Human-Centered Design (HCD)/UX Lead

Integral•Tysons, VA

About The Position

The Human Centered Design/UX Lead provides expert HCD and user experience leadership across the product line support for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Office of Information and Technology (OIT), Product Delivery Services (PDS), Benefits and Memorials (BAM), Memorial and Benefit Services (MBS) deliver secure, reliable, and effective Information Technology (IT) solutions that support the Department’s mission.

Requirements

Bachelor’s Degree in computer science or an IT-related degree with 6-10 years' experience
Minimum 3 years leading UX/HCD efforts on enterprise‑scale platforms, preferably in government, healthcare, or regulated environments.
Demonstrated experience supporting Agile teams, PI Planning, Sprint Planning, and user‑centric requirement elaboration.
Proven experience conducting user research, usability testing, workflow analysis, and requirements validation.
Experience developing UX artifacts including personas, journey maps, workflows, and experience insights used for feature definition and prioritization.
Experience collaborating with Product Owners, Business Analysts, developers, and program stakeholders to align design to business outcomes.
Experience supporting UAT, validating design intent, and contributing to user adoption material.

Nice To Haves

Familiarity with VA/NCA; Section 508; software implementation/change management

Responsibilities

Conducts user research, facilitates collaborative design activities, and ensures features and requirements reflect validated user needs.
The Lead partners closely with Product Owners, Business Analysts, Agile Development Teams, and VA stakeholders to ensure design intent is preserved throughout planning, development, testing, and implementation.
Lead user research activities including interviews, observation, usability testing, and other HCD techniques to gather actionable insights.
Facilitate HCD workshops and collaborative sessions to support requirement elaboration, user story development, and design decisions.
Develop UX artifacts such as personas, journey maps, workflows, and experience insights that inform solution design and product strategy.
Collaborate with Business Analysts and Product Owners to maintain alignment between requirements, user needs, dependencies, and VA strategic outcomes.
Contribute UX guidance and user‑centric content to training materials, communications, and rollout planning to support end‑user adoption.
Advocate for customer‑centric design practices that enhance usability, workflow efficiency, and end‑user satisfaction across VA‑EISS, MBMS, BOSS‑E, and integrated systems.