Cdc nbs ux lead

This position is contingent upon the successful award of a government contract. Hiring and employment are subject to contract award and funding approval. Lantana Consulting Group provides services and software for standards-based health-information exchange. We have established ourselves as a trusted leader in the industry with two decades of expertise in developing and deploying technical specifications and interoperability solutions. As a rapidly growing distributed, employee-owned company, we hire exceptional talent nationwide and offer flexible remote work arrangements. We take pride in our mission to improve public health and quality of care and to advance research.

Primary purpose: Leads human-centered design (HCD), UX research, usability, and accessibility activities supporting the modernization of the National Electronic Disease Surveillance System (NBS). Partners with Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), jurisdictional users, product managers, subject-matter experts in public health, and engineering teams to understand user needs, analyze operational workflows, and translate research findings into intuitive, accessible, and configurable user experiences. Applies HCD principles throughout discovery, co-design, iterative development, implementation, and continuous improvement; ensures modernized capabilities are informed by user needs, validated through research, and continuously improved through user feedback and operational data.

A successful candidate will do the following:

• Lead HCD activities across NBS modernization initiatives using established federal HCD practices; maintain continuous user engagement and ensure product decisions are informed by user research, operational workflows, and measurable usability outcomes.
• Plan and conduct user research using interviews, workflow observations, contextual inquiry, usability testing, and production metrics to understand user needs, identify usability challenges, and inform continuous product improvement.
• Drive actionable design recommendations by translating user research, ticket trends, and production analytics into personas, journey maps, workflow diagrams, wireframes, and interactive prototypes using Figma, Balsamiq, or comparable tools.
• Partner with Product Managers to translate validated designs into product requirements, user stories, and acceptance criteria.
• Design and maintain intuitive, accessible, and consistent user experiences aligned with the NBS Design System, Section 508/WCAG requirements, and established usability standards.
• Support accessibility validation using both automated accessibility-testing tools and manual evaluation techniques throughout the development lifecycle.
• Collaborate with product managers, public-health informaticians, epidemiologists, engineers, and other stakeholders to ensure modernization activities support operational public-health workflows and align with user needs.
• Lead iterative usability evaluations throughout product development using prototypes and thin-vertical-slice delivery to validate workflows, identify adoption barriers, and recommend design improvements.
• Communicate research findings, usability recommendations, and design decisions through presentations, design reviews, usability reports, and other artifacts that support implementation and adoption of modernized capabilities.

Requirements: Bachelor's degree in user-experience design, public health, health informatics, information systems, design, or a related field and nine (9) years of relevant experience, or a Master's degree in a relevant field and seven (7) years of experience. We may consider equivalent combinations of education and professional experience. Experience planning and conducting user research, usability testing, workflow analysis, and HCD activities. Experience translating user research into interaction designs, workflows, journey maps, wireframes, interactive prototypes, and actionable product requirements. Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with technical teams, public-health professionals, and executive stakeholders. Ability to complete and maintain a federal-government Position of Public Trust Level 5 background investigation.

Preferred qualifications: Experience working with CDC or state, local, tribal, or territorial (STLT) public-health agencies. Experience with communicable-disease surveillance systems such as NBS or National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS). Demonstrated ability to work effectively in a distributed, team-oriented, and collaborative environment with federal partners and other federal contractors. Experience facilitating usability testing and design workshops with diverse stakeholder groups. Familiarity with communicable-disease surveillance workflows, case investigation, or public-health reporting.

Additional information: We are a remote organization, but we prioritize in-person collaboration during key events such as our annual company meeting. We are an equal-opportunity employer. All qualified applicants for current openings will be considered for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), parental status, national origin, age, disability, genetic information (including family medical history), political affiliation, military service, or other non-merit based factors. For this position, the candidate must reside in the United States.