Human Centered Design Engineer

WRS Health; Idaho; Hybrid; USD 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Remote work flexibility

Equal opportunity employer

Job summary

WRS Health is seeking an experienced Human-Centered Design Engineer to bridge user needs with technical execution in a fully remote role. You will lead qualitative research, map journeys, and build interactive prototypes to improve EHR usability for physicians, staff, and patients.

You will work within Agile teams, ensure WCAG/508 compliance, and mentor others while shaping the product roadmap with research-driven insights. This role offers remote collaboration across the US.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in HCD, Human-Factors, or related field.
• 3–6+ years in HCD/UX or user research.
• Proficiency in prototyping tools (Figma, Sketch, XD).
• Knowledge of qualitative research methods and usability testing.
• Familiarity with Agile/Scrum delivery.
• Understanding WCAG/Section 508 accessibility.
• Strong empathy, storytelling, analytical problem-solving, defend decisions with data.
• Portfolio or case studies showing end-to-end research and impact.

Responsibilities

• Conduct contextual inquiries, interviews, and surveys with physicians, staff, billers, and patients.
• Translate findings into personas, journey maps, and system workflows.
• Lead cross-functional design workshops and build wireframes and interactive prototypes in Figma/Sketch/XD.
• Plan, moderate, and analyze usability tests; evaluate safety-critical workflows.
• Collaborate with product managers, BI, and engineers in Agile teams to maintain design integrity.
• Mentor designers/researchers and scale the HCD practice across teams.

Skills

HCD

UX design

User research

Qualitative research

Prototyping

Accessibility

Agile/Scrum

Storytelling

Empathy

Mentoring

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in Human-Centered Design/related field

Tools

Figma

Sketch

Adobe XD

Job description

Company Overview

Voted #1 EHR by PC Mag, WRS Health delivers a fully integrated cloud based EMR and practice management solutions to its clients. We bring solutions to physicians by providing constant enhancement of our products and services including EHR, practice management, marketing, patient coordination and billing.

Job Overview

We are seeking a Human-Centered Design (HCD) Engineer to bridge the gap between user needs and technical execution. You will lead qualitative research, map user journeys, build interactive prototypes, and run usability tests to ensure our products are intuitive, accessible, and impactful for the physicians, clinical staff, billers, front-desk teams, and patients who rely on them every day. In a clinical setting, a confusing screen costs a provider time, adds to burnout, and can affect patient safety, so this role carries real weight. You will thrive here if you love sitting with users in their actual workflows, can turn messy observations into clear direction, and can defend design decisions with evidence.

Key Responsibilities

User Research

• Conduct contextual inquiries, interviews, field observations, and surveys with physicians, clinical staff, billers, and patients to uncover explicit and latent needs.
• Partner with account managers and support teams to surface usability pain points from client feedback and support tickets.

Synthesis & Strategy

• Translate research into personas, journey maps, service blueprints, and system workflows across clinical, operational, and billing processes.
• Present insights to product and executive leadership to shape roadmap priorities.

Ideation & Prototyping

• Facilitate cross-functional design workshops and build low- to high-fidelity wireframes and interactive prototypes in Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD.
• Design AI-powered features (AI charting, AI agents) that keep clinicians in control and make AI output easy to review and correct.

Usability Testing

• Plan, moderate, and analyze formative and summative usability tests to iterate on designs before and during development.
• Evaluate safety-critical workflows such as medication management and e-prescribing, and support ONC Safety-Enhanced Design testing.

Collaboration & Governance

• Partner with product managers, business analysts, and engineers in Agile/Scrum teams to maintain design integrity from concept through release.
• Uphold accessibility standards (WCAG, Section 508) and HIPAA-safe research practices across all products.

Leadership

• Build and scale WRS Health's HCD practice, including research operations, templates, and standards.
• Mentor designers and researchers, and coach teammates on human-centered methods.

Qualifications

Required

• Education: Bachelor's or Master's degree in Human-Centered Design, Human-Factors Engineering, Interaction Design, Cognitive Psychology, or a related field.
• Experience: 3 to 6+ years of professional experience in HCD, UX design, or user research, including enterprise or regulated-industry experience.
• Technical Skills: Proficiency in prototyping software (Figma, Sketch, or Adobe XD), qualitative research methodologies, usability testing frameworks, and Agile/Scrum delivery flows.
• Accessibility: Working knowledge of Section 508 and WCAG standards and how to apply them in practice.
• Core Competencies: Strong empathy, verbal storytelling, analytical problem-solving, and the ability to defend design decisions with data.
• A portfolio or case studies demonstrating end-to-end research, synthesis, prototyping, and measurable impact.

Preferred

• Experience designing for EHR, practice management, revenue cycle, telehealth, or other health IT products.
• Familiarity with clinical workflows and terminology across ambulatory specialties.
• Knowledge of ONC Safety-Enhanced Design (user-centered design and summative testing) requirements, NISTIR 7804, or ISO 9241-210.
• Experience designing AI-assisted or automation features, including human-in-the-loop review patterns.
• Prior experience leading or mentoring designers/researchers, or building a design function from the ground up.
• Experience with remote research and unmoderated testing tools and product analytics platforms.
• Clinical background or prior work in a medical practice setting.

A Day in the Life

Your days move between the field, the whiteboard, and the prototype. You might start by joining the product team's stand-up to flag a research insight affecting an upcoming sprint, then sit in (virtually or on-site) with a specialty practice to watch how the front desk, medical assistants, and physicians actually work, noting the workarounds they've built and where the screens slow them down. Later, you could be synthesizing those observations into an updated journey map, facilitating a workshop with product managers, engineers, and billing specialists to sketch solutions, or moderating a usability test of a new AI charting feature to see how a clinician reviews and trusts AI-drafted notes. Before the day ends, you refine prototypes in Figma based on what you learned, check designs against accessibility standards, share prioritized recommendations with product leadership, and make time to coach the designers and researchers on your team.

Success Metrics

• Measurable usability gains: Improved task success rates, time-on-task, error rates, and System Usability Scale (SUS) scores for redesigned workflows, including fewer clicks and less documentation time for key clinical tasks.
• Research-driven roadmap: Consistent monthly contact with users across specialties, with a clear, visible share of roadmap items originating from or validated by HCD research.
• Fewer usability issues post-release: Decline in usability-related support tickets, rework, and post-launch design defects.
• Accessibility and certification compliance: New and updated features meet WCAG 2.1/2.2 AA and Section 508 standards at release, and ONC Safety-Enhanced Design documentation is completed on time.
• Adoption and satisfaction: Higher feature adoption (including AI features) and improved client satisfaction or NPS for redesigned areas.

Job Details

• Job Type: Full-time | Independent Contractor
• Location: Remote
• Hours: Must be available during standard US business hours (9:00 AM - 5:00 PM EST or 8:30 AM - 4:30 PM EST)

Compensation will be based on location, experience, and qualifications.

This job description outlines the general responsibilities of the role and is not exhaustive. Additional duties may be assigned as needed to support business operations.

WRS Health is an equal opportunity employer.