Senior Service Designer/UX Researcher

Bixal

Bixal, a government services consulting company, seeks a senior service designer/UX researcher for Federal Student Aid’s developer platform. Mapping journeys, testing usability, and translating research into backlog improvements.

Posted 8/4/2026full-timeWashington, D.C. • District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, Washington • 🇺🇸 United StatesSenior💰 $125,000 - $130,000 per yearWebsite

Core Competencies

Role fit

Core Competencies

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Demonstrates expertise in service design and UX research, focusing on creating intuitive, accessible, and production-ready digital experiences. Proficient in translating research findings into actionable design specifications and high-fidelity prototypes while adhering to regulatory and accessibility standards.

Highest-signal resume keywords

Service DesignUX ResearchJourney MappingFigma ProficiencyAccessibility Standards Compliance

ATS Keywords

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Applicant Tracking System Keywords

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Hard Skills

Usability TestingContextual InquiryDesign DocumentationHigh-Fidelity PrototypingTask Friction ReductionSystem-Driven UI BehaviorQuantitative SynthesisQualitative SynthesisProduction-Ready Experience DesignUser Flow Design

Soft Skills

Strong Communication SkillsCollaboration with Engineering Teams

Tools & Technologies

FigmaMiroFigJamCI/CD PipelinesDocumentation Systems

Certifications & Qualifications

Tier 4 High Risk Public Trust Security Clearance

Industry Keywords

Developer ExperienceRegulatory RequirementsAccessibility StandardsUser ResearchStakeholder Engagement

About the role

Key responsibilities & impact

Map the end-to-end developer journey from access request through first production deploy and identify high-friction points.
Plan and execute sprint-cadence user research with FSA engineering teams using contextual inquiry, usability testing, interviews, and behavioral analytics.
Synthesize qualitative and quantitative findings into actionable insights and prioritized backlog items.
Track adoption metrics and Developer NPS to measure improvement impact.
Design service blueprints, interaction patterns, user flows, and high-fidelity prototypes for developer-facing products.
Deliver design specifications and documentation that reduce implementation ambiguity and improve design fidelity.
Collaborate with the software engineer to maintain a tight research-to-implementation iteration loop within each sprint.
Design responsive, accessible interfaces meeting regulatory and secure-interaction requirements.
Apply Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 standards to interfaces and documentation experiences.
Contribute to a developer experience metrics dashboard.
Align research priorities with the product roadmap and QASP performance measures.
Engage FSA engineering stakeholders to understand workflows, constraints, and needs and build platform-adoption support.
Participate in sprint planning, backlog refinement, demos, and retrospectives.
Coordinate with adjacent vendor teams and FSA stakeholders across the engineering ecosystem.

Requirements

What you’ll need

Bachelor's degree in a relevant field plus at least eight (8) years of experience in service design, UX research, or human-centered design.
Proven ability to design intuitive, accessible, production-ready experiences for complex, multi-step workflows serving large user populations.
Demonstrated experience reducing task friction, error rates, and avoidable support contacts through measurable design improvements.
Strong capability designing responsive digital experiences and system-driven UI behavior with engineering teams.
Experience incorporating regulatory, accessibility, and secure interaction requirements into design artifacts without degrading usability.
Expertise in contextual inquiry, usability testing, journey mapping, service blueprinting, and qualitative and quantitative synthesis.
Experience researching with technical users, developers, or platform/tool users.
Ability to translate research findings into prioritized backlog items, high-fidelity prototypes, specifications, and design documentation.
Proficiency in Figma, Miro or FigJam, or equivalent collaborative design and whiteboarding tools.
Familiarity with developer tools and environments, such as CI/CD pipelines, portals, and documentation systems.
Strong communication skills for presenting findings to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
U.S. citizenship required.
Must be able to obtain and maintain a Tier 4 High Risk Public Trust security clearance.
Must be located in the Washington DC metro area and able to travel occasionally to the client location in downtown DC.
Applicants must include a link to a portfolio of relevant work.

Benefits

Comp & perks

Flex hours
401K with matching incentive
Parental Leave
Medical/dental/vision benefits
Flex Spending Account
Company provided short-term disability and life insurance
Commuter benefits
Paid Time Off (PTO)
11 Paid holidays