User Experience Research Assistant Jobs in Springfield, VA

The UX Research and Design Lead directs the strategy, research, and design efforts for human-centered digital experiences across Wilcore's federal programs, with a particular focus on the Department of Veterans Affairs. This role owns the end-to-end UX research and design practice for the program — setting research methodology, design standards, and quality bar — while partnering directly with VA stakeholders, product owners, and technical leads to ensure that user needs, evidence, and mission outcomes remain central to every decision.

As a senior leader on the program, this individual builds and manages a team of researchers and designers, establishes governance for design and research artifacts, and represents the UX function in program leadership discussions. The UX Research and Design Lead ensures all work aligns with the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS), Section 508, and WCAG 2.1 accessibility requirements, and serves as the primary advocate for Veteran-centered design across the contract.

Responsibilities:

• Own the UX research and design strategy for the program, ensuring alignment with VA mission goals, user needs, and contract requirements.
• Lead and mentor a team of UX researchers and designers, setting quality standards and providing career development and technical guidance.
• Design and oversee execution of the research plan — including discovery, generative research, and usability testing — and ensure findings are synthesized into actionable insight for product and engineering teams.
• Guide the creation of user flows, wireframes, low- and high-fidelity prototypes, and design specifications, reviewing team output for quality and consistency.
• Serve as the primary UX point of contact with VA stakeholders, product managers, and technical leads, translating between user needs, business priorities, and technical constraints.
• Establish and maintain design systems, research repositories, and documentation standards to ensure consistency and reuse across the program.
• Present research findings, design strategy, and rationale to client leadership and internal program leadership, incorporating feedback into iterative planning.
• Ensure all deliverables meet USWDS, Section 508, and WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards, and champion inclusive design practices across the team.
• Support proposal, staffing, and capture efforts by contributing UX-related technical narratives, past performance write-ups, and staffing plans as needed.
• Stay current with UX research methods, federal digital services trends, and accessibility guidance to continuously mature the program's UX practice.

Skills:

The UX Research and Design Lead combines deep research expertise with design leadership to translate ambiguous, complex user needs into clear, evidence-based direction for a team and a program. Strong facilitation and stakeholder management skills allow this individual to represent user needs credibly to VA leadership and align cross-functional partners around a shared vision. Team leadership and mentoring skills are essential to maintaining quality and consistency as the design and research practice scales. Proficiency across the research-to-design lifecycle — from planning and moderating studies to synthesizing findings into prototypes and specifications — ensures decisions are grounded in evidence rather than assumption. Familiarity with federal accessibility standards and the proposal/staffing process further ensures the role can support both delivery excellence and business development needs.

Minimum Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, or a related field.
• 8-10+ years of professional experience in UX research and design, including experience leading teams or workstreams within a technical or professional services environment.
• Demonstrated experience designing and leading a full UX research program (discovery, generative and evaluative research, usability testing) in addition to end-to-end design delivery.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating leadership of complex, enterprise-level or government digital products from research through delivery.
• Experience managing or mentoring a team of designers and/or researchers.
• Proficiency with design, prototyping, and research tooling (e.g., Figma, Adobe XD, UserTesting, dScout, or similar).
• Experience working within Agile development environments and collaborating across product, engineering, and government stakeholder teams.
• Demonstrated experience presenting research findings and design rationale to senior stakeholders and client leadership.
• U.S Citizenship required
• Ability to obtain and maintain required security clearance

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in a relevant discipline.
• Prior experience on federal or VA programs, or with federal accessibility/compliance requirements.
• Knowledge of front-end development technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) sufficient to assess technical feasibility.
• Experience establishing or maturing a design system or research repository/ops function.
• Certification in UX, research, or related fields (e.g., NN/g UX Certification, HFI CUA).
• Experience responding to or supporting federal proposal efforts (e.g., contributing past performance narratives, staffing plans, or technical volumes).