Agile Six is a people-first, remote-work company that serves shoulder-to-shoulder with federal agencies to find innovative, human-centered solutions. We build better by putting people first. We are animated by our core values of Purpose, Wholeness, Trust, Self-Management and Inclusion. We deliver our solutions in autonomous teams of self-managed professionals (no managers here!) who genuinely care about each other and the work. We know that’s our company’s purpose – and that we can only achieve it by supporting a culture where people feel valued, self-managed, and love to come to work.

The Role

Agile Six is looking for a Senior UX Researcher / Designer for the Department of Veteran Affairs Veteran and Family Member Program. This team’s goal is to provide a seamless status tool for VFMP applications that enhances transparency, reduces delays, and decreases call center volume through efficient and automated processes. The tool shall provide a place where VFMP beneficiaries can reliably receive timely updates on their application status, receive requests for supporting documentation and submit needed supporting documents.

This Senior UX Researcher / Designer will have a breadth of UX knowledge with technical expertise in user research including discovery, synthesis, and documentation. This role entails collaborating with our team to design and implement highly complex, cross-disciplinary projects for government agencies and the people they serve, including context switching across a variety of products in our portfolio as required.

Among your responsibilities will be to communicate your research and design vision to both team members and key stakeholders at the VA. You have an adaptive, empathetic and collaborative mindset, and care deeply about team dynamics. Most importantly, you have a passion for working on important problems that have a lasting impact on millions of users and make a difference in our government!

Please note that this is a Key Personnel role, as stipulated by our contract, considered "essential to work performance". The resumes of Key Personnel are subject to government review and approval, and any changes to Key Personnel (such as voluntary or involuntary separation) may require government oversight.

Please note, this position is anticipated, pending contract award response.

Responsibilities

• Lead user research efforts across a variety of research methodologies such as user interviews, heuristic evaluations, generative research, tree testing, card sorting and design thinking workshops. Own the research process, including discovery, synthesis, documentation, and communication.
• Communicate potential costs and tradeoffs of different processes and research approaches while working with incomplete requirements.
• Stay up to date on emerging practices and technologies that support UX, and share these with the larger UX community at Agile Six when opportunities arise.
• Clearly articulate your thought processes through verbal and written explanation, whiteboard, sketching, or quick mock-ups to small or large groups.
• Create design deliverables at all levels of fidelity throughout the process, from early sketches to low fidelity wireframes to high fidelity prototypes.
• If VA: Use the VA Design System and design with repeatable patterns across the portfolio. Collaborate with the Design System team when necessary around iteration and improvement of design system components.
• Collaborate with the product manager and engineers to ensure implementation matches intent across all design components.
• Keep UX work in sync with the product roadmap and flag delays or issues in research and design. Collaboratively create and evolve user stories and acceptance criteria with the product owner and wider Scrum team.
• Work with team to identify and integrate AI-powered tools and services into the software design and development lifecycle to improve the efficiency and/or quality of UX deliverables and production code. Example services include, but are not limited to, Vercel V0, Dovetail, Figma AI tools and GitHub Copilot.
• Communicate and collaborate with stakeholders and team members across a range of disciplines.
• Support the practice of design and research within the larger company as needed through activities such as:
  • Assisting in outreach, recruitment, and hiring efforts
  • Occasionally participating in or otherwise supporting business development efforts, including code or design challenges, writing or reviewing proposal responses, etc.
  • Participating in communities of practice
• We expect the responsibilities of this position to shift and grow organically over time, in response to considerations such as the unique strengths and interests of the selected candidate and other team members and an evolving understanding of the delivery environment.

Basic qualifications

• 7+ years of experience working as UX researcher / designer or related position in collaboration with digital product teams (enterprise environment a plus)
• Ability to be autonomous, take initiative, and effectively communicate status and progress
• Portfolio illustrating your process and samples of native product design work driven by quantitative and qualitative user research
• Understand human-centered design, interaction design fundamentals, and UI design and research best practices, including accessibility
• Proficient in Figma and modern prototyping tools
• Experience successfully collaborating with cross-functional partners and other designers and researchers, seeking and providing feedback in an Agile environment
• Experience experimenting with and/or utilizing AI tools and services to design and create software, and a strong willingness to leverage AI where appropriate to improve outcomes
• Adaptive, empathetic, collaborative, and holds a positive mindset
• Has lived and worked in the United States for 3 out of the last 5 years
• Some of our clients may request or require travel from time to time. If this is a concern for you, we encourage you to apply and discuss it with us at your initial interview

Additional desired qualifications

• Familiarity with the US Web Design System
• Familiarity with Section-508 and WCAG 2.1AA Accessibility requirements, standards, and testing tools
• Experience developing knowledge of complex domain and systems
• Experience working with government agencies
• Ability to work across multiple applications, components, languages, and frameworks
• Experience working in a cross-functional team, including research, design, engineering, and product
• You are a U.S. Veteran. As a service-disabled veteran-owned small business, we recognize the transition to civilian life can be tricky, and welcome and encourage Veterans to apply

At Agile Six, we are committed to building teams that represent a variety of backgrounds, perspectives, and skills. Even if you don't meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply. We’re eager to meet people who believe in our mission and who can contribute to our team in a variety of ways.

Salary and Sixer Benefits

 

As a small organization and government contractor, the roles we hire for depend on the contracts we hold and the funding available. Salaries at Agile Six are tied to predefined peer groups based on the staffing plans we sell to clients. People in the same peer group are paid within 2.5% of the peer group’s salary mean, even when their project work differs.

We post fixed, non-negotiable salaries so that you know what to expect, and to remove the bias and inequity that often show up in salary negotiations. We also periodically raise the salary of all Sixers to keep pace with market conditions.

For more information about our Pay and Equity practices, please contact our Recruitment team.

 

The salary for this position is $140,532.

Our benefits are designed to reinforce our core values of Wholeness, Self Management and Inclusion. The following benefits are available to all employees. We respect that only you know what balance means for your life and season. While we offer support from coaches, we expect you to own your wholeness, show up for work whole, and go home to your family the same. You will be seen, heard and valued. We expect you to offer the same for your colleagues, be kind (not controlling), be caring (not directive) and ready to participate in a state of flow. We mean it when we say “We build better by putting people first”.

All Sixers Enjoy:

• Self-managed work/life balance and flexibility
• Competitive salary 
• Employee Stock Ownership (ESOP) for all employees!
• 401K matching
• Medical, dental, and vision insurance
• Employer paid short and long term disability insurance
• Employer paid life insurance
• Self-managed and generous paid time off
• Paid federal holidays and two floating holidays
• Paid parental leave
• Self-managed professional development spending
• Self-managed wellness days

Hiring practices

Agile Six is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to any factor protected by applicable federal, state or local laws.

Note: We participate in E-Verify. Upon hire, we will provide the federal government with your Form I-9 information to confirm that you are authorized to work in the U.S. Unfortunately, we are unable to sponsor visas at this time.

If you need assistance or reasonable accommodation in applying for any of these positions, please reach out to [email protected]. We want to ensure you have the ability to apply for any position at Agile Six.

Please read and respond to the application questions carefully. Interviews are conducted on a rolling basis until the position has been filled.