User Experience (UX) Designer - Clearance Required

LMI is seeking an experienced User Experience (UX) Designer to support a Defense Agency's personnel process modernization and technical talent acquisition efforts. The designer will apply human-centered design and service design methods to understand how employees, applicants, supervisors, hiring managers, process owners, technical leaders, and senior stakeholders experience HR services across organizational and system boundaries. Working within a cross-functional team, the designer will use LMI's Magnify framework to assess current experiences, synthesize findings, envision improved services, and inform implementation. The ideal candidate is a skilled researcher and facilitator who can translate complex personnel workflows and stakeholder needs into clear, validated, and actionable service improvements. This position requires an active Secret clearance.

LMI is a new breed of digital solutions provider dedicated to accelerating government impact with innovation and speed. Investing in technology and prototypes ahead of need, LMI brings commercial-grade platforms and mission-ready AI to federal agencies at commercial speed.

Leveraging our mission-ready technology and solutions, proven expertise in federal deployment, and strategic relationships, we enhance outcomes for the government, efficiently and effectively. With a focus on agility and collaboration, LMI serves the defense, space, healthcare, and energy sectors—helping agencies navigate complexity and outpace change. Headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, LMI is committed to delivering impactful results that strengthen missions and drive lasting value.

• Plan and conduct user research through interviews, contextual inquiry, observation, workshops, surveys, document review, and analysis of available operational data.
• Identify stakeholder groups and develop research-based personas representing applicants, employees, supervisors, hiring managers, process owners, technical organizations, and leadership.
• Map end-to-end personnel and recruiting journeys, including touchpoints, handoffs, systems, decision points, delays, rework loops, and user pain points.
• Create service blueprints and workflow maps connecting the user experience to supporting processes, policies, roles, data, and technologies.
• Synthesize qualitative and quantitative findings into themes, opportunity areas, root-cause analyses, and validated problem statements.
• Facilitate co-design sessions with HR stakeholders and mission organizations to develop practical future-state workflows and service concepts.
• Create wireframes, prototypes, and other design artifacts at the level of fidelity needed to test concepts and support stakeholder decisions.
• Plan and conduct concept validation and usability testing, document findings, and refine designs based on user feedback and operational constraints.
• Partner with the Technical Talent Acquisition and Workforce Management to assess candidate and hiring-manager experiences and improve technical talent acquisition services.
• Collaborate with Product Owners and Visual Designers to translate research into prioritized backlog items, roadmaps, decision products, and implementation recommendations.
• Maintain clear research plans, notes, repositories, findings, and design rationale while protecting sensitive personnel information.
• Communicate findings and recommendations to operational teams, technical stakeholders, and senior leaders in clear written, verbal, and visual formats.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in human-centered design, human-computer interaction, service design, design research, psychology, anthropology, information science, or a related field, with at least five years of relevant professional experience. Additional directly relevant experience may be considered in lieu of a degree.
• Demonstrated experience conducting user research and applying human-centered design or service design methods in complex organizational environments.
• Experience developing personas, journey maps, workflow maps, service blueprints, wireframes, prototypes, and research synthesis products.
• Demonstrated ability to plan and facilitate interviews, workshops, co-design sessions, usability tests, and stakeholder reviews.
• Ability to analyze qualitative and quantitative inputs, identify root causes, and convert findings into actionable recommendations.
• Experience working with cross-functional teams that include product owners, visual designers, functional subject matter experts, data or technology professionals, and senior stakeholders.
• Proficiency with collaborative research and design tools such as Figma, FigJam, Miro, Adobe Creative Suite, or comparable platforms.
• Strong written, verbal, visual, facilitation, and client-engagement skills, including the ability to communicate with technical and nontechnical audiences.
• Ability to work independently, manage multiple research and design activities, and adapt to changing priorities in a mission-focused environment.
• U.S. citizenship and ability to meet government security, suitability, and system-access requirements associated with the position.
• Active SECRET Clearance

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting federal civilian human capital, personnel services, talent acquisition, or workforce modernization initiatives.
• Experience supporting the Department of Defense, a Fourth Estate agency, or another highly regulated organization.
• Experience researching employee, applicant, hiring-manager, or internal service experiences involving multiple systems and organizational handoffs.
• Familiarity with agile product delivery, backlog development, process improvement, organizational change, or implementation planning.
• Knowledge of Section 508, WCAG, inclusive design, privacy, and ethical research practices involving personnel or applicant information.
• Human-centered design, service design, facilitation, usability, or agile certification.

Target salary range: $100,000 - $140,000

Disclaimer: 

The salary range displayed represents the typical salary range for this position and is not a guarantee of compensation. Individual salaries are determined by various factors including, but not limited to location, internal equity, business considerations, client contract requirements, and candidate qualifications, such as education, experience, skills, and security clearances.