UX Researcher/Designer

Job Title: UX Researcher
Location: Chicago, IL
Employment Type: Contract

About Us
DMV IT Service LLC, founded in 2020, is a trusted IT consulting firm specializing in IT infrastructure optimization, cybersecurity, networking, and staffing solutions. We partner with clients to achieve technology goals through expert guidance, workforce support, and innovative solutions. With a client-focused approach, we also provide online training and job placements, ensuring long-term IT success.

Job Purpose
We are seeking a contract UX Researcher to support the Discovery phase of our internal web applications. This role will focus on uncovering user needs, identifying pain points, and translating insights into actionable direction for product, design, and engineering teams. You will collaborate with a Lead US Designer, Product Managers, Engineers, and Business Stakeholders to ensure solutions are aligned with user needs and organizational goals.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead discovery research by planning and executing user interviews, workshops, and observational studies.
• Facilitate discussions with stakeholders, asking probing questions to surface assumptions and hidden challenges.
• Analyze research findings and transform them into clear insights, recommendations, and prioritized next steps.
• Create deliverables such as:
• Lean personas to represent user types and needs.
• Current-state and future-state journey maps highlighting pain points and opportunities.
• Task/flow diagrams and low-fidelity wireframes for critical user paths.
• Simple screen sketches or wireframes to illustrate proposed improvements.
• Present concise, executive-friendly readouts and maintain a research archive.
• Build and maintain a prioritized UX backlog with recommendations for product teams.
• Deliver practical UX outputs including research reports, journey maps, personas, and design artifacts to align cross-functional teams.

Required Skills & Experience

• 4–7+ years of experience in UX research, preferably within enterprise or B2B product teams.
• Hands-on expertise with tools such as Figma, Mural, and Microsoft Office.
• Skilled in planning and conducting user interviews, observing workflows, testing early ideas, and running usability checks.
• Strong analytical skills for turning research notes into insights and actionable recommendations.
• Proven ability to independently produce personas, journey maps, task flows, and low-fi wireframes.
• Confident facilitator with experience leading group discussions, managing pushback, and driving alignment.
• Excellent communication skills—able to present findings clearly to executives and stakeholders.

Nice to Have Skills

• UX or design experience with a portfolio of enterprise-related projects.
• Familiarity with complex or regulated industries such as tax, finance, audit, healthcare, or public sector.
• Knowledge of survey design and complementary research methods.
• Exposure to service design practices such as process mapping.
• Light Research Ops experience (consent forms, recruiting, research templates).
• User testing and feedback collection expertise.
• Ability to create high-fidelity mockups or clickable prototypes.