Senior Human Factors Engineer

Synensys, LLC; Peachtree City (GA); Remote; USD 140,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

Synensys, LLC is seeking a Senior Human Factors Engineer to lead HFE efforts for a U.S. Federal Healthcare client. The role emphasizes usability, accessibility, and user-centered design across software and hardware, with Agile and SAFe practices.

The ideal candidate will have 10+ years of experience, strong communication skills, and the ability to work with clinicians, engineers, and executives to improve safety and performance in mission-critical systems.

Qualifications

• Master's degree in a relevant field required.
• 10+ years of professional experience in human factors engineering.
• Expertise applying advanced HFE methodologies to evaluate products, systems, and processes.
• Experience conducting human factors studies, usability evaluations, and user research.
• Ability to identify usability issues and recommend redesigns and mitigations.
• Experience in Agile software development environments and SAFe practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead human factors engineering efforts for healthcare applications, systems, devices, workflows, and processes.
• Design and conduct advanced HFE analyses using qualitative and quantitative methods.
• Plan, facilitate, and lead user research activities and usability testing.
• Translate user requirements into product, system, and process designs.
• Communicate findings and recommendations to technical and nontechnical stakeholders.
• Ensure compliance with applicable HFE, usability, accessibility, and regulatory standards.
• Support SAFe Lean-Agile practices and collaborate with product owners and delivery teams.

Skills

Human factors engineering

Usability engineering

User research

Facilitation

Agile / SAFe

Stakeholder communication

Hardware and software usability

Education

Master's Degree in Human Factors Engineering

Bachelor's or higher in related field

Doctoral degree (preferred)

Job description

Work Location

This position is a remote/hybrid/onsite position (as required by client), located anywhere within the United States.

Position Summary

Synensys is seeking a highly experienced Senior Human Factors Engineer to support a U.S. Federal Healthcare client in the evaluation, design, and optimization of healthcare products, systems, services, and processes. The Senior Human Factors Engineer serves as a subject matter expert responsible for applying advanced human factors engineering (HFE), usability, accessibility, and user-centered design principles to improve user performance, safety, efficiency, and satisfaction.

The successful candidate will possess deep knowledge of current research, emerging industry trends, and state-of-the-art human factors methodologies. This individual will leverage advanced HFE techniques to develop evaluation strategies, conduct complex analyses, identify user risks, and recommend innovative design improvements for both software and hardware solutions. The Senior Human Factors Engineer will proactively identify opportunities to minimize negative impacts in mission-critical systems and processes where redesign options may be limited.

The ideal candidate is a strategic thinker with exceptional communication and facilitation skills who can effectively engage users, stakeholders, engineers, clinicians, and Agile teams. This role requires the ability to assess the broader impact of design decisions across diverse user populations and environments while supporting SAFe Lean-Agile practices and continuous improvement initiatives within a Federal Healthcare environment.

Key Responsibilities

Human Factors Engineering Leadership

• Lead human factors engineering efforts supporting healthcare applications, systems, devices, workflows, and operational processes.
• Apply current research, emerging technologies, and industry best practices to develop innovative evaluation methods, design strategies, and usability solutions.
• Serve as a subject matter expert on human factors engineering, usercentered design, ergonomics, cognitive engineering, and usability best practices.
• Advise program leadership, product owners, development teams, and stakeholders on HFE strategy and implementation.

Human Factors Analysis & Evaluation

• Design and conduct advanced human factors analyses using qualitative and quantitative methodologies.
• Evaluate products and processes to identify usability challenges, cognitive workload issues, accessibility concerns, workflow inefficiencies, and potential user risks.
• Assess the impact of system and process changes on diverse user groups and operational environments.
• Develop mitigation strategies to reduce human error, improve adoption, and enhance overall user performance.
• Recommend redesigns or alternative approaches when products or processes present usability or safety concerns.

User Research & Testing

• Plan, facilitate, and lead user research activities, including interviews, workshops, focus groups, surveys, contextual inquiries, task analyses, and observational studies.
• Conduct and oversee usability testing, heuristic evaluations, cognitive walkthroughs, and validation studies.
• Effectively facilitate live user sessions and demonstrations, adapting questioning techniques and evaluation methods in real time based on participant responses and behaviors.
• Synthesize user insights into actionable recommendations and design improvements.

Design Strategy & Solution Development

• Translate complex user requirements into effective product, system, workflow, and process designs.
• Visualize and assess how proposed design changes may affect users across varying roles, abilities, technical proficiencies, and operational settings.
• Develop user personas, journey maps, workflow models, user scenarios, and task analyses.
• Partner with designers, engineers, clinical stakeholders, and product teams to ensure usercentered design principles are integrated throughout the development lifecycle.

Standards, Compliance & Best Practices

• Maintain expertlevel knowledge of applicable human factors, usability, accessibility, healthcare, and government standards.
• Ensure products and processes comply with established HFE, usability, accessibility, and regulatory requirements.
• Monitor developments in research, technology, and standards to continually improve methodologies and recommendations.
• Provide guidance on compliance, risk management, and usability best practices during design and evaluation activities.

Stakeholder Engagement & Communication

• Clearly communicate human factors findings, risks, recommendations, and design implications to both technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Present complex usability and human factors concepts to executive leadership, engineering teams, healthcare stakeholders, and end users.
• Facilitate discussions regarding design tradeoffs, user impacts, and usability improvements.
• Develop highquality reports, presentations, assessment findings, implementation plans, and strategic recommendations.

Agile & SAFe Support

• Champion usercentered design practices within Agile development environments.
• Apply SAFe LeanAgile principles and practices to support continuous delivery, value realization, and organizational transformation.
• Collaborate closely with Product Owners, Scrum Masters, Release Train Engineers, System Architects, and delivery teams.
• Participate in Agile ceremonies, including sprint planning, backlog refinement, system demos, program increment (PI) planning, retrospectives, and reviews.
• Support operational excellence initiatives through the empowerment of highperforming Agile teams and continuous improvement practices.

Required Qualifications

• Master's Degree in Human Factors Engineering, HumanComputer Interaction (HCI), Cognitive Psychology, Industrial Engineering, Systems Engineering, Ergonomics, User Experience Design, Biomedical Engineering, or a related field.
• Minimum 10 years of professional experience in Human Factors Engineering, usability engineering, user experience research, or a closely related discipline.
• Demonstrated expertise applying advanced human factors methodologies to evaluate products, systems, and processes.
• Extensive experience designing and conducting human factors studies, usability evaluations, and user research activities.
• Proven ability to identify usability issues and recommend effective redesigns, mitigations, and process improvements.
• Experience assessing the impact of design decisions across multiple user populations and operational contexts.
• Experience facilitating live demonstrations, usability sessions, interviews, and stakeholder workshops.
• Strong experience supporting both hardware and software development initiatives.
• Experience producing executivelevel findings, recommendations, strategies, and implementation plans.
• Experience working in Agile software development environments.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting U.S. Federal Government or Federal Healthcare programs.
• Knowledge of healthcare operations, patientfacing systems, clinical workflows, electronic health records, or health IT systems.
• Experience supporting FDAregulated systems, medical devices, or healthcare technology programs.
• SAFe® Agilist (SA), SAFe® Practitioner (SP), SAFe® Product Owner/Product Manager (POPM), or related Agile certification.
• Experience with Section 508 accessibility requirements and accessibility testing methodologies.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams and mentoring junior human factors professionals.
• Published research, conference presentations, or contributions to the human factors profession.

Required Knowledge, Skills, And Abilities

• Expert understanding of human factors engineering principles, theories, and methodologies.
• Thorough knowledge of applicable human factors, usability, accessibility, healthcare, and industry standards.
• Advanced skills in usability testing, heuristic evaluation, cognitive task analysis, workflow analysis, and user research methodologies.
• Ability to anticipate and assess the downstream effects of design decisions on users, workflows, and organizational performance.
• Exceptional facilitation and interviewing skills with the ability to adapt dynamically during user sessions and demonstrations.
• Strong analytical and criticalthinking skills with the ability to translate findings into practical recommendations.
• Excellent verbal, written, and presentation skills.
• Ability to effectively communicate human factors concerns to engineering teams, business stakeholders, healthcare professionals, and end users.
• Demonstrated understanding of SAFe LeanAgile principles and practices.
• Ability to lead crossfunctional collaboration and influence product direction in complex environments.

Education and Experience

Required

• Master's Degree in Human Factors Engineering, HumanComputer Interaction, Ergonomics, Psychology, Engineering, or a related discipline.
• 10 years of relevant Human Factors Engineering experience.

Preferred

• Doctoral degree in a related field.
• Professional certifications in Human Factors, UX Research, Accessibility, Agile, or SAFe methodologies.

Clearance/Eligibility

Must be eligible to work on U.S. Federal Government contracts. Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust or other government-required clearance preferred.

Work Environment

This position supports a U.S. Federal Healthcare client and requires collaboration with government stakeholders, healthcare subject matter experts, end users, and Agile delivery teams. The role may be performed remotely, in a hybrid setting, or onsite based on contract requirements and program needs. The incumbent will serve as a senior advisor and practitioner, contributing to the delivery of user-centered, compliant, and mission-focused healthcare solutions.