UX Researcher (MDC/AICES)

Team: MDC

Location: Vienna, VA, Washington, DC

Commitment: Full-time

Workplace Type: hybrid

Salary:

Position Overview

SteerBridge is seeking a UX Researcher with product design and prototyping capability to support the Modern Disability Claims (MDC) team and the continued development of AICES, the Artificial Intelligence Claims Evaluation System. This is a hybrid role based in the United States, with a possible remote opportunity depending on experience.

This role focuses on understanding how people review claims, navigate evidence, complete medical evaluation tasks, and respond to system-generated information. You will plan and conduct studies, synthesize findings, and translate insights into wireframes or prototype concepts that teams can evaluate with users before development. You will work alongside designers, engineers, product stakeholders, and claims and medical evaluation subject-matter experts to shape usable, accessible workflows.

AICES brings together claim information, evidence, forms, and system outputs. Research must account for the different goals, permissions, and information needs of claims reviewers, medical providers, power users, and administrators, and show whether users can trace information to its source, review or correct system-generated findings, manage exceptions, and complete their work with confidence. AICES supports medical disability examination and claims evaluation workflows, including:

• Claims intake and information organization
• Evidence review and source traceability
• Medical evaluation and DBQ-related workflows
• Review of system-generated findings and supporting information
• Case status, exceptions, and administrative workflows

This work matters because these tasks affect Veterans and their claims. Success means research directly informs product decisions and delivery priorities, and the product is accessible and trustworthy, with evidence sources, system behavior, and review actions clear to the users responsible for them.

Key Responsibilities

• Plan and conduct qualitative and quantitative user research, including interviews, contextual inquiry, surveys, usability testing, and workflow analysis.

• Study disability claims, medical evaluation, evidence review, and administrative workflows through approved access to users and representative materials, documenting constraints, handoffs, decision points, and user needs.

• Synthesize research findings into prioritized insights and recommendations, developing personas or role profiles, journey maps, task flows, and workflow models as appropriate to inform product decisions.

• Translate research findings into wireframes, interaction models, and low- to mid-fidelity prototypes in Figma that improve complex claims and medical evaluation workflows.

• Collaborate with product designers to refine interaction design, information architecture, and accessibility decisions, validating concepts through iterative testing with relevant user groups.

• Partner with engineers, data teams, Product Owners, and subject-matter experts to align user workflows and operational needs with system architecture and technical constraints.

• Support backlog refinement, design reviews, and design-to-development handoffs through clear research, workflow, and design documentation.

• Conduct domain and comparative product research across disability claims, medical evaluation, federal service workflows, case management, and evidence review tools to inform product strategy alongside primary user research.

Required Qualifications

• Eligibility requirements: U.S. citizenship is required for this position under applicable federal contract requirements. Candidate must also be able to obtain and maintain the security clearance required for the role.

• 3+ years of experience in UX research, human factors, applied product research, or a related field.

• Experience planning and conducting research studies, including participant recruitment or coordination, interviews, workflow analysis, usability testing, and synthesis of findings into actionable recommendations.

• Ability to understand complex claims, evaluation, or operational workflows and translate user needs and research findings into clear product insights and recommendations.

• Experience creating research-informed prototypes and wireframes using Figma or similar design and prototyping tools.

• Experience working in complex enterprise or government software environments and handling sensitive research materials in accordance with applicable access, privacy, and project requirements.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present research findings and recommendations effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience supporting VA, federal health, benefits, disability claims, medical evaluation, or case management programs and systems.

• Experience with enterprise decision-support, evidence review, or similar complex operational platforms.

• Familiarity with complex user interfaces involving document sources, system-generated outputs, review statuses, exceptions, and role-based permissions.

• Experience collaborating with multidisciplinary teams, including engineers, product designers, subject-matter experts, and program stakeholders.

• Experience with UX research platforms such as UserTesting, Qualtrics, or Optimal Workshop and Agile collaboration tools such as Jira.