Senior Principal UX Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United States.

📋 Description

• Take charge of user experience and interface design within an Extreme Programming product team.

• Engage in ongoing user research through methods such as interviews, contextual inquiry, field observation, and usability testing.

• Ensure consistent access to users and customer stakeholders.

• Consolidate research findings into personas, journey maps, jobs-to-be-done, and potential opportunity areas.

• Transform research insights into testable hypotheses and user stories with defined UX acceptance criteria.

• Assess designs pre- and post-launch, tracking usability metrics like task success rate, time on task, and System Usability Scale (SUS) scores.

• Involve engineers in research sessions and maintain a searchable repository for research findings.

• Leverage AI tools for research synthesis, drafting plans and scripts, exploring design variations, and generating prototypes.

• Design within Department of War mission contexts and for high-stakes operational workflows.

• Oversee complete UX for product areas, encompassing user flows, information architecture, interaction design, and visual UI elements.

• Actively participate in planning sessions, stand-ups, and retrospectives while collaborating daily with engineers.

• Decompose design tasks into small, shippable increments for each iteration.

• Prototype designs from low to high fidelity.

• Develop and sustain a collaborative design system and component library in partnership with engineering.

• Advocate for WCAG 2.1 AA or later standards and Section 508 accessibility compliance.

• Establish the research agenda and UX standards for designated product areas.

• Mentor engineers and junior designers regarding research methodologies and usability practices.

⛳️ Requirements

• A minimum of 5 years of professional experience in UI/UX or product design.

• A portfolio demonstrating research case studies that illustrate how findings influenced product direction.

• Proven experience in planning, executing, and synthesizing both generative and evaluative research.

• Familiarity with conducting user interviews, contextual inquiries, usability testing, and surveys.

• Capability to recruit participants and maintain a consistent research schedule.

• Experience in designing enterprise, analytics, or data-intensive applications.

• Practical knowledge of using AI tools for research synthesis, ideation, and prototyping.

• Understanding of Department of War use cases and design principles relevant to high-stakes environments.

• At least 2 years of experience embedded as a designer within an XP team or a similarly agile environment.

• Ability to deliver designs incrementally, adapting based on feedback from functional software.

• Strong skills in interaction design, information architecture, and visual design.

• Proficiency in modern design and prototyping tools such as Figma.

• Working knowledge of HTML, CSS, and component-based front-end frameworks.

• Excellent communication skills with the ability to persuasively present research findings.

• Preferred: formal education or training in HCI, human factors, cognitive psychology, anthropology, or a related field.

• Preferred: experience engaging hard-to-reach users or working in restricted environments.

• Preferred: knowledge of quantitative methods, including product analytics, survey design, and A/B testing.

• Preferred: experience in research operations, managing participant panels, consent processes, and research repositories.

• Preferred: ability to create or scale multi-product design systems.

• Preferred: familiarity with Lean UX, design studios, or story mapping techniques.

• Preferred: experience with front-end coding using React, TypeScript, or CSS.

• Preferred: expertise in AI-assisted or LLM-powered interface design.

• Preferred: direct experience with Department of War programs.

• Preferred: active security clearance or eligibility to obtain one.

🏝️ Benefits

• Performance-based bonuses.

• Comprehensive medical coverage.

• Dental coverage.

• Vision coverage.

• 401(k) plan with company matching contributions.

• Generous paid time off.

• Paid holidays.

• Flexible work arrangements where feasible.

• Income protection benefits.

• Resources for professional growth.