Lead User Experience Design Specialist

Lead UX Designer

Baltimore, MD (Onsite) only Locals

Duties and Responsibilities:

Lead UX strategy and design activities for the OIT program and related applications.

Support the Launchpad process, including development of user-centered requirements, UX artifacts, workflows, and supporting documentation.

Conduct user research, stakeholder interviews, workshops, and usability assessments to understand user needs and pain points.

Develop user journeys, personas, process flows, information architecture, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs.

Translate business and technical requirements into intuitive, accessible, and user-centered experiences.

Facilitate design sessions with business users and technical teams to validate proposed solutions.

Establish UX design standards and patterns that can be consistently applied across DGS applications.

Ensure designs comply with ADA/accessibility requirements and applicable State of Maryland standards.

Collaborate with product owners, business analysts, developers, architects, and project managers throughout the product lifecycle.

Review vendor and implementation-partner deliverables to ensure UX requirements and design standards are met.

Provide UX input into product roadmaps, solution decisions, enhancements, and prioritization.

Identify usability risks and recommend improvements before solutions move into development or production.

Maintain UX documentation and design artifacts as a central source of truth.

Support user acceptance testing and incorporate user feedback into iterative design improvements.

Ensure UX decisions are based on measurable user and business outcomes rather than technology alone.

Provide knowledge transfer and continuity as external UX resources transition off the project.

Education and Years of Experience:

Bachelor's degree in UX Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Interaction Design, Information Architecture, Computer Science, or a related field.

8+ years of experience in UX/UI design, product design, or a related discipline.

Required Qualifications:

Bachelor's degree in UX Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Interaction Design, Information Architecture, Computer Science, or a related field.

8+ years of experience in UX/UI design, product design, or a related discipline.

Experience leading UX design activities for large-scale enterprise or government applications.

Strong experience with user research, journey mapping, wireframing, prototyping, and usability testing.

Experience working in Agile/product-development environments.

Strong understanding of accessibility and user-centered design principles.

Experience collaborating with business stakeholders, technical teams, vendors, and senior leadership.

Strong communication, facilitation, and presentation skills.

Ability to translate complex business processes into simple and intuitive user experiences.

Preferred Qualifications:

Delivery management experience

Experience with government, ERP, or other enterprise systems.

Experience with State of Maryland or other public-sector IT projects.

Experience with design tools such as Figma, Adobe XD, Sketch, or equivalent.

Experience establishing UX standards/design systems for enterprise applications.

Experience working with accessibility standards such as WCAG and ADA compliance.

Core Competencies

The UX Design Lead will be expected to produce and maintain:

User personas and stakeholder profiles

Current-state and future-state user journey maps

User flows and process maps

Wireframes and prototypes

High-fidelity UI designs

Usability testing plans and findings

UX requirements and acceptance criteria

Accessibility assessments

UX/design standards and patterns

Launchpad UX documentation

Design decision documentation

User research and feedback summaries

UX recommendations for future product enhancements