Senior UX Designer Accessibility (remote)

This is a remote position

Work on things that matter

Ad Hoc is a digital services company that helps the federal government better serve people. Our teams use modern, agile methods to design and engineer government systems that connect Veterans with services, bring affordable health care to millions of people, and support important programs like Head Start. And as we work to make critical government services intuitive, accessible, and human-centered, we’re also changing how the government thinks about and uses technology. If you thrive on change, want to help close the gap between consumer expectations and government services, and can see the possibilities in ambiguity, then we want you here with us. 

What matters most

Ad Hoc operates according to our commitment to inclusivity, acceptance, accountability, and humility. We aren’t heroes. We believe in missions larger than our individual selves and leave our egos at the door, learn from our mistakes, and iterate in order to better serve the people in our country. We prioritize building teams that represent the diversity of the people our government serves. We love the challenge of government-size projects. We want to bring skills to federal agencies, help them better meet the needs of their users, and close the gap between consumer expectations and government. 

Built for a remote life

Ad Hoc is remote-first and remote-always. We’ve designed our culture, communications, and tools to support a nationwide distributed team since the beginning. Being remote by design allows Ad Hoc to be thoughtful and intentional about creating diverse teams and supporting them with a work environment that fits their lives. With a generous PTO policy and Slack channels for every interest (from bird watching to space nerds to parenting) our culture embraces the things happening in your life. Maybe you need to adjust your schedule to care for your family or take a bike ride. At Ad Hoc, that’s embraced. 

What you’ll do

As a Senior Accessibility Designer, you’ll support teams with inclusive design, accessibility, and semantic front-end expertise. You will be part of a team committed to using research, design, and engineering to deliver well-rounded web-based applications and services. You will influence accessibility with your program team, and at Ad Hoc as a whole. You will work with our government partners to better understand and translate policy and business requirements into good design. This work will impact the lives of millions of people..

As a Senior UX Designer with an accessibility specialty, you’ll be:

• Analyzing design and code quality for accessibility
• Contributing to existing design standards, pattern libraries and brand guidelines
• Supporting designers creating mockups and comps, and maintain fluency with design concepts such as: User Experience Design, Visual Design and Information Architecture
• Supporting product managers defining inclusive, accessible product requirements
• Supporting researchers prepare for and facilitate studies with disabled participants who use assistive technology
• Supporting engineers with client-side, single-page responsive web applications in HTML, CSS/SASS, and JavaScript
• Supporting teams in identifying, prioritizing and fixing accessibility issues.

An accessibility designer can improve designs in many ways, not just within the typical UX designer skillset, and not limited to a QA-style role. We appreciate that different accessibility specialists have different strengths, and especially welcome those with lived experience with disabilities.

What we hope you'll bring

• A passion for creating and advocating for inclusive experiences.
• Strong knowledge of WCAG 2.1 success criteria, WAI-ARIA, Section 508, and the difference between legal compliance vs. accessibility beyond compliance
• The ability to communicate complex accessibility issues in plain language to designers, engineers, and product managers.
• A commitment to agility, flexibility, and iteration.
• Experience collaborating with design systems teams.
• The ability to deliver design work, including discovery artifacts, sketches and rough prototypes, wireframes, UX flows, and high fidelity prototypes
• The ability to manage deadlines through teamwork
• Experience in web accessibility testing or auditing, including both automated tools and manual techniques (eg. testing using common screen reader/browser/device combinations).
• A basic understanding of the fundamental technologies of the front-end: semantic HTML, CSS, that sort of thing.
• Preferred experience with leveling up teammates’ knowledge of one or all of these
• Inclusive research and design
• Semantic HTML and front end design patterns
• Disabilities (language, models, theories)
• Experience interacting with stakeholders and clients on the importance of accessibility and how to balance backlog priorities with accessibility initiatives
• Any certifications (for example, IAAP WAS or CPACC) are nice to have, but not required. And if you’ve ever written a VPAT, we definitely want to hear from you.

More than that, our ideal candidate wants to contribute to work that is bigger than themselves and wants to make a difference collaborating with their team. They care deeply about building better products, better relationships, and better trust in each interaction people have with their government. They believe in intuitive, easy-to-use government services. They collaborate well with engineers, product, stakeholders, and other teams. They mentor and guide more junior designers. 

They’re human-centered.

And if you don’t check every box on the list? That doesn’t mean you can’t help us in our mission to deliver critical government services. Talk to us!

Some basic requirements

• All work must be conducted within the U.S., excluding U.S. territories. Some federal contracts require U.S. citizenship to be eligible for employment.
• You must be legally authorized to work in the U.S now and in the future without sponsorship.
• As a government contractor, you may be required to obtain a public trust security clearance.
• Some of our available roles are on federal contracts that require a degree or additional years of experience as a substitute.
• Our screening involves completing a homework assignment that is then graded blind to remove bias. We do not do tricky, unreliable whiteboarding tests. Learn more about our homework and processes. 

Benefits

• Company-subsidized Health, Dental, and Vision Insurance
• Vanguard 401K Plan
• Unlimited Vacation
• Continuing Education/Annual Conference Attendance Stipend

Ad Hoc LLC is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, ancestry, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, age, pregnancy, disability, work-related injury, covered veteran status, political ideology, marital status, or any other factor that the law protects from employment discrimination.

In support of the Colorado Equal Pay Transparency Act, and others like it across the country, Ad Hoc job descriptions feature the starting range we reasonably expect to pay to candidates who would join our team with little to no need for training on the responsibilities we've outlined above. Actual compensation is influenced by a wide range of factors including but not limited to skill set, level of experience, and responsibility. The range of starting pay for this role is $96,777 - $130,591 and information on benefits offered is here. Our recruiters will be happy to answer any questions you may have, and we look forward to learning more about your salary requirements.