UI/UX Designer

Varmoda is seeking an experienced UX Researcher / Senior UX Strategist to lead user-centered research initiatives and drive product experience strategy across digital platforms. This role will be responsible for translating user insights, stakeholder feedback, and research findings into actionable recommendations that enhance usability, customer satisfaction, and business outcomes.

The ideal candidate combines deep UX research expertise with strong communication, facilitation, and storytelling abilities. This individual will help shape product direction by identifying customer needs, validating design concepts, and creating a clear vision that guides downstream UI, product, and development teams.

Key Responsibilities

User Research & Analysis

• Plan, conduct, and facilitate qualitative and quantitative user research activities.
• Gather and synthesize user, customer, and stakeholder feedback into meaningful insights.
• Develop a deep understanding of user behaviors, motivations, goals, and pain points.
• Apply research methodologies to evaluate product experiences and identify improvement opportunities.
• Prioritize research initiatives based on product strategy and roadmap objectives.
• Analyze research findings and communicate recommendations that influence product design and business decisions.

UX Strategy & Experience

Design

• Translate research insights into actionable UX strategies and design recommendations.
• Define user-centered approaches that improve customer experiences and business outcomes.
• Clarify user, customer, and business needs and convert them into compelling interaction concepts.
• Establish UX principles, standards, and best practices across products and initiatives.
• Document strategic themes, usability goals, interaction patterns, and experience guidelines.

Collaboration & Design

Support

• Work closely with UX Designers, Product Managers, Business Stakeholders, and Development Teams.
• Communicate prototype requirements and testing objectives to design teams.
• Validate designs through user testing and iterative feedback loops.
• Ensure user research findings are reflected throughout the product development lifecycle.
• Facilitate workshops and collaborative sessions with stakeholders and cross-functional teams.

Documentation & Deliverables

• Develop and maintain UX artifacts including:

+ Journey Maps

+ User Flows

+ Experience Maps

+ Storyboards

+ Personas

+ Research Reports

+ Usability Findings

• Create clear documentation that enables successful implementation by downstream design and development teams.
• Present findings and recommendations to business and executive stakeholders.
• Support strategic decision-making through exceptional data storytelling and user advocacy.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree or higher in:

+ Human-Computer Interaction (HCI)

+ Human Factors

+ Psychology

+ User Experience Design

+ Related UX Field

+ Equivalent experience may be considered

• 8+ years of UX Research experience.
• Strong understanding of user-centered design principles and user experience best practices.
• Experience supporting enterprise, corporate, or B2B environments.
• Demonstrated expertise in:

+ User Research

+ Usability Testing

+ User Interviews

+ Customer Journey Analysis

+ Stakeholder Research

+ Experience Strategy

• Strong empathy-driven design and research approach.
• Ability to organize, synthesize, and communicate research findings effectively.
• Strong adaptive thinking and ability to navigate changing business and product requirements.
• Thorough understanding of:

+ UI Design Best Practices

+ Interaction Design

+ Information Architecture

+ Graphic Design Fundamentals

• Experience using UX design, wireframing, prototyping, and collaboration tools.
• Ability to work independently and collaboratively in fast-paced environments.
• Experience managing multiple projects, deadlines, and priorities simultaneously.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating UX process, research methodology, and business impact.
• Excellent written, verbal, and presentation skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Project management experience.
• Experience leading enterprise-scale UX initiatives.
• Exceptional data storytelling and presentation capabilities.
• Experience facilitating workshops, stakeholder alignment sessions, and design thinking activities.
• Experience working with Agile product teams.
• Experience supporting digital transformation or modernization initiatives.
• Familiarity with accessibility, compliance, and inclusive design principles.

Certifications & Clearance

Preferred Certifications

• Certified Usability Analyst (CUA)
• Human Factors International (HFI) Certification
• Nielsen Norman Group (NNG) UX Certification
• Design Thinking Certification
• Agile or Scrum Certification

Clearance

• No security clearance requirement specified.

About Varmoda

Varmoda is a federal IT solutions provider founded in 2020 and headquartered in McLean, Virginia, delivering citizen-centric public services across Financial Assistance, Public Benefits, and Security & Defense domains.

Our five-layer architecture — Salesforce (Engagement), Databricks (Data), ServiceNow (Orchestration), Pega (Decisioning), and Oracle HR (Capacity) — puts data at the common thread of every solution we build for federal agencies and the citizens they serve. Varmoda holds CMMI Maturity Level 3, ISO 9001, ISO 20000, and ISO 27001 certifications, and is recognized as a V3 veteran-friendly employer.

Why Varmoda

• Growth opportunity within a fast-scaling federal IT firm
• Direct impact on citizen-facing federal programs
• Competitive benefits including 401k, health insurance, Paid Time Off, Life Insurance and others — customize per role/location (https://www.varmoda.com/benefits.html)
• Veteran-friendly (V3) workplace culture