Product Designer

Skyward is hiring a Product Designer to own UX and UI for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ enterprise AI platform and AI products. The role spans high-fidelity design, prototyping, design systems, user research, experience mapping, accessibility, and collaboration with engineers and CMS stakeholders.

Responsibilities:

• 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

Requirements:

• A bachelor's degree and 5+ yearsin UX/product design (with hands-on research exposure) or a closely related field
• A standout portfoliothat 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 USWDSand federal CX mandates
• Genuine accessibility awareness.508 and WCAG are part of how you design, not an afterthought
• Deep research chopsto complement your design. You can lead the discovery as confidently as the design
• Applicants must have the ability to obtain and maintain a Public Trust security clearance due to the nature of our work as a government contractor
• Front-end familiarity(HTML/CSS, or designing closely with React teams)
• Experience designing data-heavy or AI-driven products (dashboards, search, chat, or knowledge tools)
• You previously supported CMSor another federal agency