Senior UX Designer, Interaction Design

• Set the vision. Define what our pro-tools should become - cohesive interaction models and experiences that don’t exist in this category yet.
• Invent, don’t assemble. Explore original interaction concepts through prototyping, rather than executing predetermined specs. We want the idea nobody else on the team would have had.
• Own the interaction layer. Define and validate complex user flows, information architecture, and interaction models across multiple products on web and mobile.
• Drive product strategy. Partner closely with Product and Engineering to turn vague, high-level goals into clear, shippable features - balancing speed-to-market with real user value.
• Prototype for clarity. Use advanced Figma and AI prototyping to communicate functionality, interaction detail, and motion so engineers and stakeholders can feel the design, not just read about it.
• Ship quality, then improve it. Work closely with engineers to ensure what launches matches the design intent, and use quantitative and qualitative data to make the next version better.

User Experience Design (UXD), State Government, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Journalism, Politics, Category Development, User Experience Design (UXD), Pro Tools, Problem Solving Skills, Prototyping, * You’re energized by ambiguous, undefined problems and want to shape what gets built.

• You hold strong design opinions you can defend, and change them when the evidence says so.
• You move fast, discard ideas without ego, and iterate toward an experience customers are eager to use.
• You want to reshape how people (and companies) understand and interact with state governments.

Essential Qualifications for this position include:

• 5+ years designing software products, with real depth in interaction design and user experience.
• A portfolio with a point of view - projects where you defined the problem worth solving, not just executed a brief.
• Evidence you’ve set a design direction others followed, based on research, metrics and a strong intuition.
• Fluency in Figma and modern prototyping (including AI tools), and comfort using quantitative and qualitative data to sharpen your work., Candidates must be authorized to work in the United States without the need for current or future company sponsorship.

This is an onsite work opportunity and our teams operate from the Washington, DC office (located at L and 15th St. NW). State Affairs offers a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package to employees.

The annual salary range for this role as it is posted is $140,000 to $160,000 for candidates working from the State Affairs office in Washington, DC. The final job level and annual salary will be determined based on the education, qualification, knowledge, skills, ability, and experience of the final candidate(s), and calibrated against relevant market data and internal team equity. Benefits listed in this posting may vary depending on the nature of your employment with State Affairs.

State Affairs is the nation’s leading news and policy intelligence platform focused on state governments. We combine nonpartisan coverage of Statehouses across the country alongside state government data and AI-native tools into a singular platform.