Senior Human Centered Design & UI/UX Engineer

Responsibilities

• Champion Human-Centered Design and UI/UX best practices across the Digital Architecture Team, embedding user-focus into every stage of the SAFe® development flow.
• Lead end-to-end user research (contextual inquiries, interviews, surveys, field observations) and translate findings into personas, journey maps, and well-defined design requirements.
• Drive interaction-design work: produce low-fi wireframes, high-fi mock-ups, and interactive prototypes (Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, Axure, etc.) that illustrate concepts for sprint planning and stakeholder review.
• Own the UI/UX design system: create, maintain, and govern component libraries, style guides, and accessibility standards to ensure visual and functional consistency across all DAT products.
• Conduct formative and summative usability testing (lab-based, remote, or in-the-field); analyze results, document findings, and iterate designs to meet the Definition of Done and MIL-STD-1472 / Section 508 compliance.
• Partner with product owners, system architects, software engineers, and DevSecOps teams to ensure designs are technically feasible, secure, and aligned with the ART’s backlog and PI objectives.
• Integrate design artifacts (research insights, personas, user stories, acceptance criteria) into JIRA so they are visible and traceable throughout the sprint lifecycle.
• Produce and maintain comprehensive design documentation, traceability matrices, and human-factors compliance evidence required for internal and external audits.
• Mentor junior designers and cross-functional team members on HCD methodologies, UI/UX tools, and usability testing techniques; lead design critiques and review sessions.
• Present research outcomes, design concepts, and usability findings to senior leadership, customers, and external stakeholders, synthesizing feedback into actionable design improvements.
• Identify and proactively remove design-related impediments; collaborate with the Release Train Engineer to surface any systemic barriers that affect user-experience delivery.
• Drive continuous-improvement initiatives: capture lessons learned from each iteration, update the team’s Definition of Done, and contribute to refining DAT’s Agile processes.
• Stay current with emerging UI/UX trends, human-factors research, and defense-industry standards; apply relevant innovations to enhance the usability and effectiveness of BAE Systems’ digital solutions.

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Human-Centered Design, Human-Factors Engineering, Interaction Design, Industrial Design, Cognitive Psychology, Computer Science, or a closely related discipline (or equivalent professional experience).
• 4 + years of professional experience in human-centered design, UI/UX, or related fields, including at least 2 years of leadership or lead-designer responsibility.
• 3 + years of hands-on experience working in Agile/Scrum environments (participating in sprint planning, daily stand-ups, PI planning, etc.).
• Deep knowledge of human-factors standards and accessibility guidelines relevant to defense (e.g., MIL-STD-1472, Section 508, ANSI/HFES 100) and demonstrated experience applying them in design solutions.
• Strong experience building and governing design systems: component libraries, style guides, and accessibility rules that ensure consistency across multiple products.

Skills

• Ability to obtain and maintain a DoD Secret clearance (U.S. citizenship required).

Preferred

• Master’s degree or advanced certification in Human-Factors Engineering, User Experience, Interaction Design, or a closely related discipline.
• Direct experience designing for defense, aerospace, or other high-security, safety-critical domains (e.g., DoD, NASA, aerospace OEMs).
• Proven track record delivering UI/UX for large-scale, multi-team SAFe® Agile Release Trains (multiple Planning Intervals).
• Exposure to DevSecOps pipelines and security-by-design practices ensuring UI/UX components meet stringent security requirements.
• Active security clearance – Secret or higher.