Product Designer (1099 Contract) | Active Secret Clearance Required

Role overview

Own product design from discovery through implementation for complex software used in government or operational settings. Working closely with engineers, product partners, and subject-matter experts, you will make dense information and multi-role workflows clear, usable, and accessible, while contributing directly to both design-system development and shipped interfaces. This is a 1099 contract expected to require 40 hours per week; an active Secret clearance and U.S. citizenship are required.

Responsibilities

- Frame user problems and carry features through flows, wireframes, polished interface designs, and implementation review. - Design data-heavy experiences such as tables, maps, timelines, simulation results, and workflows for users with different roles. - Extend a shared design system by creating components, tokens, and variants, and coordinate their implementation with front-end engineers. - Conduct focused research with users and subject-matter experts, adapting to access constraints and turning findings into useful team artifacts. - Design authentication, permissions, empty and error states, and interactions that support auditability. - Build accessibility into designs to meet WCAG 2.1 AA and Section 508 requirements; present design rationale and participate in critique.

Requirements

- Four to five years of product design experience shipping software, supported by a portfolio showing process and decisions as well as final work. - Strong Figma skills, including components, variants, auto layout, and variables. - Experience building and maintaining a design system, including tokens, component APIs, documentation, version changes, and alignment between design and code. - Background designing complex, information-dense enterprise, analytics, logistics, or operational products. - Working knowledge of front-end concepts such as components, state, responsive behavior, and design tokens. - Experience using research, discovery, or competitive analysis to guide product decisions, with strong collaboration and communication skills. - Active Secret clearance and U.S. citizenship.

Nice to have

- A higher-level clearance, experience with defense, government, regulated, or compliance-heavy products, or experience contributing code to a design system.

Benefits and work setup

- The source describes employer-paid health coverage for employees and families, 14 weeks of paid parental leave, and unlimited paid time off with management approval. - Optional retirement savings, flexible spending, and equity incentives are available, along with professional development and mental health support.