UX Designer

Aretum•McLean, VA

22h•Remote

About The Position

Aretum is seeking a highly skilled and motivated UX Designer to join our team. As a UX Designer, you'll employ user-centered design principles to complete the end-to-end design process. The focus for this position is creating wireframes and prototypes working within a design system. Additionally, you will perform usability testing and accessibility audits to ensure that the end products meet user needs and expectations. Due to the nature of our work as a federal consulting organization, employees may be expected to handle Controlled Unclassified Information (CUI) and must adhere to applicable safeguarding and compliance requirements.

Requirements

5 years of applicable experience
Bachelor's degree in Human-Computer Interaction, Graphic Design, Computer Science, or a related field (or 3 years of additional experience)
Proficiency in UX design tools, including Figma (preferred), Sketch, Adobe XD, or similar, with hands-on experience in creating wireframes, prototypes, and design systems
Strong expertise in user-centered design (UCD) processes, including discovery (e.g., user research, stakeholder interviews, competitive analysis), definition (e.g., personas, journey maps, problem statements), ideation (e.g., workshops, brainstorming), prototyping, and validation (e.g., usability testing)
Expertise with accessibility standards, particularly Section 508 compliance and WCAG guidelines, with experience conducting accessibility audits and ensuring inclusive designs
Familiarity with front-end technologies such as HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Angular, and Bootstrap for implementing and integrating designs into development workflows
Experience collaborating in cross-functional teams, including developers, architects, and federal stakeholders, with excellent communication skills for presenting designs, facilitating workshops, and documenting processes
Solid understanding of agile methodologies (SCRUM, SAFe) and tools like Jira and Confluence, with the ability to participate in sprint ceremonies and adapt to iterative development
Ability to create and maintain design documentation, such as user research reports, summary docs for UCD phases, and design system libraries
Applicants must be U.S. citizens or currently authorized to work in the United States on a full-time basis.
This position supports a federal government contract and requires the ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust or Suitability Determination, depending on the agency’s background investigation requirements.
Sponsorship is not available.

Nice To Haves

Experience with federal government contracts, including compliance with FAR regulations, ATO processes, and working on mission-critical systems or regulatory platforms
Certification in UX/UI design (e.g., Nielsen Norman Group), Agile (e.g., Certified ScrumMaster), or accessibility (e.g., IAAP CPACC)
Certification, coursework, or workshops in UX accessibility
Background in content-heavy enterprise systems, with skills in advanced prototyping tools or DesignOps practices
Proficiency in mentoring teams on UX best practices and contributing to large-scale design systems

Responsibilities

Conduct user research through interviews, surveys, and data analysis to gather insights from end-users, stakeholders, and existing data
Identify opportunities, requirements, and constraints to inform design decisions, following a user-centered design (UCD) process
Create wireframes, storyboards, process flows, and interactive prototypes to visualize solutions for applications/system features
Coordinate, define, design and maintain Design System components, libraries, utilities, and patterns
Ensure consistency across projects by implementing shared UX templates and global components
Work closely with SCRUM teams, federal Product Owners, developers, and other stakeholders to ideate solutions, address pain points, and refine designs through iterative feedback
Participate in Agile ceremonies like sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospectives
Perform usability testing, accessibility audits, and validation sessions to evaluate designs, iterating based on user feedback
Ensure all deliverables comply with Section 508 (Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. 794d) and WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards for intuitive, efficient user experiences
Maintain robust documentation, demos, and the Design System website/Figma toolkit library
Advise teams on best practices for using design system components and enterprise features
Support cross-functional agile development in a SAFe framework, contributing to program increments, roadmaps, and velocity goals
Mentor SCRUM teams on UX-related topics, promote user-centered principles, and contribute to continuous improvement in DesignOps processes