Principal Information Architecture Strategist
Zillow Group - Remote, OR
posted 5 months ago
About the position
As a Principal Information Architecture (IA) Strategist at Zillow, you will play a pivotal role in the discovery, definition, and development of enterprise ontologies that support Zillow's Customer Data Strategy, Corporate Strategy, and Customer Experience Vision. This position requires a collaborative approach, working across various lines of business and functions to develop domain ontologies that align with enterprise initiatives. You will be responsible for establishing and supporting an emerging IA program at Zillow, acting as the lead alongside tactical IA team members. Your role will involve clearly communicating a vision for IA and advocating for the value of semantic technology and knowledge organization concepts. In this position, you will lead enterprise-wide object mapping and identify Object-Oriented User Experience (OOUX) enablement plans for specific lines of business. As a design leader, you will foster positive relationships, mentor other designers, and work collaboratively to elevate the quality of experience design. Your mission will be to contribute to making Zillow the most-loved place for customers to discover, buy, sell, or rent a home. You will develop and communicate a 6-12 month vision to senior stakeholders and partner teams, ensuring transparency on risks and impediments. Your responsibilities will include designing enterprise-wide information architecture and integration strategies across multiple platforms, articulating the information architecture for Zillow's end users, and defining actionable problem statements to help teams deliver results. You will also enable a near-term IA roadmap that aligns with business outcomes, utilizing data effectively to define success metrics and measurable outcomes. Collaboration will be key as you work with Engineering, Data Science, Product, and Design teams to support the development and integration of semantics in Zillow products and services. You will contribute to team culture and recruiting by mentoring junior IA associates and advocating for the value of Zillow's efforts in ontologies, semantics, and standardization across the business. Additionally, you will maintain awareness of competitor and industry developments related to ontology use and knowledge organization, developing standards and guidelines for ontology and data standardization at Zillow Group.
Responsibilities
- Develop and communicate a 6-12 month vision to senior stakeholders and partner teams of a 'north star IA' to inform long-term planning, including accurate details and transparency on risks and impediments.
- Proactively build relationships with those outside of your immediate team resulting in horizontal influence.
- Design enterprise-wide information architecture and integration strategies across multiple platforms, technologies and/or software systems.
- Articulate the information architecture that will go to the Zillow end user.
- Define clear and actionable problem statements to help teams deliver results while displaying a comprehensive understanding of ontologies and OOUX.
- Define and enable the near-term IA roadmap to deliver on business outcomes, quickly identifying points of leverage in complex problems or systems, and utilizing data effectively to define success metrics and measurable outcomes.
- Utilize balanced judgment in decisions about risks of both actions taken and not taken while innovating on ways to iterate faster in a well-managed way for immediate teams you're working with.
- Understand and leverage end-state architecture vision in partnership with Engineering, Data Science, Product, and Design teams to support the development and integration of semantics in Zillow products and services, driving comprehensive design decisions.
- Collaborate with partner teams to articulate use cases, objectives, and architectural designs that support business goals.
- Deliver value by creating reusable, extensible and resilient capabilities.
- Contribute to team culture and recruiting by mentoring and developing junior IA associates.
- Communicate and advocate the value of Zillow's efforts in ontologies, semantics, OOUX, and standardization across the business.
- Maintain awareness of competitor and industry developments related to ontology use, knowledge organization, and OOUX.
- Develop standards, guidelines, and direction for ontology, semantics, and data standardization in general at Zillow Group.
Requirements
- 8+ years as a design strategist, information architect, design lead, or similar role.
- Strong communication, facilitation, and collaboration skills.
- Possess strong problem-solving skills for helping users navigate complex products.
- Can clearly communicate about sitemaps and design choices with other team members, including UX, UI, and service designers.
- Able to communicate effectively with senior leadership across multiple disciplines to align on a longer-term IA strategy that's good for both the customer and business.
- Clearly communicate IA conceptual models (and the significance of them) to product and design partners.
- Able to communicate and advocate the value of using industry standards, applications, and open source data sets for IA.
- Able to analyze and implement knowledge organization & platform strategies using tools capable of semantic enrichment.
- Can articulate a point of view for how IA can enable more responsible AI in the future for organizations.
Benefits
- Comprehensive medical, dental, vision, life, and disability coverages.
- Parental leave and family benefits.
- Retirement contributions.
- Paid time off.
- Equity awards based on factors such as experience, performance, and location.
