UI/UX Designer – TS/SCI and polygraph

Onsite - McLean, VA

TS/SCI and poly required

@Orchard is retained by a top geospatial technology company in their search for a UI/UX Designer to work in their Intel sector advancing the national security mission through cutting edge technology.  For this role, you must have a passion for keeping pace with rapidly evolving technology advancements and leveraging your knowledge on a highly collaborative team to deliver state-of-the-art capabilities.  

We are seeking an experienced UI/UX Designer to lead human-centered design efforts for mission-critical applications supporting government users. This role is responsible for end-to-end UX and UI design, from user research and analysis through interaction design, prototyping, and delivery. The ideal candidate brings a strong balance of research-driven UX practice and high-quality visual/UI design and is comfortable operating within the constraints of government environments.

This role works closely with product managers, engineers, and stakeholders to ensure designs are grounded in real user needs, validated through research, and translated into intuitive, accessible interfaces.

Key Responsibilities:

User Research & Analysis

• Plan and conduct user research activities including interviews, usability testing, and feedback sessions with diverse user groups (e.g., analysts, SMEs, managers, data scientists).
• Analyze and synthesize research findings into actionable insights, personas, user journeys, and workflow maps.
• Document research findings and recommendations to support stakeholder understanding and buy-in, particularly in government settings.
• Apply ethical, secure, and compliant research practices appropriate for classified or sensitive environments.

UX Strategy & Design Systems

• Lead UX and UI efforts
• Define, maintain, and evolve design systems and component libraries in collaboration with engineering teams.
• Establish consistent interaction patterns, workflows, and design standards across multiple applications.
• Create service blueprints and end-to-end experience maps to align cross-functional teams.

UI Design & Prototyping

• Develop interactive prototypes using tools such as Figma, Adobe XD, or similar, to explore concepts and validate user flows.
• Produce high-fidelity UI designs that are accessible, usable, and visually consistent.
• Ensure designs align with accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG) and applicable government design guidelines.
• Document interaction behaviors, design rationale, and micro-copy to support implementation.

Skills & Qualifications

• Active TS/SCI clearance with required polygraph
• U.S. Citizenship required
• Bachelor’s degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Psychology, Computer Science, or a related field (or equivalent experience).
• Minimum of 5 years of professional experience in UI/UX design.
• Demonstrated experience conducting UX research, analysis, and synthesis (not UI-only).
• Strong proficiency with design and prototyping tools such as Figma, Adobe XD, or equivalent.
• Experience collaborating closely with product managers and engineering teams.
• Ability to clearly articulate design decisions and research findings to stakeholders.
• Willingness to work onsite full time in McLean, VA.

Preferred Qualifications:

• Portfolio (website, case studies, or work samples) demonstrating UX research methodology, analysis, and UI design quality.
• Experience designing for mission-critical or government systems.
• Familiarity with accessibility standards (WCAG) and inclusive design practices.
• Experience contributing to or managing design systems.
• Familiarity with modern front-end frameworks and design constraints (e.g., component-based development).
• Experience supporting data-heavy or analytical user workflows.

For pay transparency, this role will fall in the $150K- $200K range, based on experience.

Established in 2010, @Orchard has an exceptional reputation, providing talent acquisition solutions to time-sensitive, talent scarcity issues to deliver better talent management ROI.  Our specialty lies in the critical area of program talent acquisition and resource management, not in one narrow skillset, but across many areas of technical and functional delivery. To learn more about our other exciting opportunities, visit our Jobs Page at www.atorchard.com.