Internship Human Centered Design Jobs in Reston, VA

Design. Disrupt. Repeat. 

Be an agent of change on a team committed to achieving client-focused, mission-driven excellence. Steampunk is the explosive collision of human-centered design and traditional government contracting. We are an employee-owned company with a startup mindset and time-tested approaches tailored for the federal government. We’re passionate about creating solutions that are impactful, practical, and scalable while meeting our clients’ ever-changing needs. We believe in empowering our people to find creative solutions to intractable problems. We believe the best environment in which to grow and thrive is outside our comfort zone. We believe that while good design makes for a good product, human-centered design makes for an excellent one. 

As a service designer, you will be responsible for guiding government clients through our Design Intelligence™ framework, incorporating human-centered methods to solve end to end organization and experience challenges. You will lead and facilitate discovery sessions that uncover customer pain points and identify enterprise opportunities. You will serve as the voice of the customer, making sure their needs are considered and met within a proposed solution.  

Responsibilities: 

• Participate in all aspects of discovery to understand: client mission and goals; stakeholders, users and their ecosystems; current state journeys; user segments; program and project objectives 
• Conduct workshops and interviews to frame pain points and opportunities; define problem statements and validate hypothesis 
• Synthesize research and data to communicate insights and make recommendations that will shape mission/program strategy, service and workflow innovations, and a compelling future experience vision  
• Create journey maps, service blueprints, vision road maps, personas, ecosystem and experience maps that articulate needs, gaps, and actionable recommendations for organizational and process improvements 
• Collaborate and communicate stakeholder and user needs on a cross functional team within an agile environment 
• Understand and embrace the specifications and constraints of a given technology, platform and/or operational environment and understand how research should be integrated into technological considerations 
• Ensure all deliverables across a variety of projects are produced at the highest quality 

Qualifications 

• Ability to obtain a U.S. government Public Trust Security Clearance 
• Degree or equivalent experience in HCD, and/or service design   
• 6+ years of experience in human centered design, service design, and/or customer experience design 
• Current portfolio demonstrating ideology, methods, tools, skills, and craft 
• Thorough knowledge and demonstrated experience conducting primary and secondary research including stakeholder and user-interviews, design-thinking and co-creation workshops and applying those insights to personas, journey maps, process maps, ecosystem maps, roadmaps, stakeholder maps, and service blueprints 
• Ability to think strategically and holistically and connect dots across multiple workstreams, stakeholder groups, and ecosystems 
• Experience working on a scrum team within the Agile delivery framework and experience integrating research and design into technical sprints including writing stories and story pointing 
• Proficiency in tools like Adobe Creative Suite, Mural, and Lucidchart  
• Desire to keep pace with ever-changing industry tools and best practices with the ability to make recommendations as needed for the best outcome  
• Experience collaborating within a multi-disciplinary delivery team including UX/UI designers, technologists, data scientists, engineers, solution architects, and change managers 
• A natural curiosity for solving problems coupled with strong analytical skills  
• A collaborative nature with excellent written communication and presentation skills  
• Experience working in a project-based environment  

Bonus Points 

• Previous work experience in or with the federal government 
• Previous work experience as a consultant 

AboutSteampunk 

Steampunk relies on several factors to determine salary, including but not limited to geographic location, contractual requirements, education, knowledge, skills, competencies, and experience. The projected compensation range for this position is $120,000 to $180,000.  The estimate displayed represents a typical annual salary range for this position. Annual salary is just one aspect of Steampunk’s total compensation package for employees. Learn more about additional Steampunk benefits here. 

Identity Statement

As part of the application process, you are expected to be on camera during interviews and assessments. We reserve the right to take your picture to verify your identity and prevent fraud.

Steampunk is aChange Agentin the Federal contracting industry, bringing new thinking to clients in the Homeland, Federal Civilian, Health and DoD sectors. Through ourDesign Intelligence™ process, we are fundamentally changing the expectations our Federal clients have for true shared accountability in solving their toughest mission challenges. As anemployee owned company, we focus on investing in our employees to enable them to do the greatest work of their careers – and rewarding them for outstanding contributions to our growth. If you want to learn more about our story, visit http://www.steampunk.com.  

We are an equal opportunity employer and all qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability status, protected veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law.Steampunk participates in the E-Verify program.