Human-Centered Design (HCD) Expert Job

We are building a team for one of the U.S. Federal Government's largest technology modernization programs, underpinning the U.S. capital markets.

Built on AWS and leveraging an AI-powered software engineering platform, this program offers a unique opportunity to gain hands-on experience with next-generation AI, Agentic AI, cloud technologies, and AI-driven engineering.

If you are looking for technically challenging work, exceptional learning, and a résumé-defining opportunity with national impact, I would love to connect.

Job Title:
Human-Centered Design (HCD) Expert

Position Type:
Full-Time

Location:
Hybrid (2 days onsite)

Days Remote:
3 days remote

Position Summary:
The Human-Centered Design (HCD) Expert leads user experience strategy, user research, and interaction design for a large-scale federal digital platform. This role ensures that modernized filing, dissemination, and public-facing experiences are intuitive, accessible, and aligned with the needs of filers, agency personnel, and the public. Working closely with product managers, architects, developers, and business stakeholders, the HCD Expert drives user-centered design practices while ensuring compliance with Section 508 accessibility standards and established federal usability guidelines.

Key Responsibilities:
1. Lead end-to-end user research activities, including stakeholder interviews, usability testing, contextual inquiry, journey mapping, and research synthesis.
2. Define user experience strategy, information architecture, interaction design, and user-centered design standards for the platform.
3. Create wireframes, prototypes, user flows, mockups, and detailed design specifications to support engineering implementation.
4. Ensure all user experiences comply with Section 508 accessibility requirements and WCAG accessibility standards.
5. Facilitate design workshops, stakeholder reviews, and collaborative design sessions to align business and user priorities.
6. Partner with Product Owners, architects, developers, and business stakeholders to validate designs against user needs and business objectives.
7. Establish, maintain, and evolve the enterprise design system, UX standards, and reusable design patterns.
8. Promote human-centered design best practices across Agile delivery teams throughout the software development lifecycle.

Minimum Experience:
1. 8+ years of user experience (UX) and Human-Centered Design experience.
2. Extensive experience conducting user research and designing enterprise digital experiences.
3. Strong portfolio demonstrating user research, information architecture, interaction design, and usability testing.
4. Experience applying accessibility standards within enterprise or government digital platforms.
5. Proficiency using modern UX design and prototyping tools.

Mandatory Skills:
1. Human-Centered Design (HCD).
2. User Experience (UX) design.
3. User research.
4. Usability testing.
5. User interviews.
6. Journey mapping.
7. Research synthesis.
8. Information architecture.
9. Interaction design.
10. Wireframing.
11. Prototyping.
12. Design specifications.
13. Design systems.
14. Section 508 accessibility.
15. WCAG accessibility standards.
16. Figma or equivalent design tools.
17. Stakeholder facilitation.
18. Agile collaboration.
19. U.S. work authorization.
20. Ability to obtain a Public Trust clearance.

Nice-to-Have Skills:
1. Federal or government digital-services experience.
2. U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) experience.
3. Experience designing complex data-intensive or workflow-driven applications.
4. Experience using AI-assisted design tools.