Senior Service Designer​/UX Researcher

• Map the end-to-end developer journey from access request through first production deploy and identify high-friction points.
• Plan and execute sprint-cadence user research with FSA engineering teams using contextual inquiry, usability testing, interviews, and behavioral analytics.
• Synthesize qualitative and quantitative findings into actionable insights and prioritized backlog items.
• Track adoption metrics and Developer NPS to measure improvement impact.
• Design service blueprints, interaction patterns, user flows, and high-fidelity prototypes for developer-facing products.
• Deliver design specifications and documentation that reduce implementation ambiguity and improve design fidelity.
• Collaborate with the software engineer to maintain a tight research-to-implementation iteration loop within each sprint.
• Design responsive, accessible interfaces meeting regulatory and secure-interaction requirements.
• Apply Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 standards to interfaces and documentation experiences.
• Contribute to a developer experience metrics dashboard.
• Align research priorities with the product roadmap and QASP performance measures.
• Engage FSA engineering stakeholders to understand workflows, constraints, and needs and build platform-adoption support.
• Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, demos, and retrospectives.
• Coordinate with adjacent vendor teams and FSA stakeholders across the engineering ecosystem.

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field plus at least eight (8) years of experience in service design, UX research, or human-centered design.
• Proven ability to design intuitive, accessible, production-ready experiences for complex, multi-step workflows serving large user populations.
• Demonstrated experience reducing task friction, error rates, and avoidable support contacts through measurable design improvements.
• Strong capability designing responsive digital experiences and system-driven UI behavior with engineering teams.
• Experience incorporating regulatory, accessibility, and secure interaction requirements into design artifacts without degrading usability.
• Expertise in contextual inquiry, usability testing, journey mapping, service blueprinting, and qualitative and quantitative synthesis.
• Experience researching with technical users, developers, or platform/tool users.
• Ability to translate research findings into prioritized backlog items, high-fidelity prototypes, specifications, and design documentation.
• Proficiency in Figma, Miro or Fig Jam, or equivalent collaborative design and whiteboarding tools.
• Familiarity with developer tools and environments, such as CI/CD pipelines, portals, and documentation systems.
• Strong communication skills for presenting findings to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• U.S. citizenship required.
• Must be able to obtain and maintain a Tier 4 High Risk Public Trust security clearance.
• Must be located in the Washington DC metro area and able to travel occasionally to the client location in downtown DC.
• Applicants must include a link to a portfolio of relevant work.

Demonstrates expertise in service design and UX research, focusing on creating intuitive, accessible, and production-ready digital experiences. Proficient in translating research findings into actionable design specifications and high-fidelity prototypes while adhering to regulatory and accessibility standards.

• Service Design
• UX Research
• Journey Mapping
• Figma Proficiency
• Accessibility Standards Compliance

• Usability Testing
• Contextual Inquiry
• Design Documentation
• High-Fidelity Prototyping
• Task Friction Reduction
• System-Driven UI Behavior
• Quantitative Synthesis
• Qualitative Synthesis
• Production-Ready Experience Design
• User Flow Design

• Strong Communication Skills
• Collaboration with Engineering Teams

• Tier 4 High Risk Public Trust Security Clearance

• Developer Experience
• Regulatory Requirements
• Accessibility Standards
• User Research
• Stakeholder Engagement

• Figma
• Miro
• Fig Jam
• CI/CD Pipelines
• Documentation Systems