Sr. Service Designer/UX Researcher

Important Notice for Applicants:At Bixal, we want to ensure a transparent and secure application process for all candidates. Official communication will come from an email address ending in @bixal.com or from @bixal.na.teamtailor-mail.com. Messages from other sources may be fraudulent, and you should exercise care to avoid any links or attachments included.Bixal will ensure that individuals with disabilities are provided reasonable accommodation to participate in the job application or interview process, to perform essential job functions, and to receive other benefits and privileges of employment. Need Assistance or a Reasonable Accommodation?If you need assistance or a reasonable accommodation to complete your application, we're here to help. Please reach out to us at View email address on click.appcast.io and let us know how we can support you. You do not need to share personal details or disclose the nature of your request. You can expect a response from a team member within 24 hours during the regular work week and on the next operating day during the weekend or holidays.Why Bixal?Bixal is a consulting company headquartered in Fairfax, VA, working alongside governments and organizations to help them deliver better services and experiences to the communities they serve. Using evidence-based knowledge and technology, Bixal empowers clients to deliver on their missions more effectively by fostering a culture of learning and continuous improvement.Our values:People-First: Emphasizing the importance of people in all aspects of work.Collaboration and Transparency: Valuing teamwork and open communication.Growth Mindset: Encouraging innovation and continuous improvement.Creating Lasting Impact: Focusing on meaningful outcomes and positive change.About the role:Bixal is hiring a Senior Service Designer / UX Researcher to join our Developer Experience team on a newly awarded platform engineering contract with the Department of Education's Federal Student Aid (FSA). FSA manages nearly $1.7 trillion in federal student loans and serves more than 45 million borrowers. This contract is building the platform engineering foundation that enables FSA's engineering teams to deliver faster, more securely, and with less friction.You will be the embedded HCD practitioner on a four-person Developer Experience team, working alongside a Technical Product Manager, a Content/Documentation Specialist, and a Software Engineer. Your job is to make the platform something developers actually want to use. You'll map the end-to-end developer journey, identify friction, run sprint-cadence usability testing, and translate research directly into the backlog. The people you're designing for are software engineers and developers, not end users of a public-facing website, and that distinction matters.This is a full-time position. The contract consists of one 12-month base year and four 12-month option years. Applicants must include a link to a portfolio of relevant work.Compensation:The salary range for this role is $125,000 – $130,000. In the spirit of transparency, most offers tend to land near the midpoint of the range. We make compensation decisions thoughtfully, considering your experience, the skills you bring, and our commitment to internal equity. Fairness and transparency are core to how we operate.Responsibilities:Research and DiscoveryMap the end-to-end developer journey from access request through first production deploy, identifying high-friction points at each stage.Plan and execute sprint-cadence user research with FSA engineering teams using methods such as contextual inquiry, usability testing, interviews, and behavioral analytics.Synthesize qualitative and quantitative findings into actionable insights and translate them directly into prioritized backlog items.rack adoption metrics and developer satisfaction (Developer NPS) to measure the impact of improvements over time.Service DesignDesign service blueprints, interaction patterns, user flows, and high-fidelity prototypes for developer-facing products including the self-service portal, onboarding toolkit, and golden-path templates.Deliver design specifications and documentation that reduce implementation ambiguity and improve fidelity between design intent and what gets built.Collaborate with the team’s software engineer to keep the iteration loop tight within a single sprint cadence, ensuring research-backed interaction patterns are reflected in working software.Design responsive, accessible interfaces that account for regulatory and secure interaction requirements without degrading usability.Apply accessibility standards (Section 508, WCAG 2.1) to all developer-facing interfaces and documentation experiences.Contribute to a developer experience metrics dashboard, defining what gets measured and why.Collaboration and Stakeholder EngagementWork closely with the team’s Technical Product Manager to align research priorities with the product roadmap and QASP performance measures.Engage FSA engineering stakeholders to understand their workflows, constraints, and needs, building trust and buy-in for platform adoption.Participate in agile ceremonies including sprint planning, backlog refinement, demos, and retrospectives.Coordinate with adjacent vendor teams and FSA stakeholders to ensure the developer experience serves the broader engineering ecosystem.Qualifications:Bachelor's degree in a relevant field plus at least eight (8) years of experience in service design, UX research, or human-centered design.Proven ability to design intuitive, accessible, and production-ready experiences for complex, multi-step workflows serving large user populations.Demonstrated experience reducing task friction, error rates, and avoidable support contacts through measurable design improvements.Strong capability designing responsive digital experiences and system-driven UI behavior in collaboration with engineering teams.Experience incorporating regulatory, accessibility, and secure interaction requirements into design artifacts without degrading usability.Demonstrated expertise in applied research methods including contextual inquiry, usability testing, journey mapping, service blueprinting, and synthesis of qualitative and quantitative findings.Experience conducting research with technical users, developers, or platform/tool users, and the ability to adapt methods appropriately for that audience.Proven ability to translate research findings directly into prioritized backlog items, high-fidelity prototypes, specifications, and design documentation that reduce ambiguity and accelerate delivery.Proficiency in Figma, Miro or FigJam, or equivalent collaborative design and whiteboarding tools.Familiarity with developer tools and environments (e.g., CI/CD pipelines, portals, documentation systems) sufficient to understand the context developers work in.Strong communication skills with the ability to present findings clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.U.S. citizenship required. Must be able to obtain and maintain a Tier 4 High Risk Public Trust security clearance.Located in Washington DC metro area with the ability to travel to the client location in downtown DC occasionally.Nice to Have Skills and Experience:Experience working on developer experience, internal tooling, or platform-as-product initiatives.Familiarity with the U.S. Web Design System (USWDS), the 21st Century IDEA, USDS Playbook, and other federal design standards.Experience working within FedRAMP, FISMA, or other federal compliance environments.Familiarity with DORA metrics, DevSecOps concepts, or agile platform engineering practices.Prior experience with the Department of Education or Federal Student Aid.How We Support Our Team:Flex hours401K with matching incentiveParental LeaveMedical/dental/vision benefitsFlex Spending AccountCompany provided short-term disability and life insuranceCommuter benefitsPaid Time Off (PTO)11 Paid holidaysOur company is committed to providing equal employment opportunities for all individuals and complies with all applicable federal, state, and local anti-discrimination laws. Employment decisions are based on merit, qualifications, and business needs.