Senior UX Designer (RQ10510) Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement | Toronto, Ontario (Hybrid) Contract: February 19, 2026 – March 31, 2027 (285 business days, possible 134-day extension) About The Role We are looking for a highly creative UX Designer who can take ideas and bring them to life across multiple platforms and formats. Our ideal candidate has a strong inherent eye for design, proven creative and technical ability, and expert-level proficiency in design software. They will be highly skilled in every phase of the design process from conceptual development to technical execution and delivery, able to translate strategic direction into compelling, on-brand visuals.

Collaborating with multiple teams, the UX Designer should be able to take direction from both written briefs and verbal communication, translating that into engaging, user-centered creative that resonates. The ideal candidate will have a thorough understanding of typography, branding, layout and design hierarchy, digital art direction, UX/UI principles, and digital design. They must also demonstrate the ability to execute at a high level while incorporating strategy, data insights, and performance goals to inform design decisions, adapting where needed, without compromising quality.

Reporting to the project leadership, this role plays a key part in visually progressing digital service delivery for the Ontario government.

What You'll Do This role operates across four distinct delivery phases following the Ontario Digital Service Design playbook:

Delivery Phase 1: Discovery Before building a solution, the project team needs to find out whether users need it and whether other solutions exist. The UX Designer's responsibilities during this phase are to build an understanding of the problem space/statement, the long and short-term business goals, and the user and business needs.

Deliverables:

• Facilitate the Kick-off meeting with the project team to produce such outputs as:

• Business Model Canvas

• 5 Whys

• User Personas

• Stakeholder Mapping

• Strategy Map

• Short- and Long-Term Goals

• Fears and Challenges

• Problem Statement

• Facilitate user research activities to produce such outputs as:

• User interview topic Maps, a summary of interrelated topics for the user interview

• User Interview Scripts to plan and guide user discussion

• User Interview Synthesis (collection, aggregation and analysis) of written observations recorded during each interview

• User research findings report

• Inception (Science Fair Day):

• Showcases the work and key findings from this stage to stakeholders outside of the core project team

• Aligns entire team (business, technical) on what the next steps will be

• Planning activities for next phase (Alpha)

• Other deliverables typically delivered in this phase include:

• User Storyboard to communicate a story through images displayed in a sequence of panels that chronologically maps the story's main events.

• Technical Service Blueprint, a diagram that displays the entire process of service delivery including support systems by listing all the activities that happen at each stage, performed by the different roles involved

• Defined business Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

Delivery Phase 2: Alpha Alpha is about testing hypotheses and experimentation. The purpose of Alpha is to determine how to meet the user needs that were identified in discovery. This phase is an opportunity to quickly test different approaches with users before building a service.

Deliverables:

• Optionally conduct Google Ventures five (5) Day Design Sprint (or variation). This sprint is a five (5) day process for answering critical business questions through design, prototyping, and testing ideas with customers
• Produce "clickable" prototypes of multiple possible solutions
• Validate "clickable" prototypes with users through usability testing sessions and produce research findings report
• Iterate (improve) on "clickable" prototypes with insights garnered from research findings report
• Identify and document existing processes or policies that will need to change to support the new product or service
• Produce a business proposal to justify funding for the next phase (Beta)
• Define a clear vision for the solution that will be built in Beta
• Create a plan and prioritized list of features to be completed in the Beta phase
• Define user solution, and delivery of KPIs

Delivery Phase 3: Beta The goal of Beta is to build a real service that works well for a larger group of people. The prototypes that were developed and tested during Alpha are used to build a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) for deployment in a live, user-facing environment. Executed within the context of Scrum methodology, the UX Designer performs the following Agile ceremonies: Stand-up meetings, Sprint Planning, Backlog grooming, Reporting, Acceptance, and Retrospective.

The designers are at the spearhead of this methodology, creating and validating user stories for the developers (typical) one iteration ahead.

Deliverables:

• User story creation and validation:

• Participates in deciding which priority to tackle

• Sketching workshop to create visual representation of ideas or user flows

• Create designs

• Enhancements made to designs

• User Interviews (for validation)

• Synthesising individual and overall interview findings

• Enhancements to designs made from synthesis

• Get product owner sign off and input story into backlog for future iteration planning

• Rinse and repeat for each feature, function within a given iteration

• Conduct accessibility compliance testing of the solution within each iteration.

• Conduct regular usability testing sessions on the MVP built as part of the Beta phase.

Delivery Phase 4: Live Live begins when the service has reached a point of maturity and all of the main features in the backlog have been built. While most people understand the purpose of live, it's not always given the attention and resources it deserves.

Continuous improvement is one of the core principles of service design and that's what live is all about. The goal is to continuously monitor, research, test and iterate for as long as the service is active.

Deliverables:

• Continue to facilitate user research activities to produce such outputs as:

• User interview topic maps, a summary of interrelated topics for the user interview

• User interview scripts to plan and guide user discussion

• User interview synthesis (collection, aggregation and analysis) of written observations recorded during each interview

• User research findings report

• Conduct regular accessibility compliance testing of the live build as improvements are released.

• Conduct regular usability testing sessions on the live build.

• Analyze usage analytics and user behaviour patterns to track and measure key performance indicators.

Experience And Skill Set Requirements User Experience Design (40%)

• Extensive experience in using UX design best practices to design solutions, and a deep understanding of mobile-first and responsive design.

• Ability to iterate your designs and solutions efficiently and intelligently.

• 3+ years of relevant experience in participating in complex projects (products) of different sizes, ensuring alignment to plans, best practices and incorporating user-centred design processes and agile (scrum) methodologies.

• Degree or diploma in graphic design; degree or certification in usability, human-computer interaction, and technical writing a plus

• Experience in facilitate User Research and Usability testing. Accessibility compliance testing is a plus.

• Experience in facilitate User Research and Usability testing activities to produce such outputs as:

• User Interview Topic Maps

• User Interview Scripts

• User Interview Synthesis (collection, aggregation and analysis) of written observations recorded during each interview

• User Research Findings Report

Relationship Management (20%)

• Demonstrated experience in communication and mediation skills with business teams and core team members to ensure Client projects (products) are progressing according to schedule
• Experience with strategies and actions to overcome resistance to change and capitalize on forces in support of change during all stages of projects – Discovery, Alpha, Beta, Live or similar delivery methodologies
• Ability to deliver on a (project) product with a balanced team (product owner, user experience designers, developers) by participating in Agile (SCRUM) delivery methodologies

Technical Skills (30%)

• Expertise in UX software such as JustInMind, In Vision, Sketch, Adobe Creative Cloud, Axure, Figma, and Zeplin. HTML5, CSS3, and JS skills (React, Angular, NodeJS), are a plus.

Soft Skills (10%)

• Ability to clearly and effectively communicate design processes, ideas, and solutions to teams and clients.
• Be excited about collaborating and communicating closely with teams and other stakeholders via a distributed model to regularly deliver design solutions for approval.
• Strong interpersonal and negotiation skills
• Strong presentation, verbal and written communication skills
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving and decision-making skills

Position Details

• Location: 87 Sir William Hearst Ave., M3M 0B4, Toronto, Ontario (Hybrid)
• Hours: 7.25 hours per day
• Security Clearance: No Clearance Required
• Start Date: February 19, 2026
• End Date: March 31, 2027 (with possible extension)

To Apply Interested candidates must submit the following mandatory documents by Monday, March 02, 11:00 AM EST to hrsmss@smsoftconsulting.com:

• Updated Resume in Word format (Mandatory)
• References (Mandatory)
• Expected hourly rate (Mandatory)
• Visa Status (Mandatory)
• LinkedIn ID (Mandatory)

Note: Without mandatory documents, we cannot submit a candidate.