Senior Service Designer

The role

We are seeking a highly experienced researcher and service designer who is passionate about diving into the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) and Medicare Claims payment system to provide the Government with relevant, timely, and well-informed research pertinent to CMS’ modernization effort. This is not a typical service design role. This position is tasked with digging into a highly complex subject and then finding a way forward to better outcomes, using many processes and approaches. We are looking for a pioneer who is comfortable with nebulousness and establishing requirements based on research. That said, the client and stakeholders ultimately decide what work needs to be done and what gets prioritized. The complexity of the problem space, project, system, and team/project dynamic make this role unique, challenging, and for the right candidate — both exciting and impactful.

The team

The Strategic Design Team for the Medicare Payment Systems Modernization Program (MPSM) is a cross-functional research team supporting the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) modernization effort as it moves a highly complex legacy mainframe system into the cloud. The team’s work informs the strategic technology decision making of those responsible for ensuring that these systems continue to pay $400+ billion in traditional Medicare claims each year. The MPSM Strategic Design Contract is unique. Unlike a traditional software development or UX team where the primary deliverable is a product, the primary deliverable for this team is research. Due to the scope of the problem space and the changing needs of the customer, the team uses agile communication to facilitate a continuous and flexible approach to its research.

Responsibilities

• Collaborate with team members to conduct research across information domains (policy, technical documentation, general knowledge searches, healthcare standards etc.), finding the user in any system.
• Locate, sift through, digest, analyze, and synthesize information from various sources (including publicly available and internal documentation) within a large, continually evolving body of complex domain knowledge around Medicare and payment models, to develop an understanding of complex business problems. Synthesize insights and findings into consumable, informative artifacts for multiple audiences.
• Develop insights to provide statements of functionality and value as they pertain to the CMS payment system.
• Learn and break apart complex subjects. Gain subject matter expertise in, and contribute to solving, specific problems in healthcare/Medicare.
• Advocate for modernization with clients by articulating how and why modernization is critical to problem solving and success over time.
• Advise clients on solutions to challenges by drawing on past experiences and research. Propose tradeoffs, and help clients understand them, so that they can make informed decisions.
• Collaborate with product & program stakeholders to gain an overall view of the work, direction, client goals, barriers, and future plans and understand how those fit together in the long term.
• Proactively consider stakeholder needs; identify and frame value in every research effort, and demonstrate flexibility to use any and all forms of available information to provide stakeholders with critical findings in a timely manner.
• Understand where HCD/UX insight is valuable, and create opportunities for learning both within the team and for stakeholders.
• Work collaboratively with engineers to communicate and discuss technology concepts with developers and system architects. As a team, translate the capabilities and limitations of the code, code base or technology stack to the broader product or project.
• Contribute to the creation of a positive team dynamic, collaborating with your team to build a safe and trusting environment. As such, provide and receive support and guidance through both formal and informal feedback loops.
• Apply a flexible mindset: adapt to the needs of the research and team in ways that may not necessarily be within the bounds of the responsibilities listed above.
• Support the practice of research and design within the larger company as needed through activities such as:
  • Assisting in outreach, recruitment, and hiring efforts
  • Occasionally participating in or otherwise supporting business development efforts, including code or design challenges, writing or reviewing proposal responses, etc.
  • Participating in communities of practice
• We expect the responsibilities of this position to shift and grow organically over time, in response to considerations such as the unique strengths and interests of the selected candidate and other team members and an evolving understanding of the delivery environment.

Basic qualifications

• 8+ years of experience working as UX designer or related position in collaboration with digital product teams (enterprise environment a plus)
  • Without a bachelors degree, 16+ years of field experience is required for this role
  • With an advanced degree, we are able to consider applicants with less than 8 years of experience
• A strong desire to become a subject matter expert in the Medicare space and Medicare payment system
  • Ideally, a deep understanding of Medicare policy and how it relates to CMS systems today
• Experience leading senior stakeholder conversations, presentations, and other communications
• Ability to see and form concepts from details and discussions that support a common understanding across multiple teams and stakeholders of various backgrounds
• Adaptive, empathetic, collaborative and holds a positive mindset
• Ability to be autonomous and take initiative

Additional desired qualifications

• Experience with the government’s approach to and challenges with security, accessibility, architecture, product delivery, data structure and other areas of specialization and how their priorities affect and combine on a technology effort
• Experience with HCD work based in a legacy system and/or HCD work based in CICS/green screen environments
• Product discovery and/or product ownership experience
• Experience working with government agencies
• You are a U.S. Veteran