Human-Centered Design (HCD)/UX Lead

Provides expert Human-Centered Design (HCD) and user experience leadership across the product line supporting the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Product Delivery Services (PDS), Benefits and Memorials (BAM), Memorial and Benefit Services (MBS) to deliver secure, reliable, and effective IT solutions that support the Department’s mission.

Responsibilities

• Lead user research activities including interviews, observation, usability testing, and other HCD techniques to gather actionable insights.
• Facilitate HCD workshops and collaborative sessions to support requirement elaboration, user story development, and design decisions.
• Develop UX artifacts such as personas, journey maps, workflows, and experience insights that inform solution design and product strategy.
• Collaborate with Business Analysts and Product Owners to maintain alignment between requirements, user needs, dependencies, and VA strategic outcomes.
• Contribute UX guidance and user-centric content to training materials, communications, and rollout planning to support end-user adoption.
• Advocate for customer-centric design practices that enhance usability, workflow efficiency, and end-user satisfaction across VA-EISS, MBMS, BOSS-E, and integrated systems.
• Support Agile teams, PI Planning, Sprint Planning, and user-centric requirement elaboration.
• Support UAT, validate design intent, and contribute to user adoption materials.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s Degree in computer science or an IT-related degree with 6-10 years' experience.
• Minimum 3 years leading UX/HCD efforts on enterprise-scale platforms, preferably in government, healthcare, or regulated environments.
• Demonstrated experience conducting user research, usability testing, workflow analysis, and requirements validation.
• Experience developing UX artifacts including personas, journey maps, workflows, and experience insights used for feature definition and prioritization.
• Experience collaborating with Product Owners, Business Analysts, developers, and program stakeholders to align design to business outcomes.

Preferred Qualifications

• Public Trust clearance.
• Familiarity with VA/NCA, Section 508, software implementation/change management.

Benefits

• Comprehensive total rewards package including paid parental leave and immediate vesting in 401(k).
• Medical, Dental & Vision Insurance.
• Flexible Spending Accounts.
• Short-Term and Long-Term Disability Insurance.
• Life Insurance.
• Paid Time Off & Holidays.
• Earned Bonuses & Awards.
• Professional Training Reimbursement.
• Employee Assistance Program.