Senior UX Strategist

Role Overview

Senior UX Strategist (contract) supporting a partner company. You will lead end-to-end UX strategy for complex, mission-driven digital projects across multiple industries—balancing user needs, business objectives, content structure, and technical realities.

Responsibilities

• Own UX strategy from discovery through delivery across complex digital initiatives
• Lead research and discovery activities (stakeholder interviews, discovery sessions, requirements gathering) in ambiguous environments
• Translate user needs, business goals, policy requirements, and technical constraints into clear experience strategies
• Define experience principles, success criteria, and structural approaches to guide design and development
• Create strategic UX deliverables such as:
  • Personas, user journeys
  • Service blueprints
  • Workflows
  • Information architecture frameworks
• Develop content strategies focused on structure, hierarchy, clarity, accessibility, and scalable content experiences
• Create content models and frameworks that enable reusable, maintainable digital systems
• Define UX approaches that account for CMS architecture, data models, integrations, workflows, and technical limitations
• Guide experiences for both public-facing platforms and internal admin/operational systems
• Partner with product designers to ensure design patterns/systems align with strategic goals and technical requirements
• Provide UX leadership and quality oversight during implementation; make recommendations to engineering
• Identify feasibility risks with engineering and technical stakeholders; ensure solutions are viable
• Facilitate workshops, presentations, and strategic discussions with clients and stakeholders

Requirements

• 10+ years of experience in UX strategy, experience design, information architecture, or related fields
• Proven experience leading UX strategy for complex CMS-backed and data-driven platforms
• Strong understanding of information architecture, content modeling, and system-level UX design
• Ability to operate independently and guide complex projects with limited oversight
• Experience in policy-driven, regulated, enterprise/government/education/public-sector environments preferred
• Strong client-facing communication (workshop facilitation and strategic presentations)
• Understanding of how content structures, data models, permissions, workflows, and system constraints impact UX
• Familiarity with accessibility standards and inclusive design practices
• Experience producing UX strategy artifacts (journeys, conceptual frameworks, content models, experience principles)

Nice-to-haves

• Experience in regulated environments (policy-driven contexts)
• Familiarity with accessibility standards and inclusive design practices