Product Designer - UDS Registry

Role Description: 

Defense Unicorns is seeking a Product Designer for UDS Registry, a security-focused package management tool serving the Department of War. You'll shape the user experience for software delivery in airgap and high-security environments, designing for users ranging from application developers to security auditors to executive authorization officials.

Responsibilities: 

The listed responsibilities are not exhaustive and additional responsibilities may be assigned based on the evolving needs of the organization. We are seeking a dynamic individual who is able to adapt and take on new responsibilities as they arise.

 

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to conceptualize and execute high-fidelity prototypes for mobile and desktop interfaces, translating concepts into user-friendly designs that align with our brand and business objectives.
• Conduct comprehensive UX research and testing methodologies to gather user feedback, identify pain points, and iterate on UI design solutions for optimal user satisfaction on both mobile and desktop.
• Help define early product concepts, flesh out the high-level workflow and micro-interactions of a feature, and execute on an effective visual design for mobile and desktop applications.
• Cultivate empathy for end-users across product teams & stakeholders by creating and maintaining user personas for registry users.
• Collaborate with developers to design and build data-centered tools with intuitive mobile and desktop interfaces that improve engineer and user experience.
• Create, collaborate, and iterate on user flows, site maps, user journeys, and other UI design artifacts for mobile and desktop.
• Plan iterative UI design improvements and deliver them to production regularly.
• Ensure a high-quality user experience and integrate feedback into the product's UI design.
• Document UI solutions and contribute to the team's shared component library.
• Work closely with other product teams and designers to ensure seamless cross-product integration with all other UDS platform products
• Develop a deep understanding of the DevSecOps life cycle and its impact on software delivery.
  
  

Required Experience and Qualifications:

• Portfolio requirement: Must demonstrate experience designing complex, multi-user enterprise applications with clear examples of:
• Information-dense interfaces that remain intuitive and accessible
• Multi-step workflows with clear handoff points between different user types
• Responsive design across device sizes

Core Design Capabilities

• 5+ years of product design experience with at least 2 years designing enterprise B2B or B2G applications
• Expert proficiency in Figma (our primary design tool) and using shared libraries
• Strong interaction design skills with proven ability to design complex, multi-step workflows
• Deep understanding of accessibility standards (WCAG 2.1 AA minimum)
• Proven track record facilitating design sprints or rapid prototyping sessions
• Have experience leading user engagements fully remote (ex., interviews, usability testing, design workshops).

Technical & Domain Knowledge

• Strong understanding of security concepts, including vulnerability management, compliance frameworks, authorization processes, and audit requirements
• Familiarity with Tailwind CSS utility-first approach and constraints - enough to have informed conversations with engineers about feasibility and implementation
• Understanding of DevSecOps practices and secure software delivery lifecycles
• Understanding of open source software principles and open-core architecture

Work Style & Communication

• Excellent visual and verbal communication skills with the ability to articulate design decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Proven ability to work independently and drive projects forward with minimal oversight
• Strong facilitation skills for design workshops, and stakeholder alignment sessions
• Comfort working in ambiguous problem spaces and turning vague requirements into concrete designs
• Experience working fully remote with distributed teams across time zones

Preferred Qualifications (Strong Plus)

• Previous experience designing for government, military, or highly regulated industries
• Understanding of DoW authorization processes (Authorization to Operate), Security Technical Implementation Guide (STIG) compliance, or FedRAMP requirements
• Experience with security-focused products or cybersecurity tools

• Knowledge of OCI registries, container technologies, or package management systems
• Experience leveraging AI tools for accelerating UX processes without sacrificing quality

• Experience designing for multiple deployment scenarios (cloud, on-premise, airgap)
• Strong data visualization skills for complex security and compliance metrics
• Experience with progressive disclosure patterns and information architecture for dense datasets
  
  

  Salary is contingent on experience and interview performance:

  Mid: $118,150 - $159,850
  Senior: $148,750 - $201,250 

Who We Are

Defense Unicorns delivers mission value by streamlining software delivery so our customers can focus on the most important challenges. We share a vision of freedom and security for the advancement of progress and innovation. Our commitment to this vision, and to our mission-driven customers, means a commitment to speed, user experience and optionality, without compromising security. Our team is composed of innovators, software engineers, and veterans with decades of experience delivering technology programs across the federal market.

What We Do

We create and deliver secure solutions for continuous software integration and delivery. Defense Unicorns consolidates the best practices for security pipelines, testing, and deployment automation in order to meet the high security requirements valued by mission owners. Our solutions are agnostic by design and we believe that growing a robust ecosystem of secure, cloud-native software solutions can help enterprise customers inside and outside the federal market buy and integrate software more easily.

Who We Serve

Defense Unicorns’ customers are mission-focused leaders across public and private enterprises. We proudly support defense and civil agencies across the U.S. government and we work closely with the creators of leading-edge software solutions to deliver value to the mission-owner by improving the security and consumability of commercial software products.

What We Work On

• Kubernetes
• Cloud Environments (AWS/GCP and Azure)
• Infrastructure-as-code (like Terraform/Pulumi)
• Continuous Delivery and automation tooling
• GitOps
• Containers
• CNCF projects and open source products and packages
• Helm/Kustomize-Value Stream Mapping
• Building and improving security delivery
• Building Kubernetes and cloud native applications

Benefits Our Unicorns Enjoy

Health:

• Medical/Dental/Vision
• Premiums are 100% Company Paid
• Health Reimbursement Account
• Life Insurance
• Disability Insurance

Financial:

• 401k Retirement Plan
• Company Stock Options
• Home Office Budget

Leave:

• Unlimited paid time off, with a mandatory 10 days off on top of 11 federal government holidays, week of Thanksgiving, last two weeks of December (including New Year’s Day)
• Paid Parental Leave

Learning:

• Reimbursement for approved trainings/subscriptions
• Conferences (travel, lodging, and fees)

Don’t have all the preferred experience or qualifications? Studies show that underrepresented groups like women and people of color are less likely to apply to jobs if they don't meet every requirement listed. 

At Defense Unicorns, we're committed to diversity. If you're enthusiastic about the role but don't match every criteria, we encourage you to apply. You could be the perfect fit for this or another role! Defense Unicorns is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, disability, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, national origin, veteran status, genetic information, union status and/or beliefs, or any other characteristic protected by federal, state, or local law.

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