UI/UX Lead

NALEJ•Arlington, VA

5d•Hybrid

About The Position

NALEJ Corporation is seeking an experienced UI/UX Lead – Enterprise Platforms to lead the design, usability, accessibility, and frontend experience across our portfolio of enterprise software platforms. This is a hybrid design and frontend engineering role for someone who can move seamlessly between understanding user workflows, developing wireframes and prototypes, defining a cohesive design system, and implementing production-ready frontend components. The UI/UX Lead will help establish a consistent user experience across complex, data-intensive applications operating within AWS Commercial and GovCloud environments supporting DoD and federal customers. You will work within a modern, AI-native development ecosystem and collaborate closely with product, architecture, and engineering teams to transform highly technical workflows into intuitive, modern, and accessible user experiences. This role is ideal for someone who is equally comfortable discussing user journeys in Figma and building reusable React components in a production environment.

Requirements

8+ years of professional experience in UI/UX, product design, frontend development, or related disciplines.
At least 3+ years of hands-on experience in a hybrid UI/UX and frontend engineering role.
Demonstrated experience designing complex enterprise, B2B, government, or data-intensive software applications.
Strong portfolio demonstrating experience with complex workflows, dashboards, analytics platforms, data catalogs, enterprise applications, or similar systems.
Strong proficiency with modern UI/UX design and prototyping tools such as Figma or comparable platforms.
Strong hands-on proficiency with React, TypeScript, HTML, CSS, and modern JavaScript development practices.
Experience with modern frontend frameworks and technologies such as Astro and Tailwind CSS.
Experience building and maintaining reusable component libraries and enterprise design systems.
Experience integrating component frameworks such as Shadcn, Radix UI, MUI, or similar technologies.
Strong understanding of responsive design, frontend performance, component-driven development, and modern web architecture.
Demonstrated knowledge of Section 508, WCAG, and modern accessibility practices.
Experience working within source control and CI/CD environments such as GitLab.
Ability to collaborate effectively with engineering, product, architecture, and mission stakeholders.
Ability to operate independently and establish UI/UX standards in environments where standards may not yet exist.
U.S. Citizenship and ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance.

Nice To Haves

Previous experience supporting DoD, Intelligence Community, federal government, or national security customers.
Experience developing software within AWS Commercial, AWS GovCloud, IL2–IL5, or other regulated cloud environments.
Experience with the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS).
Experience designing interfaces for highly technical users, analysts, operators, engineers, or mission personnel.
Experience with data visualization, analytics, geospatial applications, workflow management, or large-scale data platforms.
Experience working in Agile, DevSecOps, platform engineering, or product-centric software development environments.
Familiarity with developer workspace technologies such as Coder, LiveVMs, or similar cloud development environments.
Understanding of API-driven architectures, microservices, and modern enterprise platform development.
Active Secret, Top Secret, or TS/SCI clearance is a plus but is not required.

Responsibilities

Own the end-to-end user experience across multiple enterprise applications and platform capabilities.
Translate complex technical, operational, and data-driven workflows into intuitive and efficient user experiences.
Develop user journeys, wireframes, interaction models, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs.
Establish clear UI/UX standards that improve usability, consistency, navigation, and overall platform adoption.
Balance modern commercial design practices with the unique requirements of government and DoD users.
Design and develop production-ready frontend components using modern technologies including React, Astro, TypeScript, and Tailwind CSS.
Work directly with engineering teams to translate designs into scalable, reusable, and maintainable application components.
Build user interfaces that integrate effectively with API-first and service-oriented architectures.
Ensure frontend implementations are responsive, performant, modular, and maintainable.
Participate in code reviews and contribute directly to frontend architecture and development standards.
Architect, build, maintain, and govern a unified enterprise design system.
Establish reusable components, interaction patterns, typography, styling standards, and design tokens.
Integrate modern component libraries such as Shadcn, Radix UI, MUI, or similar frameworks where appropriate.
Harmonize modern platform aesthetics with government standards, including the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS) where applicable.
Drive adoption of common UI components and standards across multiple development teams and applications.
Serve as the organization's UI accessibility lead and advocate.
Ensure user interfaces meet applicable Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility requirements.
Incorporate accessibility into design and development standards from the beginning of the development lifecycle.
Conduct or support accessibility testing, remediation, and continuous improvement.
Educate developers and product teams on accessible design and development practices.
Work with Product Owners, technical teams, and end users to understand mission workflows and user needs.
Establish practical feedback loops that allow the organization to continuously improve usability.
Conduct usability evaluations, prototype testing, and user feedback sessions.
Use qualitative and quantitative feedback to identify friction points and recommend improvements.
Advocate for the user while balancing mission requirements, technical constraints, security, and delivery timelines.
Partner closely with Software Architects, Product Owners, Backend Engineers, DevOps teams, and other technical stakeholders.
Ensure UI/UX decisions are technically feasible and aligned with platform architecture.
Provide guidance on frontend engineering and user experience decisions.
Identify inconsistencies, establish standards, and help drive adoption across engineering teams.
Help establish a culture in which user experience, accessibility, and visual consistency are treated as core product capabilities.