Staff Product Designer

Selara is a Veteran-led digital services company that builds modern, accessible software for the public sector. They are hiring a Staff Product Designer to lead product design for VA.gov services, ensuring a user-centered approach that enhances the experience for millions of Veterans.

Responsibilities:

• Own product design for VA.gov experiences end to end, from discovery and research through shipped, measured outcomes
• Plan and run research with Veterans and VA staff, then turn findings into decisions the whole team can act on
• Design within the VA Design System and contribute improvements back to it, so every experience stays consistent with the rest of VA.gov
• Design form-heavy, high-stakes flows in plain language that people can complete under stress
• Treat accessibility as a first-class design constraint and deliver work that meets WCAG 2.1 AA and Section 508 from the first draft, not as a cleanup pass
• Work shoulder to shoulder with engineers, iterating in staging and reviewing built work against design intent
• Set design standards, mentor designers and teammates in user-centered practice, and represent design in program-level reviews

Requirements:

• Significant product design experience, typically eight or more years across research, interaction design, visual design, and content design
• A portfolio of shipped, complex services, ideally forms, eligibility flows, or other transactional experiences rather than marketing surfaces
• Hands-on research skill, including usability testing, synthesis, and the judgment to pick lightweight methods that fit the moment
• Deep working knowledge of accessible design practice and experience shipping to WCAG and Section 508 standards
• Fluency working inside a mature design system and the judgment to know when to extend it
• Strong facilitation, writing, and mentoring skills in a remote, distributed team
• The ability to influence product direction through partnership rather than authority
• Experience designing for VA.gov, another federal agency, or regulated industries like health care
• Familiarity with the US Web Design System or the VA Design System
• Experience with government design review cycles such as design intent and staging reviews
• Comfort reading and lightly prototyping in HTML and CSS