Senior UX Designer

Targeteers at USPACOM work from target development through effects pairing with authority they cannot hand to software. An AI recommendation that is hard to read, hard to question, or hard to overrule makes that work slower and harder to trust, however good the model behind it is. Target Effect Pairing (TEP), built on the Maven Smart System for USPACOM Joint Fires, has to do the opposite.

You lead user research and design for TEP. You run requirements elicitation and task analysis with government targeteers, JFE and JTCB staff, and J32 operators across the capabilities analysis and the commander's decision and force assignment workflows. You turn what you learn into functional requirements, workflow specifications, and interface designs that engineers implement, and you co-author user requirements with the Product Manager/Fires SMEs. You also design the approval gates and human-in-the-loop constraints the technical team builds against.

Your users are experts with little time to spare, they work in secure facilities, and access to them will be limited. Each session has to count.

What Success Looks Like

Objective 1: In the first 90 days, produce a task analysis of the current workflow that operators recognize as their own

• The analysis comes from sessions with targeteers, JFE and JTCB staff, and J32 operators, and they confirm it is accurate.
• Pain points are ranked by operational cost and agreed with the Fires SMEs.
• Engineers know which steps the product should change and which it should leave alone.

Objective 2: Turn research into requirements and designs that engineers build as designed

• Functional requirements and workflow specifications, co-authored with the Fires SMEs, leave engineers no gaps to guess at.
• Data-dense comparison views and geospatial interfaces hold up in usability testing with operators.
• Design rationale is written down well enough that engineers and leadership can see why each choice was made.

Objective 3: Design human-in-the-loop controls that keep every governmental decision with a person

• Approval gates make explicit who decides, at which step, and on what evidence, and the technical team implements them as constraints.
• Analysts can see why the system recommended something, question it, adjudicate discrepancies, and override it, and testing shows they do.
• Leadership and government stakeholders can walk through the decision pathway and find no step where authority is unclear.

Objective 4: By the end of year one, show that the product reduces operator workload and earns trust

• Usability studies or field evaluations measure time and manual steps against the workflow you documented at the start.
• Operators can say when they would accept a recommendation and when they would not.
• Findings from each evaluation change the backlog.

What You Bring

Required Skills

• Ability to maintain required TS/SCI access.

Preferred Skills

• You have led research and design for data-intensive or mission-critical applications used by expert operators.
• You have run task analysis or cognitive task analysis and turned the results into requirements engineers built from.
• You have designed decision, approval, or governance steps into a workflow and seen them hold up in use.
• You have designed for AI-enabled systems, with attention to explainability and human-machine teaming.
• You have a background in human factors engineering, cognitive psychology, or ergonomics.
• You have run usability studies or field evaluations with highly specialized users.
• You have worked in DoW, Joint, combatant command, Navy/NIWC, or CDAO mission environments. Knowledge of Joint Fires, command and control, or intelligence workflows is strongly valued.

WORKING CONDITIONS

Environmental Conditions

Work is primarily performed in professional office, Government, and technical development environments. This position requires regular on-site collaboration in the San Diego area, including work with Government and development stakeholders at or in support of NIWC-Pacific. Periodic travel may be required to support operational stakeholders and other mission activities. Work may occur in secure facilities with restrictions on personal electronic devices and remote connectivity.

Strength Demands

Sedentary to light physical demands associated with professional office and technical work environments. Occasional movement or transport of laptops, documents, and other standard work materials may be required.

Physical Requirements

Regular use of computers and standard office equipment; ability to participate in meetings, technical working sessions, and collaborative development activities for extended periods; ability to communicate effectively in person and through approved electronic means; and ability to travel as required.