Federal Service Designer: Impactful UX & Discovery

Service Design Jobs; Virginia; On-site; USD 85,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Steampunk seeks a Service Designer to guide clients through our Design Intelligence framework, providing the research and design foundation for portfolio optimization, data governance, and identity-modernization within a large federal advisory program.

You’ll lead discovery to uncover pain points and opportunities, and ensure user needs drive recommendations across governance workflows and enterprise rollout.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Human-Centered Design or related field.
• 5+ years of service design or UX research experience.
• Experience with affinity diagramming, card sorting, and persona development.
• Experience running usability testing and prototyping cycles with real end users.
• Experience working within an Agile delivery framework.
• Proficiency with design and research tools such as Adobe Creative Suite, Mural, and Lucidchart.
• Strong research synthesis and facilitation skills.
• Excellent written communication and presentation skills.

Responsibilities

• Conduct process, technology, and organizational research to support portfolio optimization.
• Lead discovery workshops and interviews to define problem statements and hypotheses.
• Create frontstage/backstage service blueprints and roadmaps aligning user outcomes with systems.
• Map end-to-end data journeys through empathy interviews and shadowing.
• Apply card sorting and persona development to guide catalog and metadata design.
• Synthesize research into insights that shape strategy and future-state experiences.
• Run lo-fi/hi-fi prototyping and usability testing on governance artifacts.
• Build service blueprints spanning Policy, People, Process, Technology.
• Collaborate with a cross-functional Agile team to ensure deliverables of high quality.

Skills

US government clearance

5+ years service design

Portfolio demonstrates design process

Affinity diagramming

Card sorting

Persona development

Usability testing

Prototyping cycles

Agile delivery

Cross-functional collaboration

Excellent written communication

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Human-Centered Design or related field

Tools

Adobe Creative Suite

Mural

Lucidchart

Job description

Steampunk seeks a Service Designer to guide clients through our Design Intelligence framework, providing the research and design foundation for portfolio optimization, data governance, and identity-modernization within a large federal advisory program.

You’ll lead discovery to uncover pain points and opportunities, and ensure user needs drive recommendations across governance workflows and enterprise rollout.