Senior Service Designer/UX Researcher

Jobtailor

Washington (District of Columbia)

On-site

USD 120,000 - 150,000

Full time

14 days+

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Job summary

Jobtailor in Washington, DC, seeks a senior UX researcher/designer to map the end-to-end developer journey, plan research in sprints, and translate findings into prioritized backlog and production-ready specs.

The role focuses on accessible, production-ready interfaces, regulatory compliance, and close collaboration with engineering. Candidates must have a security clearance and reside in the DC metro area, with occasional client-site travel.

Qualifications

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field plus at least eight (8) years of experience in service design, UX research, or human-centered design.

Responsibilities

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 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 software engineers 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 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 stakeholders across the engineering ecosystem.

Skills

Service Design

UX Research

Journey Mapping

Figma Proficiency

Accessibility Standards

Communication Skills

Collaboration with Eng Teams

Education

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field + 8+ years

Tools

Figma

Miro

FigJam

CI/CD Pipelines

Documentation Systems

Job description

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.

Requirements

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 FigJam, 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.

Core Competencies

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.

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