Senior UX Researcher

Job Description: 

Tria Federal is seeking a Senior UX Researcher to lead human-centered research efforts supporting a large-scale federal healthcare quality and payment modernization initiative. 

This role will drive evidence-based design decisions for complex, high-visibility digital services used by hundreds of thousands of healthcare professionals and administrative users nationwide. You will work across multidisciplinary agile teams to ensure products are usable, accessible, equitable, and aligned with real-world workflows in highly regulated environments. 

As part of a mission-focused delivery organization and as a member of Tria’s Human Experience Practice, you will help shape digital experiences that reduce administrative burden, increase transparency, and improve service delivery at national scale. 

This is an opportunity to conduct meaningful research where insights directly influence public-sector policy implementation and digital transformation efforts that affect millions of Americans. 

Must be a U.S. Citizen due to federal security clearance requirements. 

Responsibilities 

• Program Delivery 
  • Lead and execute end-to-end UX research across the product lifecycle, from discovery through continuous optimization. 
  • Plan and facilitate a range of qualitative and quantitative research methods, including: 
  • Usability testing, moderated and unmoderated 
  • Contextual inquiry and workflow analysis 
  • Stakeholder interviews 
  • Surveys and quantitative analysis 
  • Tree testing and information architecture validation 
  • Journey mapping and service blueprinting 
  • Translate complex policy, regulatory, and business requirements into researchable questions and actionable insights. 
  • Synthesize findings into clear, compelling deliverables such as reports, personas, journey maps, and opportunity frameworks that influence product strategy and delivery. 
  • Partner closely with Product Managers, Designers, Engineers, and federal stakeholders to embed research into agile delivery cycles. 
  • Advocate for accessibility, inclusive design, and compliance with Section 508 and WCAG standards. 
  • Ensure research practices meet federal privacy, ethical, and security requirements. 
  • Evaluate AI-enabled features and workflow automation systems for usability, trust, transparency, and human oversight considerations. 
• HX Practice Contribution 
  • As a member of Tria’s Human Experience (HX) Practice, you will: 
  • Contribute to the maturation of Tria’s research and human-centered design capabilities across programs. 
  • Help develop reusable research frameworks, playbooks, templates, and best practices. 
  • Mentor junior researchers and designers across the practice. 
  • Participate in internal knowledge-sharing forums, communities of practice, and capability-building initiatives. 
  • Support proposal efforts, solution shaping, and thought leadership related to human-centered design, AI-enabled services, and digital transformation. 
  • Help position Tria as a leader in modern, AI-augmented human experience delivery within the federal space. 
• Required Qualifications 
  • 5+ years of experience conducting UX research for complex digital products, preferably within federal, healthcare, or highly regulated environments. 
  • Demonstrated experience planning and facilitating diverse research methods from exploratory discovery through usability validation. 
  • Strong experience with quantitative research methods such as surveys, tree testing, and data-informed usability analysis. 
  • Experience working in Agile environments and collaborating within sprint teams using tools such as Jira and Confluence. 
  • Knowledge of accessibility compliance including Section 508 and WCAG 2.1 or higher. 
  • Proven ability to document complex usability and business challenges in clear, intuitive formats for diverse stakeholders. 
  • Strong critical thinking skills with the ability to evaluate alternatives and communicate trade-offs effectively. 
  • Excellent facilitation, storytelling, and stakeholder engagement skills. 
  • Ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust clearance. 
  • U.S. Citizenship required. 

AI-Enabled Research and Design Capabilities, Baseline Requirement 

We are building the next generation of AI-augmented human experience delivery. The ideal candidate will demonstrate baseline proficiency in: 

• Using AI tools to accelerate research synthesis, such as clustering qualitative data, summarizing interviews, and identifying patterns. 
• Leveraging generative AI to draft research plans, usability scripts, survey instruments, and insight summaries. 
• Applying AI responsibly in research workflows while maintaining data privacy, ethical standards, and human judgment. 
• Evaluating AI-driven features and experiences from a usability, trust, transparency, and risk perspective. 
• Understanding emerging AI and agentic experience patterns and their implications for human-centered design. 
• This role does not require machine learning engineering expertise, but it does require comfort operating in AI-enabled environments and curiosity about how AI transforms research and experience design. 

Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience supporting federal healthcare quality reporting, payment systems, or large-scale public digital service programs. 
• Experience conducting research with clinical or administrative healthcare professionals. 
• Experience researching AI-enabled systems, decision-support tools, or workflow automation platforms. 
• Familiarity with prompt engineering concepts for research and design productivity. 
• Experience contributing to ResearchOps, design systems, or internal capability-building initiatives. 
• Experience with tools such as Figma, Miro, Dovetail, UserTesting, Optimal Workshop, Qualtrics, or similar platforms. 

Impact You’ll Make 

• Reduce administrative burden for healthcare professionals through improved usability and workflow alignment. 
• Ensure equitable and accessible digital experiences for diverse user populations. 
• Inform mission-critical decisions through evidence-based insights. 
• Strengthen trust in public digital services by making them simpler, clearer, and more human-centered. 
• Advance Tria’s Human Experience Practice as a leader in AI-augmented, mission-driven experience delivery.