UX Researcher II

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is enhancing program integrity efforts to combat fraud, waste, and abuse (FWA) within Medicare and Medicaid. The Unified Case Management (UCM) system serves as a centralized application for Program Integrity Contractors, facilitating case tracking, audits, investigations, and workload management. UCM supports coordinated efforts to prevent FWA and ensure compliance through efficient lead management, investigative actions, and reporting. As part of CMS’s modernization initiative, we are transforming UCM into a modern, scalable architecture that enhances performance, security, and usability. This effort includes migrating to cloud-based solutions, improving system interoperability, and adopting cutting-edge technologies to streamline workflows and improve data-driven decision-making. Our goal is to ensure a more robust, efficient, and future-ready platform for program integrity operations.

• Sitting in the customer’s and user’s shoes: you seek to understand and empathize with the users and their goals – their problems are your problems.

• Working with product owners and stakeholders to develop and validate research plans and hypotheses

• Working with qualitative and quantitative methods such as interviews, surveys, card sorting/tree testing, usability testing, etc.

• Scheduling and facilitating user interviews as well as usability testing

• Analyzing research findings to create actionable insights and work with designers to translate them into product features

• Communicating research insights to product owners and stakeholders, contributing to the existing body of knowledge about users of CMS services and products

• Reducing ambiguity in problems through quantitative and qualitative research – you work with your team to go to the source and make sure you truly understand the issues that the providers and customers want to be solved.

• Working with the team to define success metrics to evaluate product performance post-release. 

• Succinctly communicating or demonstrating issues to your team, and leading the thought process of your team to drive toward feasible, viable, and highly-usable solutions.

• Working a part of an agile software development team - you’re a creative thinker and skilled communicator who thrives in cross-functional teams.

• Translating complex policy documents into technical requirements.

• Bachelor’s degree and at least 3 years of experience in service design, UX research, or human-centered design.

• Experience conducting research with technical audiences and translating findings into product requirements. 

• Case study or portfolio that details successful product design work demonstrating sound UX research skills. If you do not have an online portfolio, please submit an accessible pdf that includes case studies and body of work. 

• Previous experience working in Civic Tech

• Experience with Confluence and Jira 

• Experience with CMS a plus

• Proficiency in Figma