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General information

Job Posting Title
Lead Specialist - Digital UX
Date
Wednesday, July 8, 2026
City
Princeton
State
NJ
Country
United States
Working time
Full-time

Description & Requirements

Maximus is currently seeking a Lead Specialist - Digital UX. In this role, you will be responsible for designing, building, documenting, and evolving reusable experience assets that power consistent, accessible, and human-centered digital experiences across Maximus. 

This role plays double-duty. It leads the creation and maintenance of the Design System Platform and Conversation Design System, and it also paves the way for broader adoption but putting those systems to work by hands-on designing real customer solutions on live programs. The Lead Designer translates strategic direction into scalable assets, component libraries, conversational patterns, and implementation-ready guidance, then imbeds in program teams and applies those same assets to ship program-facing experiences across web, mobile, conversational, voice, and AI-mediated channels. Working closely with the Product Owner, delivery teams, and cross-functional stakeholders, this role operationalizes enterprise experience standards by both building the system and using it to deliver. 

This is a hybrid role based out of our Princeton, New Jersey office location and is expected to be in the office 3 days a week to collaborate in-person with the team.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

- Facilitate the client’s product vision by researching, conceiving, sketching, prototyping, and user-testing experiences for digital products. 

- Create wireframes from user stories, clickable prototypes (Invision), and layered Sketch/XD to be handed off to developers.

- Work closely with the development team and help guide software engineers.

- Design prototypes while closely adhering to style guides.

- Discover user needs, collect feedback, and present findings to stakeholders .

- Collaborate with product managers and other designers to define, prioritize, and solve problems.

- Make strategic design and user-experience decisions related to core, and new, functions, and features. 

- Oversee complex projects and processes.

- Coach and review the work of other professionals. 

- Delegate assignments as needed.

Job-Specific Essential Duties and Responsibilities: 
*Key Responsibilities - Design System Development & Operations 
- Lead and support the creation and ongoing evolution of the Design System Platform in Figma, code kit, and Storybook. 
- Design and maintain reusable components, patterns, templates, design tokens, and interaction standards. 
- Create implementation-ready specifications and documentation for engineering teams. Additionally, partnering with engineers to ensure alignment between design assets and coded components. 
- Manage design system releases, updates, versioning, and documentation practices. 
- Support onboarding and adoption of design system assets across programs and delivery teams. 

*Key Responsibilities - Conversation Design System Development 
- Lead the design and maintenance of conversational experience assets and standards. 
- Create reusable intent structures, dialog patterns, conversation flows, prompt templates, and persona specifications. 
- Develop channel-specific conversational guidance for webchat, voice, SMS, mobile, and AI-powered experiences. 
- Build and maintain conversational pattern libraries and reusable conversation assets. 
- Collaborate with content strategists, researchers, and AI teams to ensure conversational experiences are human-centered, understandable, and scalable. 
- Implement and operationalize conversational standards and frameworks established through capability governance and product direction. 

*Key Responsibilities – Applied Solution Delivery 
- Serve as a hands-on designer on active program and customer-facing initiatives, using Design System and Conversation Design System assets to ship real experiences. 
- Produce end-to-end designs, flows, prototypes, and specifications for program teams, applying and pressure-testing system components in live delivery contexts. 
- Act as the first internal consumer of the systems, surfacing gaps, edge cases, and improvement opportunities discovered during delivery and feeding them back into the roadmap. 
- Partner directly with program design leads, engineers, and product owners to move solutions from concept through implementation and release. 
- Balance time between system development and applied delivery work as prioritized with the Product Owner, without letting either track fall behind. 

Research & Validation 
- Partner with UX researchers and accessibility specialists to validate components, patterns, and conversational experiences through usability testing and research. 
- Translate research findings into system improvements and reusable design guidance. 
- Ensure design assets support accessibility, comprehension, and inclusive design principles. 
- Establish quality standards for components, patterns, and conversational assets prior to release. 

Cross-Functional Collaboration 
- Collaborate closely with the Product Owner to execute capability roadmaps and priorities. 
- Work with engineers to align design specifications with implementation approaches. 
- Partner with content, accessibility, research, and service design teams to ensure systems reflect user needs and business objectives. 
- Facilitate design reviews and working sessions related to component development, pattern evolution, and conversational experience design. 
- Provide mentorship and guidance to designers contributing to the systems. 
Minimum Requirements

- Bachelor's Degree in Design, Computer Science, Anthropology, Human-Computer Interaction, or Informatics Required.

- 7+ years of experience required.

Job-Specific Minimum Requirements: 
- Bachelor's degree in design, Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, Information Architecture, Communications, or related field. Additional years of relevant experience will be considered in lieu of degree.
- 7+ years of experience in UX, product design, service design, content design, interaction design, or related disciplines. 
- Experience building and maintaining enterprise design systems in Figma, VS Code, and Storybook. 
- Experience working with design tokens, component libraries, and developer handoff processes. 
- Experience designing conversational experiences, chatbot interactions, voice interfaces, or AI-assisted user experiences. 
- Demonstrated experience creating reusable design standards, component libraries, pattern libraries, or design frameworks. 
- Strong understanding of accessibility standards and inclusive design practices. 
- Experience collaborating with front-end engineering teams and understanding implementation considerations. 
- Strong communication, facilitation, and stakeholder management skills. 
- Demonstrated experience delivering shipped, customer-facing digital experiences end-to-end, not only system or framework artifacts. 
- Comfortable operating on both sides of the system, building reusable assets and applying them to real programs under delivery timelines. 

Preferred Skills and Qualifications:
- Experience with conversational AI platforms and emerging AI-assisted experiences. 
- Experience developing content standards, plain-language guidelines, or conversational style guides. 
- Familiarity with design operations, system governance models, and enterprise-scale design practices. 
- Experience working in regulated, public sector, healthcare, or citizen-service environments. 

Ideal Candidate Profile 
The ideal candidate is a systems-minded designer who is equally energized by building reusable foundations and by rolling up their sleeves to design real customer solutions on live programs. They move fluently and fluidly between Figma, Github, VS Code, and Storybook component architecture, conversational design, documentation, and applied program delivery. Must be able to work with coding agents for agentic workflows as well as a basic understanding of MCPs.  

They understand how to translate strategy into scalable assets, and they know those assets only prove their value when used to ship. They see applied delivery work as the best way to sharpen the system, and they welcome the responsibility of doing both. 
EEO Statement
Maximus is an equal opportunity employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, religion, sex, age, national origin, disability, veteran status, genetic information and other legally protected characteristics.
Pay Transparency
Maximus compensation is based on various factors including but not limited to job location, a candidate's education, training, experience, expected quality and quantity of work, required travel (if any), external market and internal value analysis including seniority and merit systems, as well as internal pay alignment. Annual salary is just one component of Maximus's total compensation package. Other rewards may include short- and long-term incentives as well as program-specific awards. Additionally, Maximus provides a variety of benefits to employees, including health insurance coverage, life and disability insurance, a retirement savings plan, paid holidays and paid time off. Compensation ranges may differ based on contract value but will be commensurate with job duties and relevant work experience. An applicant's salary history will not be used in determining compensation. Maximus will comply with regulatory minimum wage rates and exempt salary thresholds in all instances.
Accommodations
Maximus provides reasonable accommodations to individuals requiring assistance during any phase of the employment process due to a disability, medical condition, or physical or mental impairment. If you require assistance at any stage of the employment process—including accessing job postings, completing assessments, or participating in interviews,—please contact People Operations at applicantaccom@maximus.com.
Minimum Salary
$
125,000.00
Maximum Salary
$
135,000.00