Senior UX Researcher - Remote

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Senior UX Researcher

Company: ICF

Location: Nationwide Remote Office (US99)

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: User Experience Research / GTM Operations (indirectly)

Date Posted: 2026-05-05T00:00:00

Experience Level: 5-10 Years Professional Experience

Remote Status: Fully Remote

🚀 Role Summary

• This Senior UX Researcher role focuses on understanding end-users within federal government projects, particularly in healthcare IT (HHS, CMS), to inform the design and modernization of enterprise software applications.

• The position involves conducting comprehensive quantitative and qualitative research, synthesizing findings, and translating complex user insights into actionable recommendations and compelling narratives.

• A key aspect is advocating for user needs and collaborating extensively with cross-functional teams, including designers, writers, and project leadership, to ensure products are simple, intuitive, and effective.

• The role requires a strong understanding of user empathy, product validation through user feedback, and adherence to usability and accessibility standards (WCAG 2.0 Level AA / Section 508).

📝 Enhancement Note: While this role is not directly in Revenue Operations, Sales Operations, or GTM, the insights gained from UX research directly feed into product development and user adoption strategies, which are critical for Go-To-Market success. A strong UX researcher can significantly impact product-market fit, customer retention, and ultimately, revenue by ensuring products resonate with users and meet their needs effectively. The emphasis on data synthesis, actionable insights, and cross-functional collaboration aligns with core operations principles.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Lead the development and execution of UX research plans, from formulating research questions and hypotheses to selecting appropriate methodologies for informing product and user experience decisions.

• Conduct in-depth user interviews, surveys, usability testing, and other qualitative and quantitative research methods to gather insights into user behaviors, needs, and pain points.

• Synthesize secondary research and primary research findings into clear, concise, and actionable insights, creating compelling narratives that drive empathy and advocate for user needs across the project team.

• Collaborate closely with designers, product managers, developers, and other stakeholders to ideate on UX solutions, validate concepts, and iterate on product designs based on user feedback.

• Test solutions for usability and accessibility, conduct feedback sessions, and perform related research to ensure products meet high standards of user satisfaction and compliance.

• Clearly communicate study results and user outcomes in an unbiased manner, leveraging data visualization and storytelling techniques to illustrate the user's journey and impact.

• Support the UX vision and strategy established by project leadership, ensuring alignment with overarching business objectives and client requirements within federal government contexts.

• Contribute to the discovery and development of UX solutions by actively participating in ideation sessions, rapid prototyping, and concept validation activities.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities highlight a senior-level researcher capable of independent project leadership and strategic input. The emphasis on "advocating for customer and user needs" and "translating insights into powerful stories" signifies a critical role in shaping product direction, which indirectly influences Go-To-Market strategies by ensuring product-market fit and user adoption.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

• Bachelor's degree in a relevant field (e.g., Psychology, Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, or related disciplines).

Experience:

• Minimum of 5 years of professional UX research experience.

• 10+ years of overall professional experience is preferred.

• Demonstrated experience working within federal contracting or the healthcare IT industry is preferred.

Required Skills:

• Proven expertise in conducting both quantitative and qualitative UX research methodologies.

• Strong ability to develop personas, conduct user interviews, and design effective surveys.

• Proficient in usability testing and heuristic evaluation methods.

• Experience in synthesizing research data and translating findings into actionable insights and compelling narratives.

• Excellent written, visual, and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present complex information clearly and persuasively.

• Ability to work effectively within an Agile development process, demonstrating quick learning and iterative design practices.

• Understanding of research ethics, including informed consent, PII protection, and NDAs.

• Familiarity with usability and accessibility principles, including heuristic and expert review methods.

Preferred Skills:

• Knowledge of WCAG 2.0 Level AA and Section 508 compliance standards.

• Experience in federal government client environments, particularly HHS or CMS.

• Demonstrated ability to support UX vision and strategy aligned with business objectives.

📝 Enhancement Note: The "5+ years of professional UX research experience" and "10+ years of overall professional experience preferred" indicate a strong need for seasoned professionals. The emphasis on "case studies demonstrating your research process and deliverables" is crucial for operations roles and suggests a need to showcase structured problem-solving and impact. The "Federal public trust" eligibility requirement is a significant screening criterion for government-contracting roles.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• A comprehensive portfolio showcasing a minimum of 1-2 detailed case studies that clearly demonstrate your end-to-end UX research process.

• Case studies should highlight your approach to research planning, methodology selection, data collection, analysis, and the translation of insights into actionable product recommendations.

• Evidence of how your research directly influenced product design decisions, user experience improvements, or helped validate product prototypes.

• Examples of deliverables such as user personas, journey maps, usability test reports, and research findings presentations.

Process Documentation:

• Ability to document research plans, methodologies, and findings in a structured and organized manner.

• Experience in creating clear and concise reports that articulate user needs, pain points, and recommended solutions.

• Understanding of how to integrate research findings into broader product development workflows and Agile processes.

• Documentation should reflect an understanding of research ethics and compliance standards relevant to federal projects.

📝 Enhancement Note: This section is critical for operations roles. The requirement for case studies is a direct parallel to operations portfolios that showcase process improvements, system implementations, and ROI. Candidates should prepare to present their research process as a systematic approach to problem-solving and value creation, similar to how operations professionals would present a process optimization project.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

Benefits:

• Comprehensive health insurance (medical, dental, vision).

• Retirement savings plan (e.g., 401(k) with company match).

• Paid time off (vacation, sick leave, holidays).

• Professional development opportunities, including training and certifications.

• Potential for performance-based bonuses or incentives.

• Access to employee assistance programs and wellness initiatives.

Working Hours:

• Standard full-time hours, typically 40 hours per week.

• Flexibility may be offered to accommodate remote work and cross-time zone collaboration, aligned with project needs and client availability.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary range is based on the provided information and reflects a Senior-level UX Researcher role in the US. The range is competitive for experienced professionals in this field, especially considering the remote nature and specialized federal government domain. Benefits are standard for a company of ICF's size and industry, focusing on employee well-being and professional growth, which are important considerations for operations professionals seeking long-term career stability.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Professional Services, Technology Consulting, Government Contracting, Healthcare IT. ICF operates at the intersection of technology and advisory services, supporting government agencies in solving complex challenges.

Company Size: ICF is a global advisory and technology services provider, implying a significant organizational size with numerous employees and diverse capabilities. This scale suggests robust internal processes and a wide array of project opportunities.

Founded: The company's founding date (not provided) would offer context on its history and evolution, but its current positioning as a global leader in its sectors indicates a mature and established organization.

Team Structure:

• This role is part of a growing team of designers, researchers, and writers focused on federal government clients.

• The team likely operates within a project-based structure, embedded within specific client engagements (e.g., HHS, CMS).

• Collaboration is expected with project leadership, UX designers, content strategists, developers, and client stakeholders.

Methodology:

• The team likely employs Agile methodologies for iterative product development and user experience design.

• Research is conducted to inform product strategy, validate concepts, and ensure usability and accessibility.

• A strong emphasis is placed on data-driven decision-making, using insights from user research to guide product evolution.

• Collaboration and communication are key, with a focus on building empathy for the end-user across all project participants.

Company Website: https://www.icf.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: ICF's focus on government contracting and complex problem-solving suggests a culture that values expertise, rigorous analysis, and measurable impact. For operations professionals, this translates to a structured environment where process, data, and strategic alignment are paramount. The "growing team" aspect implies opportunities for influence and shaping team processes.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This is a Senior-level position, indicating responsibility for leading research initiatives, mentoring junior staff, and contributing to strategic UX direction. It requires a high degree of autonomy and the ability to manage complex research projects independently.

Reporting Structure: The Senior UX Researcher will likely report to a Project Manager, UX Lead, or Director within the federal sector practice. They will work closely with development teams, product owners, and client stakeholders, requiring strong collaboration and communication skills.

Operations Impact: The impact is significant, as UX research directly influences the usability, effectiveness, and adoption of critical enterprise software applications for federal agencies. By ensuring products meet user needs and are compliant with accessibility standards, this role contributes to improved government services, operational efficiency, and client satisfaction. Strong UX can directly reduce support costs and increase user productivity, impacting the bottom line.

Growth Opportunities:

• Specialization: Deepen expertise in specific research methodologies, accessibility compliance, or federal healthcare IT domains.

• Leadership: Transition into UX Lead roles, managing research teams, or taking on program management responsibilities for UX initiatives.

• Mentorship: Guide and mentor junior UX researchers and designers, developing leadership and coaching skills.

• Cross-Functional Roles: Leverage research insights to move into product management, strategy, or client engagement roles within ICF's federal practices.

• Professional Development: Access training, certifications, and conferences to stay current with UX best practices and industry trends.

📝 Enhancement Note: For operations professionals, this growth analysis highlights how senior research roles can lead to broader strategic influence. The ability to translate complex user data into actionable business insights is a transferable skill set highly valued in operations, particularly in areas like customer success, product operations, and strategic planning.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: This is a fully remote position, offering significant flexibility. While ICF has physical offices (e.g., Reston, VA), this role is designated as "Nationwide Remote Office (US99)," meaning work is performed from a home office within the US.

Office Location(s): While the role is remote, ICF has a significant presence in Reston, VA, and numerous other locations globally and within the US. This indicates a large, established company with potential for in-person collaboration if desired or required for specific client engagements, although not mandatory for this role.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Environment: The role requires close collaboration with a distributed, cross-functional team, necessitating strong virtual communication and teamwork skills.

• Tools & Technology: Access to standard remote work tools, collaboration platforms, and UX research software will be provided or expected.

• Operations Team Interaction: While not a direct operations role, the researcher will interact with project teams that implement and manage systems, providing feedback that influences operational efficiency and user adoption.

Work Schedule:

• Standard 40-hour work week is expected, aligning with typical professional services schedules.

• Flexibility in daily hours may be available, dependent on project deadlines and client needs, particularly when collaborating across different US time zones.

📝 Enhancement Note: The fully remote nature is a significant benefit for operations professionals who often value flexibility and work-life balance. The emphasis on collaboration within a distributed team reinforces the need for strong communication and self-management skills, essential for success in remote operations roles.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: A review of your resume and portfolio to assess qualifications and relevant experience.

• Hiring Manager Interview: A discussion focusing on your experience, research philosophy, and fit with the team and ICF's culture.

• Technical Interview/Case Study Presentation: You will likely be asked to present one or more case studies from your portfolio, detailing your research process, methodologies, key findings, and the impact of your work. This is where you demonstrate your problem-solving skills and ability to translate data into actionable insights.

• Team/Cross-Functional Interview: An opportunity to meet potential colleagues and discuss collaboration styles, approach to working with diverse teams, and understanding of Agile methodologies.

• Final Interview: Potentially with senior leadership to discuss strategic alignment and long-term career aspirations.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Structure Your Case Studies: For each case study, clearly outline:

  • The Problem/Challenge: What was the user or business problem you addressed?
  • Your Role & Responsibilities: What specific contributions did you make?
  • Research Questions & Hypotheses: What were you trying to answer?
  • Methodology: What research methods did you use and why?
  • Process & Execution: How did you conduct the research?
  • Key Findings & Insights: What did you learn?
  • Recommendations & Impact: How did your findings influence design/product decisions, and what was the outcome?

• Highlight Operations Relevance: Frame your research process as a systematic approach to problem-solving, similar to operations. Emphasize how your insights led to measurable improvements or validated strategic decisions.

• Data Visualization: Use clear visuals (charts, graphs, user flows) to present data and findings effectively.

• Tailor to ICF: Research ICF's work in federal healthcare IT and tailor your examples to demonstrate relevant experience.

Challenge Preparation:

• Be prepared to discuss your process for handling ambiguous research problems.

• Anticipate questions about how you measure the success of your research.

• Practice articulating complex research findings concisely and persuasively.

• Be ready to discuss your experience with accessibility standards (WCAG, Section 508) and how you incorporate them into research.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on case study presentation is paramount. For operations candidates, this means preparing to showcase projects that demonstrate process optimization, system implementation, data analysis, and measurable business impact, using a similar structured narrative. This section provides a tactical roadmap for candidates to excel in the interview process.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• UX Research Platforms: Tools for conducting user interviews (e.g., Zoom, Google Meet, Miro), surveys (e.g., SurveyMonkey, Qualtrics, Google Forms), and usability testing (e.g., UserTesting.com, Lookback).

• Collaboration Tools: Platforms like Miro, Figma, or Mural for ideation, journey mapping, and collaborative synthesis sessions.

• Data Analysis Software: Proficiency in qualitative data analysis tools (e.g., Dovetail, NVivo) and quantitative analysis tools (e.g., Excel, SPSS, R, Python for more advanced statistical analysis).

• Prototyping Tools (familiarity): Understanding of tools like Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD, or InVision to contextualize research findings within design prototypes.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Experience generating reports and presentations using tools such as PowerPoint, Google Slides, or dedicated data visualization software (e.g., Tableau, Power BI) if applicable to synthesizing quantitative data.

CRM & Automation:

• While not directly managing CRM/automation, understanding how user research findings can impact customer journey mapping and adoption strategies within CRM systems is beneficial. Familiarity with how user feedback influences feature adoption and engagement metrics is key.

📝 Enhancement Note: While this role is UX-focused, understanding the tools used in operations (like CRM, analytics platforms, and project management software) is beneficial for cross-functional collaboration. The ability to integrate UX insights into these systems indirectly enhances operational efficiency and customer engagement.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• User-Centricity: A deep commitment to understanding and advocating for the end-user in all design and development decisions.

• Data-Driven Insights: Reliance on empirical research and data to inform hypotheses, validate concepts, and guide product strategy.

• Collaboration & Empathy: Fostering a team environment where diverse perspectives are valued, and empathy for users and colleagues is paramount.

• Agility & Iteration: Embracing iterative design processes, incorporating feedback quickly, and adapting to evolving user needs and project requirements.

• Impact & Quality: Striving to deliver high-quality, effective, and accessible products that meet client objectives and improve user experiences.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-Functional Integration: Working closely with designers, developers, product managers, and writers in a highly integrated, collaborative manner.

• Open Communication: Encouraging open dialogue, constructive feedback, and transparent sharing of research findings and insights.

• Distributed Teamwork: Adapting to remote collaboration norms, utilizing virtual tools effectively, and maintaining strong communication channels across time zones.

• Client-Focused: Aligning research efforts with client needs and objectives, ensuring that insights contribute to successful project outcomes.

📝 Enhancement Note: The values emphasize a structured, analytical, and collaborative approach, akin to successful operations teams. The focus on user-centricity and data-driven decisions directly supports GTM goals by ensuring products that are well-received by the market.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Federal Bureaucracy: Navigating the complexities and potential slow pace of government projects, requiring patience and adaptability.

• Diverse User Needs: Researching and designing for a wide range of users within federal agencies, who may have varying technical proficiencies and needs.

• Data Synthesis Complexity: Synthesizing large volumes of qualitative and quantitative data from diverse sources into clear, actionable insights.

• Remote Collaboration: Maintaining strong team cohesion and effective communication within a fully distributed, cross-functional team.

• Balancing User Needs with Constraints: Advocating for ideal user experiences while working within technical, budgetary, and regulatory constraints common in government contracting.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Specialized Training: Opportunities to deepen expertise in areas like accessibility compliance (WCAG, Section 508), specific federal IT domains, or advanced research methodologies.

• Mentorship: Learning from senior researchers and UX leaders within ICF's federal practice.

• Project Diversity: Exposure to a variety of federal projects, providing broad experience across different agencies and application types.

• Professional Conferences: Potential to attend industry conferences related to UX, human factors, and government IT.

• Skill Expansion: Developing skills in areas like UX strategy, program management, or client relations through project involvement.

📝 Enhancement Note: The challenges highlight the need for resilience, strong problem-solving skills, and adaptability, which are also critical for operations roles. The growth opportunities point towards continuous learning and specialization, a key aspect of career development in operations.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "Describe a time you had to advocate for a user need that conflicted with stakeholder priorities. How did you approach it, and what was the outcome?" (Focus on data-driven persuasion and stakeholder management.)

• "Walk us through your process for designing and conducting a usability study for a complex enterprise application. What key metrics would you track?" (Demonstrate systematic research planning and measurement.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you about working with federal government clients, particularly in the healthcare IT sector?" (Show research into ICF's mission and client base.)

• "How do you approach building empathy for users when working in a remote, distributed team environment?" (Discuss remote collaboration best practices and user-centric mindset.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Choose Impactful Case Studies: Select 2-3 projects that best showcase your end-to-end research process, problem-solving skills, and tangible impact.

• Tell a Story: Structure your presentation like a narrative: problem, approach, findings, solution, and outcome.

• Quantify Impact: Whenever possible, use data and metrics to demonstrate the success of your research (e.g., "reduced task completion time by X%", "identified Y critical usability issues").

• Highlight Process Rigor: Emphasize the systematic nature of your research and how you ensured unbiased data collection and analysis.

• Address Accessibility: Be prepared to discuss how you incorporated accessibility considerations (WCAG, Section 508) into your research and recommendations.

📝 Enhancement Note: These questions are designed to probe your strategic thinking, methodological rigor, and collaboration skills. For operations candidates, preparing answers that highlight process, data analysis, stakeholder management, and measurable results will be key.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Senior UX Researcher position:

• Submit your application through the provided ICF career portal link.

• Portfolio Customization: Ensure your resume and portfolio are tailored to highlight relevant UX research experience, particularly in enterprise software, federal contracting, or healthcare IT. Emphasize your case studies and their impact.

• Resume Optimization: Clearly articulate your years of experience, specific research methodologies used, and contributions to successful product outcomes. Use keywords from the job description.

• Interview Preparation: Thoroughly prepare for case study presentations, focusing on demonstrating your research process, ability to synthesize data, and communicate insights effectively. Practice articulating your experience with Agile and accessibility standards.

• Company Research: Research ICF's work in the federal sector, their client portfolio (HHS, CMS), and their commitment to user experience and technology solutions. Understand their mission and values.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.

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