Lead UX Researcher

SMART TECH SKILLS LLC

Lead UX Researcher

Boston, MA
Full Time
Paid
  • Responsibilities

    Benefits:

    Competitive salary

    Location Hybrid: Boston, Massachusetts

    Experience Level Senior Lead Level (8+ years of relevant experience)

    Role Overview

    The Experience Design and Research Lead will lead the application of people-centered design, user research, service design, and experience strategy practices in support of a large-scale eProcurement modernization initiative. This role is responsible for defining and advancing the future-state user experience vision, service architecture, and design strategy while ensuring solutions align with constituent needs, business objectives, accessibility requirements, and technical capabilities.

    The position serves as a strategic partner to product managers, business leaders, architects, technical teams, and vendors, guiding the development of intuitive, accessible, and effective digital experiences that improve service delivery and organizational outcomes.

    Key Responsibilities

    Experience Strategy & Service Design

    Lead experience strategy, service design, and user experience initiatives for the enterprise eProcurement platform

    Define future-state constituent experience vision, experience architecture, and service design strategies

    Align user needs, business objectives, operational workflows, policy requirements, accessibility standards, and technical constraints

    Establish experience principles, standards, and frameworks that guide solution delivery

    User Research & Customer Insights

    Plan, facilitate, and conduct qualitative and quantitative user research activities

    Gather and analyze constituent feedback, behavioral insights, and user needs

    Lead discovery efforts to identify opportunities for service improvements and digital transformation

    Translate research findings into actionable recommendations and design decisions

    Experience Architecture & UX Design

    Develop and maintain experience artifacts including:

    Personas

    Journey maps

    Service blueprints

    Experience models

    Information architecture diagrams

    Task flows

    Wireframes

    Prototypes

    Experience requirements

    Design end-to-end user experiences that are intuitive, scalable, and accessible

    Guide iterative design, testing, evaluation, and refinement activities

    Product & Roadmap Collaboration

    Partner closely with product managers, product owners, architects, vendors, and business stakeholders

    Support product roadmap development and prioritization efforts

    Facilitate design workshops and collaborative working sessions

    Ensure user experience goals are integrated throughout the product lifecycle

    Usability, Accessibility & Quality

    Establish experience quality standards, accessibility expectations, and usability criteria

    Ensure solutions comply with accessibility and inclusive design standards

    Develop experience measurement frameworks and success metrics

    Review project deliverables to ensure alignment with constituent needs and design objectives

    Governance & Stakeholder Management

    Present findings, recommendations, risks, and design decisions to leadership and stakeholders

    Document experience decisions and ensure alignment across project workstreams

    Identify and communicate design trade-offs and implementation considerations

    Build consensus among diverse stakeholder groups

    AI-Enabled Experience Design

    Participate in AI-enabled product and service design initiatives

    Evaluate opportunities to leverage AI capabilities to improve user experiences and business outcomes

    Support design approaches for AI-enabled workflows, automation, analytics, search, and decision-support capabilities

    Ensure AI-powered experiences remain user-centered, accessible, and understandable

    Required Qualifications

    8+ years of experience leading and executing user experience design, service design, and experience research initiatives

    Expertise in people-centered design methodologies and best practices

    Experience in:

    Experience Architecture

    User Experience Design

    Service Design

    User Research

    Interaction Design

    Content Design

    Rapid Prototyping

    Accessibility and Inclusive Design

    3+ years leading experience strategy, experience research, and service design efforts for large enterprise platforms or digital products

    Experience translating research findings and business requirements into:

    Personas

    Journey Maps

    Service Blueprints

    Information Architecture

    Wireframes

    Prototypes

    Task Flows

    Usability Requirements

    Experience collaborating with product teams, business stakeholders, technical teams, and vendors

    Experience working within AI-enabled solution environments and digital transformation initiatives

    Strong workshop facilitation, stakeholder engagement, and consensus-building skills

    Excellent verbal, written, analytical, and presentation skills

    Preferred Qualifications

    Experience with public-sector digital transformation initiatives

    Experience supporting procurement, ERP, financial, licensing, grants, permitting, or other workflow-intensive enterprise systems

    Experience modernizing legacy systems into cloud-based or modular platforms

    Experience working within governance-driven environments

    Familiarity with:

    Accessibility standards (WCAG)

    Inclusive Design

    Plain Language principles

    Privacy and Security requirements

    Records Retention policies

    Public-sector governance processes

    Experience measuring adoption, usability, effectiveness, and customer experience outcomes

    Experience evaluating AI-enabled automation, analytics, reporting, search, and decision-support capabilities

    Experience designing solutions that support multiple user populations, including internal staff, external users, executives, oversight teams, and the public

    Core Skills & Attributes

    Strategic thinking with strong user-centered design expertise

    Deep experience in service design and customer journey optimization

    Excellent research, analysis, and problem-solving capabilities

    Strong facilitation and workshop leadership skills

    Ability to translate complex business challenges into intuitive experiences

    Strong stakeholder management and influence skills

    Ability to balance user needs, business goals, policy requirements, and technology constraints

    Exceptional communication and storytelling abilities

    Strong collaboration across business, product, and technical teams

    Continuous improvement mindset focused on measurable outcomes

    Ability to challenge assumptions constructively and drive innovation

    Commitment to accessibility, usability, and inclusive design

    Ideal Background

    Candidates with experience leading experience strategy and service design efforts for large-scale enterprise modernization programs, digital government initiatives, procurement platforms, ERP transformations, or workflow-intensive business systems will be particularly well suited for this role.