Director of Digital Services

Statement of Duties:

The Director of Digital Services will be responsible for ensuring that somervillema.gov, City microsites, and related digital tools are accurate, useful, secure, and accessible and provide the highest-quality public-facing digital access to the City of Somerville. This is multi-pronged position that both supports strong content development and user experience functions (plain language standards, information architecture, resident journey mapping) as well as engineering functions (web and tool design, development, and maintenance).

The Director will:

• Lead web development scoping, planning, and technical web architecture for all related projects;
• Collect and analyze data on online content usage, identify gaps and opportunities, and coordinate improvements and new pages, features, and digital tools (chatbots, service portals, interactive forms, etc.);
• Work across City departments to lead efforts to create, expand, and continuously refine online and digital content;
• Spur digital innovation through the development, customization, and management of relevant online or digital tools in collaboration with departments citywide;
• Refine development standards and processes;
• Manage a small development and content team as well as hosting partners and third-party developers (contractors) to ensure technical quality, product quality, and efficient use of resources;
• Perform code reviews on all internal and external code;
• Stay up to date on changing web and app design, technology, and security, and identify, evaluate, and implement new technology that is beneficial to the digital goals of the City;
• Perform root cause analysis on product and process deficiencies, and define and implement changes;
• Regularly communicate with Communications and Community Engagement leadership and team members to discuss direction, strategy, and priorities.

This is a permanent full-time position.

The essential functions or duties listed below are intended only as illustrations of the various types of work that may be performed. The omission of specific statements of duties does not exclude them from the position if the work is similar, related, or a logical assignment to the position.

• Manage direct reports, contractors, and third-party developers – Lead full and part-time staff (2.5 FTEs) in undertaking projects and delivering daily services. Evaluate performance of staff, provide support and coaching to improve performance and efficacy.
• Audit and maintain accessibility compliance – Ensure compliance with evolving federal accessibility requirements. Use a variety of Section 508 and WCAG compliance testing tools to assess and monitor site accessibility. Meet all federal and state compliance standards and deadlines. Set and meet targets for strategic remediation of any issues, achieve these goals through changes to site codebase and content as needed.
  
  Train content contributors on accessibility requirements and best practices.
• Develop pages and microsites – Create static and dynamic pages using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
• Oversee creation of web apps and digital tools – Coordinate with vendors, volunteers, and City staff to create, launch, and maintain tools such as data portals, service portals, community discussion tools, apps, etc.
• Navigate and assist in governing and implementing evolving approaches to the use of AI tools – The City is not currently deploying AI tools for web or other digital public interfaces, and the Director will be at the cusp of AI policy development for the City. With administration leadership, help establish policies around AI‑generated content; use of AI-driven analytics for content optimization, generation, and translation;
  
  evaluation and deployment of AI‑assisted chatbots or virtual assistants for resident services.
• Deliver and maintain excellent site search functionality – Assess how large language models interact with city content and navigate the shift toward AI‑powered search (residents increasingly finding content through AI overviews rather than traditional search), and strategies for ensuring city content remains findable and accurate in that environment.
• Ensure proper…