Senior UX Designer, Research
About The Position
State Affairs is the nation’s leading news and policy intelligence platform focused on state governments. We combine nonpartisan coverage of Statehouses across the country alongside state government data and AI-native tools into a singular platform. We inform and empower decision makers, policy professionals and citizens through our award-winning journalism and data – delivering profound insights to help our customers decode and act on state politics and policy. We’re building a category-defining business that will reshape America as we strengthen visibility into what’s happening and why at the state level. We are hiring a Senior UX Designer, Research to join our team located in Washington, DC. For this role, we are seeking a hybrid UX Designer and Researcher - a generalist who is deeply passionate about grounding product decisions in user needs. You will drive the strategic application of mixed-method research to inform and validate design work across the product lifecycle in a fast-paced, iterative environment.
Requirements
- Bachelor’s degree in human-computer interaction, user experience, or a related field
- 5+ years of professional work experience in software product design, with a specialized focus on user research, discovery, and validation
- A strong portfolio demonstrating recent work experience
- Proven ability to operate autonomously and contribute to product strategy beyond just execution
- Experience working with data analysts or using analytics tools to inform design decisions
- Ability to work in a fast-paced, startup environment with a willingness to quickly discard ideas and pivot based on feedback
Nice To Haves
- Excellent communication skills, the ability to engage customers during design and research sessions
- Facilitation experience with enterprise customers
- Proven proficiency with research tools and an excellent command of Figma for prototyping
- Strong opinions, loosely held – you have conviction in your design decisions, but approach feedback and critique with humility.
Responsibilities
- Bridge Design & Discovery: You won't just hand off research findings; you will translate them into wireframes and prototypes.
- Manage application analytics: Leverage behavioral analytics such as funnel analysis and heatmaps to pinpoint areas of friction and drive design improvements.
- Conduct rapid, high-impact studies: Efficiently plan, recruit for, and moderate discovery interviews, usability tests, and competitive analyses to deliver actionable insights within short development cycles.
- Translate insights into action: Synthesize quantitative data and qualitative feedback into compelling narratives and artifacts that directly influence the product roadmap and engineering priorities.
- Act as a strategic partner: Partner closely with Product Management, Engineering, and fellow designers to ensure user insights are implemented into usable and delightful product solutions.
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What This Job Offers
Job Type
Full-time
Career Level
Mid Level
Number of Employees
11-50 employees
