We’re hiring a content designer/plain language specialist (2026)

Contract – Full-time – Remote
Must be based in the US, and eligible to vote

At the Center for Civic Design we work with elections offices, democracy advocates, and civic engagement organizations to make elections easier to run, support innovation, and invite participation in elections. From our practical experience and applied research, we create and share usable and useful resources (templates, best practices, samples, and more) with the wider elections field.

We are looking for a content designer/plain language specialist to join our team for the rest of 2026

 The right person is someone experienced in creating information materials that make complex information genuinely easier for people to understand and use, has experience working in the civic space, and can

  • Work on civic design project teams as an expert in content design and plain language
  • Put their knowledge of writing for a broad audience in a government context into action
  • Bring additional experience in related skills like information design, accessibility, language access, and writing for low civic and reading literacy

Interested? Submit your proposal here: https://forms.gle/RXEgEmkyfK9DnTCg7 

The role

In this role, you will be part of our multi-disciplinary team, bringing your expertise in creating content that helps people find and understand the information they need to participate in elections.  

The right person for this role is skilled in creating and managing content in plain language and excels at making civic and election topics clear, compelling, and effective for all voters. They enjoy collaborating across disciplines and using research, insights, and expertise to make decisions. 

You are a leader in your field in the teams you work on and a team member, comfortable working on multiple projects at once.  You possess the following skills and qualities:

  • Strong collaboration. You collaborate closely with designers, researchers, and legal  team members to ensure that our work is effective for voters and for election offices
  • Working within policy. You understand the complexity of policy and can honor legal requirements while communicating details of election participation clearly
  • Broad audiences. You have an expansive view of the audience, including stressed readers and voters who do not read well, have a disability, or have faced barriers to voting
  • Presentation as part of plain language. You understand the relationship between the verbal and visual and can suggest ways to design information for effective plain language
  • Collecting feedback. You embrace usability testing and other forms of feedback, and you have some favorite methods for gathering input and feedback
  • Communicate effectively across formats and settings. Whether writing reports, developing a messaging framework, facilitating conversations, or collaborating with a remote team through tools like Zoom and Slack.
  • Thrive in a collaborative, multi-project environment. You are comfortable both juggling multiple projects and going deep in one area

Responsibilities and priorities

There is no single “typical project,” but you can expect to work on things like:

  • Writing information to help voters participate and respond to changing events in elections, including simplifying text and suggesting ways to work with (or around)  complex legal text requirements
  • Working with states and local elections offices to design official election forms, voter education information, and other election materials like poll worker manuals
  • Exploring different ways to present bilingual materials or how to break complex information into bites, snacks, and meals
  • Providing recommendations for making information accessible to people with cognitive and reading disabilities
  • Collaborating on usability testing or other feedback, iterating versions to get it right
  • Contributing to our internal guidance on plain language
  • Teaching training workshops for election officials

Qualifications

Required 

  • 5+ years of experience in content and plain language
  • Experience working in elections, public policy, government, or democracy
  • Strong critical thinking with exceptional writing and editing skills with the ability to communicate complex topics clearly.
  • Ability to work well within a fast-paced remote team environment using tools like Slack, Miro, and shared Drives
  • Ability to articulate the principles behind your work
  • Comfortable using a variety of design and writing tools
  • Available for occasional travel (less than 25% of time)

Preferred: Candidates with cross-disciplinary experience in at least two of:

  • Team leadership for content or plain language
  • Creating materials that are accessible for people with disabilities
  • Running or participating in usability testing or other research
  • Information design or information architecture
  • Experience working on materials in languages other than English

Summary

  • Full-time through 2026
  • Contract, $7,800 per month
  • Fully remote team
  • Must be based in the US, and eligible to vote
  • Application deadline: Open until filled
  • Start date: As soon as available

About the Center for Civic Design

Elections should work for everyone. As democracy’s innovation lab, we are here to make that happen.

The Center for Civic Design is a 501(c)(3) nonpartisan, nonprofit organization. To us, democracy is a design problem. The centerpiece of solving that problem is ensuring voter intent through design. We believe that democracy works when everyone is included. So, we strive to make every interaction with the government easy, effective, and pleasant. And we work with elections offices, democracy advocates, and civic engagement organizations to make elections easier to run, support innovation, and invite participation in elections.

Our credibility draws on a decade-plus of practical experience and applied research, during which we develop best practices for civic design using core skills in plain language, accessibility, information design, and civic research. And we share those best practices widely across the elections and democracy field. We hope the right contractor will help us do this even more effectively in 2026.

You can learn more about our work on our website or in these articles:

How to submit a proposal

All applications must be submitted through this form: https://forms.gle/RXEgEmkyfK9DnTCg7