Human-Centered Design (HCD) Specialist

Position Purpose

Magpie Health Analytics is seeking a Human-Centered Design (HCD) Specialist to improve digital applications and services supporting the federal health clients. The role focuses on understanding how people use these systems and making them easier to navigate and use.  The HCD Specialist will research user needs, test design ideas, and work with product managers, developers, and customer stakeholders to turn findings into practical improvements.

Primary Duties & Responsibilities

• User Research and Discovery: Plan and conduct qualitative and quantitative user research, including interviews, usability studies, and collaborative discovery sessions, to understand user needs, workflows, and challenges.
• Analysis and Synthesis: Analyze research findings, develop user personas and journey maps, and define problems and opportunities for improvement to inform product and design decisions.
• Design and Prototyping: Develop or contribute to wireframes, prototypes, and other design concepts to explore potential solutions and gather feedback from users and stakeholders.
• Accessibility and Design Standards: Apply Section 508, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG), and U.S. Web Design System standards to support accessible and consistent user experiences.
• Testing and Evaluation: Conduct usability and accessibility testing, including testing with users of assistive technologies, to evaluate proposed designs and implemented functionality.
• Continuous Improvement: Review application usage metrics, help desk trends, and user feedback to assess the effectiveness of implemented changes and recommend improvements.
• Agile Collaboration: Work with product managers, developers, and testers to translate research findings and design recommendations into user stories, acceptance criteria, and prioritized backlog items.
• Documentation and Communication: Document and present research findings, design decisions, testing results, and recommendations to technical and non-technical stakeholders

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Human-Computer Interaction, User Experience Design, Psychology, Information Science, Human Factors, Design, or a related field.
• At least 4 years of experience in human-centered design, UX research, service design, or product design for digital applications.
• Experience with user interviews, usability testing, and journey mapping.
• Experience creating or contributing to prototypes, wireframes, and user flows.
• Ability to turn research findings into design recommendations, requirements, or user stories.
• Knowledge of Section 508, WCAG, and accessible design practices.
• Strong analytical, communication, and collaboration skills.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting CMS, HHS, federal digital services, or healthcare technology.
• Experience with complex web applications, electronic forms, or reporting systems.
• Experience with Figma, Miro, Mural, Lucidchart, or similar tools.
• Experience with Agile or SAFe teams and tools such as Jira and Confluence.
• Experience using product analytics to evaluate design changes.