Product Designer at Skyward

We need a Product Designer. Do you get a little thrill from turning a tangle of requirements and research into a screen so clean it feels obvious? The kind where users just… get it? Are you the designer who sweats the spacing, the hierarchy, and the one-word label that makes a confusing flow finally click? You lead with craft, you back it with evidence, and you’re not happy until the pixels earn their place.

• Design the experience. Own the UX and UI for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service’s (CMS) enterprise AI platform, and for CMS’s AI products, from concept to polished, high-fidelity, USWDS-aligned designs in Figma that are intuitive, elegant, and ready to build.
• Make it tangible fast. Move from sketches to wireframes to interactive prototypes, iterating quickly so stakeholders can see and feel the solution, not just read about it.
• Build and extend the design system. Create and maintain reusable components, patterns, and standards so the product stays consistent and scalable as it grows.
• Design with evidence. Plan and run lightweight research (usability sessions, interviews, feedback loops) and fold what you learn straight back into the design (design-primary, research-informed).
• Map the experience. Build user flows, journey maps, and service blueprints that show how people move through AI services and where the friction lives.
• Make accessibility non-negotiable. Design to Section 508 and WCAG from the first frame so what ships works beautifully for every user.
• Partner across the team. Work shoulder-to-shoulder with engineers, the AI team, and CMS stakeholders in a badgeless, one-team culture, handing off designs that developers love to build.

• A bachelor’s degree and 5+ years in UX/product design (with hands-on research exposure) or a closely related field.
• A standout portfolio that shows strong visual and interaction design — real products you took from concept to polished, shipped UI.
• Deep Figma fluency: high-fidelity design, prototyping, and building/maintaining design systems and component libraries.
• A solid grasp of UX fundamentals: information architecture, interaction patterns, and usability principles, plus the ability to run lightweight research to validate your work.
• Familiarity with the USWDS and federal CX mandates.
• Genuine accessibility awareness. 508 and WCAG are part of how you design, not an afterthought.
• Deep research chops to complement your design. You can lead the discovery as confidently as the design.

• Front-end familiarity (HTML/CSS, or designing closely with React teams) so your handoffs are build-ready.
• Experience designing data-heavy or AI-driven products (dashboards, search, chat, or knowledge tools).
• You previously supported CMS or another federal agency.

Even if you don’t meet 100% of the qualifications, we encourage you to apply. At Skyward, we’re focused on hiring individuals with the right skills and passion to grow, not just checking off every box.