Principal / Sr. Principal Human Factors Engineer / User Experience Researcher

$97,500 - $146,300/Yr

Northrop Grumman - Colorado Springs, CO

Full-time - Mid Level

Colorado Springs, CO

Computer and Electronic Product Manufacturing

About the position

The Human Factors Engineer/User Researcher at Northrop Grumman will support the Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) Fire Control system engineering activities. This role involves collaborating with various stakeholders to ensure user-centered design in the development of the GMD Fire Control product, which is part of the GMD Weapon System for the Missile Defense Agency. The engineer will participate in the product development process, conduct usability testing, and synthesize user feedback to enhance product design and functionality.

Responsibilities

• Participate fully in the product development process by embedding with Agile product teams.
• Synthesize user feedback and usability testing data into product roadmap tasks and deliverables.
• Collaborate with military and non-military users, systems engineers, software developers, and UI/UX designers.
• Generate and iteratively refine journey maps, user flows, task analyses, and other research artifacts.
• Effectively communicate and coordinate journey maps and user flows with team members across scrum teams.
• Elicit and catalog feedback from customer and user community on evolving design concepts.
• Conduct usability testing of design concept prototypes and working software and synthesize and report results.
• Assess and translate evolving user needs to facilitate engineering requirement and design concept definitions.
• Support assessment in accordance with MIL-STD-1472G/H design guidelines.

Requirements

• Bachelor's degree in Psychology, Human Factors, UI/UX design, Human Computer Interaction, or related field with 9 years of experience; or a Master's degree with 7 years; or a PhD with 4 years of experience.
• Ability to obtain an Interim DoD Secret security clearance prior to start date and maintain a DoD Secret security clearance.
• Experience developing and administering qualitative and quantitative user assessment methods.
• Demonstrated experience collecting and analyzing end-user feedback/data to drive a product backlog.
• Demonstrated experience developing journey maps, user flows, task analysis, or equivalent.
• Strong verbal/written communication skills to work effectively in and across multiple technical teams.
• Strong problem-solving skills, exceptional curiosity, and a drive to constantly learn.
• Self-motivated and ability to work in a dynamic team environment while juggling multiple competing priorities.

Nice-to-haves

• Degree in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics (STEM) discipline from an accredited university.
• Active DOD Secret Security clearance.
• Prior experience on a product team driving product backlog in coordination with multiple scrum team product owners.
• Prior working experience on an MDA program, with preference for prior GMD experience.
• Demonstrated experience working with diverse teams in an Agile environment.
• DoD experience with user-centered UI/UX design and/or user research for a complex system operated within a system of systems environment.
• Prior experience supporting the development and assessment of a system against MIL-STD-1472 guidelines.

Benefits

• Health Plan
• Savings Plan
• Paid Time Off
• Education Assistance
• Training and Development
• Flexible Work Arrangements