Full-Time

Senior Service Designer

Posted on 11/4/2025

Deadline 10/17/27
Steampunk

Steampunk

501-1,000 employees

Federal software solutions delivering user-focused outcomes

Compensation Overview

$120k - $180k/yr

No H1B Sponsorship

McLean, VA, USA

In Person

US Top Secret Clearance Required

Category
UI/UX & Design (1)
Required Skills
Agile
Usability Testing/Engineering
Adobe Creative Suite
Figma
Sketch
SCRUM
Information Architecture
Graphic Design
Requirements
  • Ability to obtain a U.S. government Public Trust Security Clearance
  • 10+ years of experience in human centered design, service design, and/or customer experience design, translating user needs into concepts, personas, user journeys, information architecture, user flows, wireframes and visual design prototypes
  • 5+ years of experience managing a design team as well as design-related planning, prioritization, and decision making
  • Proficiency in design tools: Sketch, Mural, Figma, InVision, and Adobe Creative Suite
  • Current portfolio demonstrating ideology, methods, tools, skills, and craft
  • Thorough knowledge and demonstrated experience conducting primary and secondary research including stakeholder and user interviews, design-thinking and co-creation workshops and applying those insights to personas, journey maps, process maps, ecosystem maps, roadmaps, stakeholder maps, and service blueprints
  • Ability to think strategically and holistically and connect dots across multiple workstreams, stakeholder groups, and ecosystems
  • Experience working on a scrum team within the Agile delivery framework and experience integrating research and design into technical sprints including writing stories and story pointing
  • Desire to keep pace with ever-changing industry tools and best practices with the ability to make recommendations as needed for the best outcome
  • Experience collaborating within a multi-disciplinary delivery team including UX/UI designers, technologists, data scientists, engineers, solution architects, and change managers
  • A natural curiosity for solving problems coupled with strong analytical skills
  • A collaborative nature with excellent written communication and presentation skills
  • Experience working in a project-based environment
  • Degree or equivalent experience in HCD, and/or service design
  • Previous work experience in or with the federal government
  • Previous work experience as a consultant
  • Experience transforming paper-based processes into and optimized digitally native workflow and experience
Responsibilities
  • Manage the design team as well as design activities related to planning, prioritization, and decision making
  • Lead and conduct user research and usability testing and translate those results into designs that will improve products in an iterative fashion with other designers, product managers, and engineers
  • Participate in all aspects of discovery to understand: client mission and goals; stakeholders, users and their ecosystems; current state journeys; user segments; program and project objectives
  • Conduct workshops and interviews to frame pain points and opportunities; define problem statements and validate hypotheses
  • Lead discovery of user needs into concepts, personas, user journeys, information architecture, user flows, wireframes, and visual design prototypes with other designers, product managers, and engineers
  • Develop low-fidelity and high-fidelity service blueprints and journey maps to visualize end-to-end user experiences, identify pain points, and collaborate with product owners, product managers, other designers, and engineers to shape service improvements that align with user and business needs
  • Facilitate cross-functional collaboration by bridging communication between product owners, designers, engineers, and client stakeholders, ensuring that service concepts are both desirable for users and feasible for technical implementation
  • Design and iterate on service prototyping using Figma and other tools to test, validate, and refine workflows, integrating feedback from usability research, stakeholder input, and real-world testing
  • Ensure human-centered design principles and consistency across service touchpoint and digital experiences
  • Lead user research and stakeholder engagement to gather insights, conduct co-creation workshops, and translate findings into actionable recommendations that enhance service experience
  • Collaborate with product managers, other designers, software developers, and client product owners to ensure that designs are properly implemented, regularly tested with users, and iteratively improved on
  • Balance user needs with product manager priorities and technical feasibility to drive measurable results
  • Provide plain language content strategy to facilitate an easy-to-understand user experience that simplifies complex processes for users who may not be native English speakers
  • Synthesize research and data to communicate insights and make recommendations that will shape mission/program strategy, service and workflow
  • Communicate stakeholder and user needs and collaborate on a cross functional team within an agile environment
  • Understand and embrace the specifications and constraints of a given technology, platform and/or operational environment and understand how research should be integrated into technological considerations
Desired Qualifications
  • Previous work experience in or with the federal government
  • Previous work experience as a consultant
  • Experience transforming paper-based processes into and optimized digitally native workflow and experience

Steampunk helps U.S. federal government agencies deliver digital programs and services. The company partners with government clients, using a startup-style, customer-centered delivery approach to design, develop, and deploy software and services that support mission goals. Its products and work are executed in close collaboration with clients, emphasizing rapid delivery and high-quality user experiences. Steampunk differentiates itself by focusing specifically on federal customers and by embedding client input at every step of the process, from planning through deployment, so outcomes meet user needs and mission requirements at speed. The overall goal is to produce reliable, usable solutions that achieve clear mission impacts for government programs.

Company Size

501-1,000

Company Stage

N/A

Total Funding

N/A

Headquarters

Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Founded

2002

Simplify Jobs

Simplify's Take

What believers are saying

  • $270M Phase III SBIR contract with USDA OCIO through April 2026 expands cloud support.
  • Stefani Shepherd joins as DHS Growth Senior Director; Mike Saliter as HCJ EVP.
  • 10-year STRATUS BOA to 2034 provides long-term USDA revenue visibility.

What critics are saying

  • Booz Allen, Leidos erode Steampunk's STRATUS share within 18-24 months.
  • USDA on-ramp adds competitors to Pool 2 by April 2027, diluting volume.
  • USDA dependency risks 40-50% revenue loss if budget shifts in 24 months.

What makes Steampunk unique

  • Design Intelligence® framework drives USDA cloud migration ROI since 2019.
  • NVIDIA Partner Network membership integrates AI safety guardrails for federal clients.
  • One of 15 unrestricted STRATUS Pool 2 vendors alongside Booz Allen and Leidos.

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Benefits

Professional Development Budget

Conference Attendance Budget

Company News

PR Newswire
May 21st, 2024
Steampunk Awarded Boa On Usda Stratus Program

MCLEAN, Va., May 21, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Steampunk announced today that the company has been awarded a Basic Ordering Agreement (BOA) with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).The BOA was awarded as part of the STRATUS program for cloud integration and development support services. The STRATUS program aims to accelerate cloud adoption by providing rapid access to hyperscale cloud service providers, integration and development service providers, and SaaS providers/resellers. Steampunk was selected for the program's unrestricted portion and has a 10-year ordering period to support USDA's cloud solution objectives."Steampunk is thrilled and honored to continue our partnership with USDA through STRATUS," said Joe Nizhnikov, Senior Vice President at Steampunk. "Over the last four years, Steampunk has had the privilege of working directly with USDA to exploit the power and innovation of cloud computing using our Design Intelligence® delivery framework. Together we have demonstrated the very real business value of cloud-based solutions through cloud migration, modernization, and innovation engagements."Since 2019, Steampunk has supported the majority of USDA mission areas, as well as the Department's Office of the Chief Information Officer (OCIO) Digital Infrastructure Services Center (DISC). Steampunk thrives on producing mission outcomes with capabilities in DevSecOps, Data Exploitation, Digital Platform modernization, Cybersecurity, and Design & Strategy

Homeland Security Today
Apr 16th, 2024
Stefani Shepherd Joins Steampunk as Senior Director of Growth for DHS

Stefani Shepherd joins Steampunk as Senior Director of Growth for DHS.

Homeland Security Today
Apr 13th, 2024
Mike Saliter Takes on Exec VP Role at Steampunk, Inc.

Steampunk, Inc., has appointed Mike Saliter as Executive Vice President for its Homeland, Commerce, and Justice portfolios.

PR Newswire
Mar 14th, 2024
Steampunk Joins The Nvidia Partner Network

MCLEAN, Va., March 13, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Steampunk, a public sector-focused systems integrator with a specialized Data Exploitation practice, today announced it has joined the NVIDIA Partner Network (NPN) as a Solution Advisor: Consultant.Steampunk leverages NVIDIA technology, ranging from GPU hardware and SDKs to pre-trained AI models and scaled inference platforms, to help develop safe and flexible AI applications that meet the changing business landscape needs of its federal clients.Steampunk's Design Intelligence® methodology puts end users and stakeholders at the center by integrating customer experience, efficient program management, and capabilities together - which means end-to-end solutions that bring the highest mission impact."Accelerated computing is paramount in today's technology landscape, and joining the NPN program underscores our commitment to operationalizing AI innovation for our customers' missions," said Sean Dillon, CTO, Steampunk. "Steampunk implements NVIDIA technology to adapt cutting-edge AI models and techniques for federal use cases, helping dramatically improve mission outcomes for all customer stakeholders while enhancing AI transparency," said Anthony Robbins, VP of North America Public Sector at NVIDIA.The NVIDIA Partner Network Program offers a robust set of resources, enabling partners to bring reliable, safe, and scalable AI solutions to customers faster. Steampunk is leveraging NPN resources to help reduce AI development time, incorporate pre-built safety guardrails, enhance predictive and generative capabilities, improve end-user experiences, and drive innovation with its federal government clients.At NVIDIA GTC, a global AI developer conference running March 18-21 in San Jose, Calif., Ryan Simpson, NVIDIA Senior Solution Architect, and Mihnea Birisan, Steampunk Data Exploitation Practice Lead, will co-host a session on Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) and its applications in federal use cases (on March 20th at 1pm EDT). Register to attend NVIDIA GTC remotely or in person here: https://www.nvidia.com/gtc/?ncid=partn-131453About SteampunkSteampunk is a Change Agent in the Federal contracting industry, bringing new thinking to clients in the Homeland, Federal Civilian, Health and DoD sectors. Through our Human-Centered delivery methodology, we are fundamentally changing the expectations our Federal clients have for true shared accountability in solving their toughest mission challenges. As an employee-owned company, we focus on investing in our employees to enable them to do the greatest work of their careers – and rewarding them for outstanding contributions to our growth

PR Newswire
Aug 28th, 2023
Steampunk, Inc. And Steampunk, Holdings, Inc. Win Federal Jury Trial And Are Cleared Of All Allegations Of Pregnancy Discrimination And Retaliation

MCLEAN, Va., Aug. 28, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- On Friday, August 25, 2023, following a five-day jury trial in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria Division), an eight (8) person jury unanimously found that Steampunk, Inc. and Steampunk Holdings, Inc., (hereinafter "Steampunk" or "the Company") had not discriminated against a former employee on the basis of pregnancy discrimination, nor had the Company retaliated against the former employee in violation of federal law.The Company terminated former Executive Vice President and General Manager, Kathleen (Kate) Abrey, in January 2021 for consistent underperformance. In June 2022, Abrey filed a federal lawsuit alleging that her 2021 dismissal was motivated by pregnancy discrimination and retaliation. After deliberating for just two hours last Friday, the jurors unanimously rejected Abrey's allegations of wrongdoing and concluded that Steampunk had not discriminated nor retaliated against her. The jurors returned a verdict in favor of the Company on all counts and the Court dismissed Abrey's case in its entirety.Steampunk CEO, Matt Warren, said "It's very unfortunate, but we had been accused of some very calculated and hurtful things

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