Note: The job is a remote job and is open to candidates in USA. General Dynamics Information Technology (GDIT) is a global technology and professional services company delivering technology solutions and mission services to government, defense, and intelligence organizations. The company is seeking a Principal UI/UX Designer to provide human-centered design, user experience research, and information architecture expertise while leading interface design and collaborating with product and development teams.
Responsibilities
- Provide subject matter expertise in UX design, offering strategic guidance grounded in Human-Centered Design and design thinking methodologies, including user research, personas, journey mapping, prototyping, mockups, and usability evaluation
- Provide subject matter expertise in Information Architecture, defining scalable structures, navigation models, taxonomies, labeling systems, content hierarchies, and information relationships that enable users to efficiently find, understand, and complete tasks
- Create and deliver a User Experience (UX) Research Plan and Outcomes for each use case, which shall include a research write-up documenting goals, anticipated outcomes, research questions, hypotheses, methodology, recruiting needs, synthesis, and next steps
- Facilitate discovery activities, to include generative research with users and business stakeholders, an assessment of current related features, a content review, an information architecture review, an accessibility review, a business process review; and collection of any available data and analytics and provide in a User Experience Research Checklist
- Partner with other Product Teams to ensure that the new tool or service fits into the existing structure
- Collaborate across Product Teams to establish consistent navigation, terminology, categorization, and information structures across features, applications, and services
- Lead the design and development of user interfaces for various applications, ensuring they are visually appealing, user-friendly, and efficient
- Provide clear and actionable interface design specifications to development teams
- Design dynamic forms and other complex UI components, including rich cards and drag & drop features
- Define and maintain UX frameworks and templates for developers to use during the coding process
- Define and maintain Information Architecture standards, patterns, and documentation to promote consistency, scalability, and usability across the product ecosystem
- Apply insights from user experience research studies to describe product functionality, including epics and user stories, as well as operational, business, functional, technical, data, and integration requirements
- Support design synthesis activities and generate insights and opportunities for improvement. Communicate research findings through a variety of formats (such as insight reports, stories, videos, storyboards, etc.) to maximize relevance and impact
- Perform requirements analysis based on User Experience Research, obtaining stakeholder input from internal users and external users
- Develop User Personas to represent user types that have wants and needs of our applications and products, and who might use our applications and products in a similar way
- Create Customer and User Journey Maps and capture related data
- Map user journeys, workflows, content, and system functionality to an overall Information Architecture to ensure individual features support a coherent end-to-end user experience
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including product owners, developers, and other designers
- Conduct usability testing sessions to gather feedback on designs and apply results to refine designs
- Write and edit plain language content for Development Teams
- Establish clear, consistent, and user-centered terminology and labeling conventions in collaboration with UX, content, business, and technical stakeholders
- Design, test, and deliver low- and high-fidelity wireframes, prototypes, and interactive web forms, updating them as needed to support stakeholder collaboration, usability testing, facilitated demos, and iterative design improvements
- Lead user testing sessions and conduct thorough analysis to inform design improvements
- Establish and uphold design standards across project components
- Establish and uphold Information Architecture standards across project components, ensuring consistency in navigation, hierarchy, terminology, categorization, and content organization
- Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure seamless integration of UI/UX designs
- Work with ReactJS, JavaScript, CSS, HTML and Tailwind to develop and refine user interfaces
- Design within a micro-service architecture to create scalable and maintainable solutions
Skills
- Usability Evaluation, Usability Testing Tools, User Experience (UX) Strategies
- 10 + years of related experience
- US Citizenship Required: No
- MA/MS plus 10+ years of general experience in information systems with 8+ years of specialized experience
- HS (16+ years), AA/AS (14+ years), BA/BS (12+ years), Doctorate Degree/Ph.D. (9+ years)
- Familiarity with front-end development and specifically in ReactJS and JavaScript development
- Familiarity with UX, information architecture, content strategy, and best practices in user centered design
- Extensive experience developing Information Architecture for complex enterprise applications, including navigation structures, taxonomies, hierarchies, labeling systems, and information models
- Experience conducting IA research and validation methods such as card sorting, tree testing, content inventories, taxonomy evaluation, and navigation testing
- Experience creating and maintaining IA deliverables such as site maps, application maps, navigation models, taxonomy documentation, content hierarchies, and information architecture diagrams
- Experience with designing software to align to strategic business needs and goals
- Experience in conducting research for advanced technologies to determining how IT can support business needs leveraging software, hardware, or infrastructure
- Experience in Figma or other related design tool
- Experience in usability testing tools
- Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to think critically
- Strong communication skills, with the ability to articulate design concepts and decisions to stakeholders
- Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced environment
- Proven track record of delivering scalable and reliable software solutions
- A portfolio demonstrating expertise in UI/UX design and relevant projects, including experience with Information Architecture deliverables and the organization of complex enterprise applications or digital products
- Proven experience in designing dynamic forms with a strong emphasis on intuitive user experience and efficient design
- Extensive experience in creating CSS cards and drag & drop functionality
- Experience on UX strategy, user researcher, user interviews, surveys, and usability study. Builds personas, user journey map, empathy maps
- Experience on UX analysis to conduct competitive analysis, market assessments and heuristic evaluations
- Experienced in using user feedback to inform UX improvements and guide design decisions
- Extensive hands-on experience in developing and testing wireframes and prototypes
- Detailed knowledge of Section 508 requirements, and experience designing interfaces to be 508 compliant
- Understanding of accessibility considerations related to Information Architecture, including accessible navigation, heading hierarchy, meaningful labels, consistent terminology, and predictable information structures
- Demonstrated ability to generate innovative solutions to complex design problems
- Solid background in defining and maintaining design standards
- Solid background in defining and maintaining Information Architecture standards and governance across large or complex applications
- Experience working with tools like Jira, Confluence extensively for work item tracking and documentation
- Experience working in an agile environment with a knowledge of SAFe
- Understanding of Agile methodologies
- Excellent presentation and communication (oral and written) skills
- Consultant mindset with the ability to work with high level customer stakeholders and build excellent customer relationship
- Experience identifying and applying industry tools, solutions, methods best practices, and emerging technologies
- Strong analytical skills and problem-solving skills with the ability to formulate and communicate recommendations for improvement
- Experienced with process design and documentation methodologies, and design and production of quality deliverables, process and use case modeling, business case development
- Ability to facilitate Information Architecture workshops and alignment sessions with users, stakeholders, product teams, and technical teams to establish shared understanding of terminology, navigation, hierarchy, and application structure
- Ability to clearly communicate and document Information Architecture decisions, rationale, dependencies, and recommendations for both technical and non-technical audiences
- Demonstrated ability to work effectively, independently, and as part of a team
- Strong project management, leadership & meeting facilitation skill with knowledge of Project Life Cycle
- Remote
- Any Location / Remote
- 40
- None
Benefits
- Medical plan options, some with Health Savings Accounts, for all US-based employees
- Dental plan options for all US-based employees
- Vision plan for all US-based employees
- 401(k) plan with the ability to contribute both pre-tax and post-tax dollars up to IRS annual limits and receive a company match
- Full flex work weeks where possible
- Paid time off plans, including vacation, sick and personal time
- Paid holidays
- Paid parental leave
- Paid military leave
- Paid bereavement leave
- Paid jury duty leave
- Typically 15 days of paid leave per calendar year for vacations, personal business, and illness for new employees
- An additional 10 paid holidays per year for new employees
- Up to 160 hours of paid leave in a rolling 12-month period through the GDIT Paid Family Leave program for eligible employees
- Short-term disability benefits
- Long-term disability benefits
- Life insurance
- Accidental death and dismemberment insurance
- Personal accident insurance
- Critical illness insurance
- Business travel and accident insurance
- Remote work
Company Overview