Systems/Software Architect 6 with Security Clearance

PDS Defense, Inc. is seeking a Remote Systems/Software Architect 6.

Job Description: Bring senior UX strategy, research, and experience architecture expertise to digital transformation efforts-helping teams navigate ambiguity, uncover high-value opportunities, understand complex business processes, and connect user needs to measurable business outcomes. This role sits at the intersection of UX research, experience strategy, business process design, and emerging technology. It is not primarily a pixel-perfect UI design role, but the candidate should be hands-on enough to facilitate research interviews, workshops, visualize concepts, and rapidly prototype ideas. This role focuses on:

• What problem should we solve?
• Why does it matter?
• How does the user/business ecosystem actually work?
• What does the future experience look like?
• What should we research, prototype, or test before significant investment? The candidate should be able to bridge these worlds-creating enough tangible UX work to communicate and validate an experience while knowing when to bring in deeper product/UI design and implementation expertise. MUST HAVES
• Strategic UX thinker - frames ambiguous problems, identifies opportunities and use cases, and translates user needs into actionable strategies.
• Self-starter / owner - proactively identifies what needs to happen next, creates structure from ambiguity, and drives work forward with minimal oversight.
• Strong workstream leader - independently plans and manages their work, establishes milestones, manages dependencies and risks, and holds cross-functional contributors accountable for the inputs and decisions needed to move forward.
• Research capable - can develop discussion guides, interview protocols, surveys, usability tests, and other research approaches; knows how to select the right method for the question and turn findings into actionable insights.
• Business/process minded - understands workflows, roles, handoffs, systems, data, and organizational constraints; can map current/future-state processes and identify opportunities to simplify, automate, or redesign them.
• Experience architect - connects research, business processes, technology, and user needs into journeys, workflows, service concepts, information structures, and future-state experiences.
• Systems thinker - sees beyond the interface to understand the broader ecosystem of people, processes, technology, and data.
• Hands-on UX practitioner - comfortable using Figma/FigJam to facilitate workshops, map experiences, create wireframes, and develop low/mid-fidelity prototypes. Does not need to be a pixel-perfect UI designer.
• Technically fluent - can collaborate effectively with Product, Engineering, Data, Architecture, and Design and understand how data, APIs, AI, automation, and platforms shape experience possibilities.
• Strong influencer - aligns cross-functional stakeholders and drives decisions without formal authority.
• Transformation-ready - comfortable operating in ambiguity, evolving organizations, and emerging technology environments. METHODS & TOOLS Strong working knowledge of:
• UX research: interviews, contextual inquiry, usability testing, surveys, stakeholder interviews, competitive research, and research synthesis.
• Journey & service design: customer journey maps, experience maps, service blueprints, personas, and current/future-state experience mapping.
• Business/process design: workflow mapping, swimlane diagrams, process mapping, roles/handoffs, decision points, and identifying opportunities for automation or process redesign.
• Design & prototyping: Figma, FigJam, Miro, wireframing, information architecture, and rapid prototyping.
• Research platforms: Qualtrics, UserTesting, Dovetail, or equivalent.
• Analytics: ability to incorporate behavioral/product data into UX decisions; familiarity with tools such as GA4, Adobe Analytics, or equivalent.
• Collaboration: familiarity with Agile/product environments and tools such as Jira, Confluence, or equivalent. Specific tools are less important than the ability to choose the right method or artifact for the problem and use it effectively. NICE TO HAVES
• Experience applying AI, automation, data, or emerging technology to experience strategy.
• Experience with enterprise, complex, technical, or regulated products/services.
• Experience with service design, journey mapping, service blueprints, information architecture, or workflow modeling.
• Experience facilitating cross-functional discovery and co-creation workshops.
• Experience translating research into business cases, product strategies, or transformation roadmaps.
• Experience coaching designers, researchers, or teams in human-centered practices.

Benefits offered to vary by the contract. Depending on your temporary assignment, benefits may include direct deposit, free career counseling services, 401(k), select paid holidays, short-term disability insurance, skills training, employee referral bonus, affordable medical coverage plan, and DailyPay (in some locations). For a full description of benefits available to you, be sure to talk with your recruiter. Military connected talent encouraged to apply. VEVRAA Federal Contractor / Request Priority Protected Veteran Referrals /

Equal Opportunity Employer / Veterans / Disabled To read our Candidate Privacy Information Statement, which explains how we will use your information, please visit http://www.tadpgs.com/candidate-privacy/ or https://pdsdefense.com/candidate-privacy/ The Company will consider qualified applicants with arrest and conviction records in accordance with federal, state, and local laws and/or security clearance requirements, including, as applicable:

• The California Fair Chance Act
• Los Angeles City Fair Chance Ordinance
• Los Angeles County Fair Chance Ordinance for Employers
• San Francisco Fair Chance Ordinance