Lead UX Researcher / Designer

Summary

Join Agile Six, a remote-first company, as a Lead UX Designer/Researcher to contribute to the SimplerNOFOs initiative with the HHS Office of Grants. This project focuses on improving the user experience of federal grant announcements on Grants.gov. You will provide strategic and tactical support, implementing existing design patterns while enhancing accessibility and visual clarity. The role involves user research, collaboration with cross-functional teams, and communication with stakeholders. You will define and evolve the organization's design system, create design deliverables, and lead user research efforts. This position requires a passion for impactful work and a collaborative mindset. The responsibilities are expected to evolve organically over time.

Requirements

• 15+ years of experience working as UX researcher / designer or related position in collaboration with digital product teams (enterprise environment a plus)
• A relevant Bachelor’s degree will count toward 4 years of experience
• A relevant Master’s Degree will count toward 6 years of experience
• A Doctorate will count toward 8 years of experience
• A Bachelor’s degree is required for this position
• Ability to be autonomous, take initiative, and effectively communicate status and progress
• Portfolio illustrating your process and samples of native product design work driven by quantitative and qualitative user research
• Expertise in human-centered design, interaction design fundamentals, and UI design and research best practices, including accessibility
• Experience scaling, implementing and improving design systems in enterprise or complex digital environments
• Expert in Figma and modern prototyping tools
• Experience experimenting with and/or utilizing AI tools and services to design and create software, and a strong willingness to leverage AI where appropriate to improve outcomes
• Experience successfully collaborating with cross-functional partners and other designers and researchers, seeking and providing feedback in an Agile environment
• Adaptive, empathetic, collaborative, and holds a positive mindset
• Has lived and worked in the United States for 3 out of the last 5 years

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve the strategic direction for the organization’s design system, aligning it with accessibility and product goals
• Establish frameworks with design best practices to maintain consistency, scalability, and quality
• Apply the existing design system as recommended to create repeatable and consistent patterns across the portfolio
• Collaborate with the team when necessary around iteration and improvement of design system components, with a focus on accessibility
• Create design deliverables at all levels of fidelity throughout the process, from early sketches to low fidelity wireframes to high fidelity prototypes
• Communicate potential costs and tradeoffs of different research and design approaches while working with incomplete requirements
• As needed, lead user research efforts across a variety of research methodologies such as user interviews, heuristic evaluations, generative research, tree testing, card sorting and design thinking workshops
• Own the research process, including discovery, synthesis, documentation, and communication
• Stay up to date on emerging practices and technologies that support UX, and share these with the larger UX community at Agile Six when opportunities arise
• Clearly articulate your thought processes through verbal and written explanation, whiteboard, sketching, or quick mock-ups to small or large groups
• Work with the team to identify and integrate AI-powered tools and services into the software design and development lifecycle to improve the efficiency and/or quality of UX deliverables and production code
• Collaborate with the product manager and engineers to ensure implementation matches intent across all design components
• Confirm UX work is kept in sync with the product roadmap and flag delays or issues in research and design
• Collaboratively create and evolve user stories and acceptance criteria with the product owner and wider Scrum team
• Communicate and collaborate with stakeholders and team members across a range of disciplines
• Mentor less experienced UX team members in UX best practices and oversee implementation
• Support the practice of design and research within the larger company as needed through activities such as: Assisting in outreach, recruitment, and hiring efforts
• Occasionally participating in or otherwise supporting business development efforts, including code or design challenges, writing or reviewing proposal responses, etc
• Participating in communities of practice

Preferred Qualifications

• Familiarity with US Web Design System
• Familiarity with Section-508 and WCAG 2.1AA Accessibility requirements, standards, and testing tools
• Experience developing knowledge of complex domain and systems
• Experience working with government agencies
• Ability to work across multiple applications, components, languages, and frameworks
• Experience working in a cross-functional team, including research, design, engineering, and product
• You are a U.S. Veteran

Benefits

• Self-managed work/life balance and flexibility
• Competitive and equitable salary (equal pay for equal work)
• Employee Stock Ownership (ESOP) for all employees!
• 401K matching
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Employer paid short and long term disability insurance
• Employer paid life insurance
• Self-managed and generous paid time off
• Paid federal holidays and two floating holidays
• Paid parental leave
• Self-managed professional development spending
• Self-managed wellness days