience preferred)
• Social justice, equity, trauma-informed practice, and design justice principles
• Familiarity with homelessness, housing, health, recovery, or employment systems (preferred)
• End-to-end service design execution (journey mapping, service blueprinting, prototyping, iteration)
• Facilitation of co-design sessions, workshops, and innovation sprints
• Research synthesis and translation of insights into actionable, visual artifacts
• Visual storytelling and communication for diverse audiences
• Curriculum co-design and applied learning facilitation (preferred)
• Ability to lead hands-on work while contributing to system-building efforts
• Ability to work effectively in diverse teams and community-based settings
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and help create structure over time
• Ability to balance rigor and compassion when working with sensitive data and populations
• Ability to remain curious, love learning, and continuously improve
• Ability to bring humility, flexibility, and humor to complex, mission-driven work
• Digital whiteboards and collaboration platforms (Mural, Miro, FigJam)
• Design and visualization tools (Canva, Figma, Adobe or similar)
• Survey and research platforms (Qualtrics, Google Forms, REDCap)
• Secure data management practices appropriate for sensitive information
• Comfort facilitating both in-person and virtual sessions
• Driving Test and clean MVR check
• If working in the vicinity of children a criminal background check is required with certification for Protect the Mission policies and procedures.
• Must have the ability to work with, direct, and relate well with co-workers, community partners/members, and guests/clients.
• Able to function and thrive in a fast-paced, frequently evolving environment.
• Excellent computer skills: must be able to utilize all necessary office equipment adequately (i.e. computers, copy machines, scanners, calculator, etc.).
• Excellent organizational skills; highly self-motivated and detail oriented.
• Must have outstanding written and verbal communication skills.
• Professional and courteous; excellent presentation skills