Service Designer

Steampunk, Inc.; McLean (VA); On-site; USD 85,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Steampunk, Inc. seeks a Service Designer to guide federal clients through our Design Intelligence framework, leading discovery, research, and blueprint work supporting portfolio optimization, data governance, and identity modernization.

You will facilitate empathy interviews, map end-to-end journeys, and develop service blueprints with cross-functional teams to ensure user needs drive every recommendation and deliver high-quality outcomes.

Qualifications

• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance
• Bachelor's degree in Human-Centered Design, Service Design, or related field
• 5+ years of service design or UX research experience, including service blueprinting and journey mapping
• Portfolio demonstrating design process, methods, and craft across past service design or UX research engagements
• 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, integrating research and design activities into sprint cadences
• 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
• Experience collaborating within a multidisciplinary delivery team, including data, identity/security, and change-management specialists

Responsibilities

• Conduct discovery and workshops to uncover pain points and opportunities
• Build frontstage/backstage service blueprints and roadmaps aligning user outcomes with systems and investments
• Map end-to-end data journeys through empathy interviews and shadowing
• Apply card sorting and persona development to shape metadata design
• Synthesize research into actionable insights shaping program strategy
• Run lo-fi/hi-fi prototyping and usability testing on governance artifacts and workflows
• Collaborate across a cross-functional Agile team to deliver high-quality artifacts

Skills

Service design

UX research

Portfolio

Affinity diagramming

Card sorting

Persona development

Usability testing

Prototyping

Agile delivery

Adobe Creative Suite

Mural

Lucidchart

Synthesis

Excellent communication

Education

Bachelor's degree in Human-Centered Design / Service Design or related field

Tools

Adobe Creative Suite

Mural

Lucidchart

Job description

Overview

Steampunk is seeking a Service Designer to guide clients through our Design Intelligence® framework, providing the research and design foundation supporting portfolio optimization, data governance, and identity-modernization workstreams within a large federal advisory program. You'll lead and facilitate discovery that uncovers pain points and opportunities, serving as the voice of the user to ensure their needs are reflected in every recommendation.

Contributions

• Conduct process, technology, and organizational research to build the evidence base for portfolio optimization recommendations
• Facilitate discovery workshops and interviews to frame pain points and opportunities, define problem statements, and validate hypotheses with real users and stakeholders
• Build frontstage/backstage service blueprints and vision roadmaps connecting user-facing outcomes to the systems and investments behind them
• Conduct empathy interviews and shadowing with data users (analysts, stewards, program staff) to map end-to-end data journeys
• Apply card sorting and persona development to shape catalog and metadata design around how users actually search
• Synthesize research into insights and recommendations that shape program strategy and future-state experience vision
• Run lo-fi/hi-fi prototyping and usability testing on governance artifacts and workflows before enterprise rollout
• Build service blueprints spanning all four ICAM pillars (Policy, People, Process, Technology)
• Collaborate and communicate stakeholder and user needs across a cross-functional Agile team
• Ensure all deliverables are produced at consistent, high quality across assigned workstreams

Qualifications

• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. government security clearance
• Bachelor's degree, preferably in Human-Centered Design, Service Design, or a related field
• 5+ years of service design or UX research experience, including service blueprinting and journey mapping
• Portfolio demonstrating design process, methods, and craft across past service design or UX research engagements
• Demonstrated 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, integrating research and design activities into sprint cadences
• 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 to convey research findings and recommendations
• Experience collaborating within a multidisciplinary delivery team, including data, identity/security, and change-management specialists

Preferred:

• Experience applying service design methods to federal data governance, identity/access, or portfolio management contexts
• Experience with lo-fi/hi-fi prototyping tools
• Previous experience working as a consultant

About steampunk

Steampunk relies on several factors to determine salary, including but not limited to geographic location, contractual requirements, education, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience. The projected compensation range for this position is $85,000 to $150,000. The estimate displayed represents a typical annual salary range for this position. Annual salary is just one aspect of Steampunk's total compensation package for employees. Learn more about additional Steampunk benefits here.

Identity Statement

As part of the application process, you are expected to be on camera during interviews and assessments. We reserve the right to take your picture to verify your identity and prevent fraud.

Steampunk is aChange Agentin the Federal contracting industry, bringing new thinking to clients in the Homeland, Federal Civilian, Health and DoD sectors. Through ourDesign Intelligence™ process, we are fundamentally changing the expectations our Federal clients have for true shared accountability in solving their toughest mission challenges.If you want to learn more about our story, visit http://www.steampunk.com.

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.Steampunk participates in the E-Verify program.