Details
Posted: 08-Apr-22
Location: MARLBOROUGH, Massachusetts
Type: Full Time
Categories:
Other
New England Innovation Academy (NEIA) is the school the world needs next. A new global school for day and boarding students in grades 6-12, NEIA is preparing young innovators with a future-focused curriculum, human-centered design, and real-world inclusion. Students connect Passion to Purpose, bring Ideas to Impact, and graduate Next Generation Innovators who leave NEIA with a unique PIN and become the change they want to see in a rapidly evolving world. Set on a beautiful 26-acre campus in Marlborough, Massachusetts, the school offers a custom curriculum informed by research at MIT’s Integrated Design and Management program. Students engage in relevant, project-based learning that directly supports their academic success. NEIA’s learning experience will encourage students to build empathy, take risks, and engage in hands-on community, environment, and industry projects. We invite you to learn more about NEIA by visiting the school’s website at https://neiacademy.org.
Diversity is essential to NEIA’s existence as a place of innovation. To innovate, you must belong. As a human-centered design community, we work toward every NEIA innovator feeling a sense of belonging at school. We value creating the same experience for our staff and invite you to join our community.
Job Title: Graphic Designer
Department: Innovation Studio
Reports To: Head of Innovation Studio
FLSA Status: Exempt (twelve month position)
Date Prepared: March 2022
Position Summary
The Innovation Studio at New England Innovation Academy (NEIA) is seeking a talented and collaborative Graphic Designer to join our team. As a specialist in our program, you will interact with other designers and teachers to help shape the Innovation Studio. You will collaborate in the strategy, conception, and design of print and digital marketing projects, website, and branded materials. You should possess excellent visual design skills, basic web technical know-how (no developer skills required but appreciated), print production experience, a great portfolio, and an eagerness to grow in this role.
Additionally, the Graphic Designer inspires, instructs, and develops middle and high school students’ passions and curiosities and will teach students integrated design and entrepreneurship, using human-centered design as a fundamental process to develop students’ empathy, passion, and curiosity. This role will help students think deeply about the world through various lenses of human needs, positive societal impact, environmental sustainability and enable them to take action through real-world, hands-on projects.
About Innovation Studio
Innovation Studio, a multi-disciplinary design studio that teaches responsible innovation and entrepreneurship that benefits the world.
The key pillars of Innovation Studio are:
- Human-Centered
- Real World
- Entrepreneurial
- Multi-Disciplinary
The mission of Innovation Studio at NEIA, a middle and high school preparing the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs, is to:
- Create people with vision, passion, courage, and love
- Enable students to make real what they imagine
- Equip students with a human-centered approach
- Empower students to make a living as they imagine and create
- Prepare future innovators and entrepreneurs who make the world a better place
NEIA employees are expected to embody NEIA’s principles of empathy, equity, personalization, authentic work, and collaboration in all work activities and actions.
Essential Duties and Responsibilities
Design Lecturing, Coaching & Mentoring
- Mentors and assists NEIA’s innovators during the product design and product engineering processes.
- Evaluates feasibility of innovators’ product ideas, based on factors such as appearance, safety, function, serviceability, budget, production costs/methods, and market characteristics.
- Directs and coordinates NEIA’s innovators so that they go through the Human-Centered Design process at NEIA’s Innovation Studio.
- Helps innovators develop and pitch ideas to potential investors and customers.
- Helps innovators develop and present product designs and reports to NEIA’s stakeholders and design committee for feedback.
- Helps innovators research production specifications, costs, production materials, and manufacturing methods so that they are able to provide cost estimates and itemized production requirements.
- Directs and coordinates the fabrication of models or samples and the drafting of work at NEIA’s makerspace.
- Embodies NEIA’s principles of empathy, equity, personalization, authentic work, and collaboration in all work activities and actions.
- Creates lesson plans with project-based assignments connected to the human experience that are engaging, educational, and exciting for the students.
- Plans, prepares and delivers instructional activities that facilitate active learning experiences.
- Incorporates goals, competencies, and objectives into lesson plans in ways that directly apply to the student’s life.
- Achieves school and course-wide performance goals for every student in class.
- Assesses student work regularly to keep students updated on how they are doing.
- Identifies students who are struggling with learning, emotional problems, or situations at home, and find them the resources they need.
Others
- Engages in ongoing professional learning and development per the school’s professional growth framework.
- Supports the work of School Leadership in reaching strategic goals.
- Performs other duties and responsibilities as assigned and required by the position and the school.
- Responsibilities include those associated with the residential life program at NEIA, including, but not limited to, weeknight and weekend supervision.
Qualifications
- Passionate about teaching middle and high school students.
- Ability to create a welcoming and supportive community for a diverse study body.
- Ability to work with professionalism, discretion, sound judgment, equity, honesty, and personal accountability at all times.
- Proficient knowledge of human-centered design, building products from concept and bringing them to market; product ideation, sketching, illustration, rendering, prototyping, planning and manufacturing.
- Strong written and verbal communication skills.
- Strong creative and critical thinking skills.
- Ability to efficiently and effectively manage the time of self and others.
- Start-up mentality, entrepreneurial spirit, and open to change.
- Experience with Adobe Creative Suite; demonstrated ability to interact constructively with team members and vendors.
- Demonstrated ability to make content and design updates to websites using working knowledge of content management systems, HTML and CSS.
- Evidence of creative ability and technical skills as demonstrated by portfolio; demonstrated attention to detail and organizational skills.
- Experience designing in Wordpress, using email marketing software.
- Experience in strategic marketing in the Higher Education industry.
- Experience designing environmental graphics and signage.
Education and/or Experience
- Blended background in Engineering, Business, and Design.
- Bachelor’s degree in graphic design or related field, or equivalent experience and training.
- Teaching experience (Human-Centered Design, Project-Based Learning approach) in a residential or day school setting is preferred.
- Five years on-the-job experience in graphic design or related field.
- Experience designing, creating and operating Maker Spaces.
- One year of experience working for start-ups, specifically the beginning phase of an educational project.
- Experience designing innovative learning experiences.
Supervisory Responsibilities. The Graphic Designer does not supervise any other employees at NEIA.
Physical Requirements
The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
- Stand/sit for long periods of time.
- Bend, lift, push, kneel, crouch, crawl, stoop.
- Capable of moving around the classroom while teaching a class.
- Capable of adapting to frequent changes in position throughout the workday.
- Hearing and speaking to understand and exchange information in person or on the telephone.
- Speak clearly so listeners understand.
- Use hands and fingers for manipulation, educational tools, play equipment, keyboarding, and performance of first aid and CPR.
- Specific vision abilities required include close vision, distance vision, color vision, and depth perception.
Additional Information:
- This is a 12-month full-time exempt position with a comprehensive benefits package that includes:
- Health Insurance (employer/employee share the cost)
- Dental and Vision Insurance (employer pays 100% of the cost)
- Employer-paid Life Insurance
- Voluntary Disability Plans (employee-paid)
- 401K Plan
- Generous PTO package that includes 10 paid holidays and additional time-off between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day.
- Email cover letter and resume to careers@neiacademy.org
NEIA is committed to a policy of non-discrimination and equal opportunity for all employees and qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, pregnancy or pregnancy-related condition, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, national origin, ancestry, age, physical or mental disability, genetic information, veteran status, military service, application for military service, or any other status protected by applicable law. NEIA will make reasonable accommodations for qualified individuals with known disabilities or pregnancy-related conditions, in accordance with applicable law.