Sr. Ux Designer - Contractor

Why XCell

XCell was born out of a passion for using the power of digital media to transform organizations in ways that build up our communities. For us, Human-Centered Design isn't just a trend or tool; it's a way of looking at the world. Our impact on people are front and center at all times.

We work in small, fast-paced agile teams that use Design Thinking to help Government, Non-Profit and Educational organizations solve complex processes or systems.

Our vision is to impact the world through interactive media. We do this by creating experiences that inspire. We are deeply integrated with the heartbeat of our local communities. By impacting the life of one individual (end-user), we are laying the foundation to inspire the world.

The Position: Sr. UX Researcher

XCell is looking for a Sr. UX Researcher - (Contractor) to join our team. As a Senior UX Researcher, you will lead and execute user experience research initiatives, providing valuable insights to inform the design and development of our digital products. Working closely with cross-functional teams, you will contribute to creating user-centric solutions that enhance the overall customer experience. The successful candidate will be a strategic thinker, a meticulous researcher, and a collaborative team player who is passionate about understanding user behavior and needs.

What it looks like:

We are looking for and experienced passionate Sr. UX Researcher to join our small, yet growing team. We value people. That means we're always thinking about the needs of our teams, customers, their users, our communities, and our world at large. You will bring service design skills and an ability to plan and organize resources to directly improve the human experience and usability performance at all touch points.

Leadership

• Independently executes and implements solutions with minimal direction from senior Designers or team leaders.
• Coaches and mentors others to develop their professional skills and improve the quality of their work.
• Establish what service design looks like at XCell and foster positive collaboration across our organization.
• Provide conceptual feedback to team members

Functional Role

• Facilitate & lead multiple design thinking workshops, with subject matter experts.
• Develop the systems & tools needed to assist users with the understanding and alignment of complex systems.
• Articulate how services connect consumers and customers to business objectives.
• Develop strong stakeholder relationships.
• Navigate complex organizational relationships to resolve questions, disagreements, and blockers.
• Expert in identifying user and business needs and developing solutions to meet those needs through strong influencing and communication skills.
• Ability to coach and mentor others on the principles and best practices of Human Centered Design & Research Ops.
  
• Communicate product vision, and delivery strategy to stakeholders.
• Ideate, prototype, test, repeat!
• Lead various qualitative and quantitative user research studies including leading workshops, small group sessions.
• Document research findings and generate various reports such as decision docs.
• Designs and conducts research activities with customers and team members to drive a deep understanding of the people that use the products and services.
• Communicate research findings, conceptual ideas, survive blueprints, detailed designs, and design rationale and goals both verbally and visually.
• Maps the service experiences of users and defines how organizations need to change their delivery and services to be most effective.
• Craft user journey maps, user personas, and service blueprints that identify pain points and address all dimensions of the customers', users' and business's needs in a given service.

What we are looking for:

• Preferred team member live in Maryland, but not required.
• Demonstrated high level experience and aptitude in UX Research/Human Centered design methods
• Team players that wears empathy on your sleeve and champions the user's direct needs.
• Strong verbal and written skills
• Strong visual skills, experience delivering multiple digital products from start to finish
• Strong communication skills, with the ability to engage directly with stakeholders
• Ability to align multiple stakeholders on a singular product vision
• Ability to identify and communicate constraints and can work within them.
• Experience establishing, iterating, and documenting research findings.
• Strong aptitude to facilitate and lead design workshops or community of practice sessions
• Strong communication skills with the ability to break down complex concepts clearly and persuasively across different audiences.
• Experience working in an agile team
• Strong understanding for designing accessible (a11y, WCAG, 508 Compliance) digital products

Qualifications/Experience

• Understanding of service design principles, design thinking, human-centered design, visual design, interaction design, content design, user research, and user-centered design strategies.
• Experience working with the Center for Medicaid & Medicare (preferred)
• 6+ years of experience designing digital (web, mobile, or other digital) products
• Ability to absorb large amounts of potentially conflicting information and use it to create and communicate research findings.
• Ability to identify and communicate constraints and work within them.
• Ability to authoritatively communicate and facilitate discussion around usability, accessibility and interaction design.
• Experience with visual and user interface design, including typography, layout, color theory and common interaction patterns.
• Ability to work collaboratively within a group, actively network with others and provide varying feedback to the team at the appropriate time to ensure that decisions stick.
• Ability to select the appropriate prototyping method for the task at hand.
• Ability to identify and communicate constraints and can work within them.
• Experience establishing, iterating, and documenting design patterns to solve problems.
• Ability to effectively communicate research findings, conceptual ideas, detailed design, and design rationale and goals both verbally and visually.
• Experience using a variety of design and prototyping tools.
• Experience implementing and coaching others on design best practices and standards.
• Ability to communicate (complex) interaction concepts clearly and persuasively across different audiences and varying levels of the organization.
• Strong communication, presentation, and analytical skills.
• Contractor must be U.S. based

Pay

$45 - $60 an Hour
Full Time / Part time options available.