UX Product Lead

UX Product Lead

At Agile Defense, we know that action defines the outcome and new challenges require new solutions. That's why we always look to the future and embrace change with an unmovable spirit and the courage to build for what comes next. Our vision is to bring adaptive innovation to support our nation's most important missions through the seamless integration of advanced technologies, elite minds, and unparalleled agility-leveraging a foundation of speed, flexibility, and ingenuity to strengthen and protect our nation's vital interests.

Requisition: 1019

Title: UX Product Lead

Clearance: Secret/Top Secret clearance

Location: Arlington, VA

Overview: As a UX Lead at Agile Defense, you will be responsible for guiding the strategy, design direction, and team execution of user-centered design efforts. This role combines leadership, mentorship, and hands-on UX practice to drive the delivery of thoughtful, accessible, and mission-aligned digital solutions that support data, analytics, and AI adoption within the Department of Defense (DoD). You will lead a cross-functional team of UX practitioners, collaborating with product managers, data scientists, software engineers, and stakeholders to define vision, establish design standards, and ensure delivery excellence across Combatant Commands and Joint Staff engagements. This role requires strong leadership capabilities, a deep understanding of UX strategy and systems thinking, and the ability to guide teams through ambiguity to delivery. You'll operate at both strategic and tactical levels, elevating design quality, mentoring team members, and directly contributing to key research and design activities as needed.

Responsibilities/Duties:

Objective 1: Provide Strategic UX Leadership Across Multi-Team Environments

• Guide the development and alignment of UX vision, design standards, and delivery strategy across ADA and IR teams.
• Partner with program and technical leadership to ensure design efforts are aligned with product and mission objectives.
• Promote adoption of scalable, user-centered design practices in an Agile environment using SAFe or similar frameworks.
• Act as the primary advocate for UX within the program, maintaining high standards of quality and accessibility.

Objective 2: Lead and Mentor a Cross-Functional UX Team

• Provide day-to-day direction, coaching, and professional development for UX researchers, interaction designers, and service designers.
• Facilitate team rituals such as critiques, working sessions, and retrospectives to support continuous improvement.
• Support performance feedback, growth planning, and onboarding of new UX team members.
• Foster a psychologically safe team environment that reflects Agile Defense's 6H values: Happy, Helpful, Honest, Humble, Hungry, and Hustle.

Objective 3: Drive Human-Centered Research and Discovery Activities

• Oversee and participate in discovery and research planning to understand complex user environments and mission workflows.
• Facilitate stakeholder interviews, usability testing, co-creation workshops, and field research to gather actionable insights.
• Ensure research activities are structured to inform both immediate product design and longer-term service delivery strategies.
• Advocate for ethical research practices and prioritize accessibility throughout the research lifecycle.

Objective 4: Ensure High-Quality Design Execution from Concept to Delivery

• Guide the creation of design artifacts including journey maps, wireframes, interactive prototypes, service blueprints, and UI specifications.
• Review and provide actionable feedback on design deliverables to ensure cohesion, usability, and alignment with mission goals.
• Collaborate with developers and product teams to translate research and design into functional, user-centered solutions.
• Participate in program increment planning and sprint reviews to integrate design effectively within agile workflows.
• Facilitate the "conception though completion" of large-scale digital products, in conjunction with Product teams that can be composed of Engineering, web applications and UX Design.

Objective 5: Communicate Value of UX and Build Design Maturity

• Serve as a liaison between design and non-design stakeholders, translating user insights into business value and mission relevance.
• Create compelling design presentations and narratives to advocate for research findings and product recommendations.
• Support program-level reporting, documentation, and measurement of UX impact through defined KPIs and qualitative feedback loops.
• Contribute to internal design community efforts, sharing best practices, templates, and thought leadership.

Required Skills/Qualifications:

• The ideal candidate will have a strong background in UX and UI design, and extensive experience designing end to end experiences for native applications.
• Driving end-to-end product design by working with researchers to understand customer needs and define opportunities through usability studies and analyzing data trends.
• Ability to collaborate with development teams to ensure design implementation meets high quality standards.
• At least 5 years of experience with UX/UI design.
• At least 5 years of experience designing end to end native experiences.
• At least 5 years of experience with design and prototyping tools.
• At least 3 years of experience working with cross-functional teams and managing partner relationships.

About Us:

Agile Defense delivers IT strategy, cloud, cybersecurity, application, data and analytics, enterprise IT, intelligence analysis, and mission operation support services to accelerate technical performance and efficiency for Defense, Civilian, and National Security & Federal Law Enforcement clients. Employees of Agile Defense are our number one priority, and the importance we place on our culture here is fundamental. Our culture is alive and evolving, but it always stays true to its roots. Here, you are valued as a family member, and we believe that we can accomplish great things together. Agile Defense has been highly successful in the past few years due to our employees and the culture we create together. What makes us Agile? We call it the 6Hs, the values that define our culture and guide everything we do. Together, these values infuse vibrancy, integrity, and a tireless work ethic into advancing the most important national security and critical civilian missions. It's how we show up every day. It's who we are. We also believe in supporting our employees by offering a competitive and comprehensive benefits package. To explore the benefits we offer, please visit our website under the Careers section.

Happy - Be Infectious. Happiness multiplies and creates a positive and connected environment where motivation and satisfaction have an outsized effect on everything we do.

Helpful - Be Supportive. Being helpful is the foundation of teamwork, resulting in a supportive atmosphere where collaboration flourishes, and collective success is celebrated.

Honest - Be Trustworthy. Honesty serves as our compass, ensuring transparent communication and ethical conduct, essential to who we are and the complex domains we support.

Humble - Be Grounded. Success is not achieved alone, humility ensures a culture of mutual respect, encouraging open communication, and a willingness to learn from one another and take on any task.

Hungry - Be Eager. Our hunger for excellence drives an insatiable appetite for innovation and continuous improvement, propelling us forward in the face of new and unprecedented challenges.

Hustle - Be Driven. Hustle is reflected in our relentless work ethic, where we are each committed to going above and beyond to advance the mission and achieve success.

Equal Opportunity Employer/Protected Veterans/Individuals with Disabilities