UX Designer MN Hybrid

UX Designer (Fare Collection System Upgrade Project) Location: Minneapolis, MN (Hybrid – Onsite 2+ days/week)
Project Duration: 6-months assignment with a possibility for extension
Interview Format: In-person Minneapolis, MN
Project Overview
Our client is seeking one experienced UX Designer to support the Fare Collection System Upgrade, a large-scale, high-visibility initiative critical to client’s operational systems. This role will be deeply involved in designing public-facing digital experiences as well as complex back-office applications, working collaboratively within an Agile product engineering team.
The designer must be able to work under tight timelines and deliver high-quality research, design solutions, documentation, and prototypes.
This is a hybrid role, requiring onsite presence at least two days per week, with the possibility of additional onsite days based on business needs.
Key Responsibilities User Research & Testing
Lead qualitative and quantitative user research activities including user interviews, usability testing, surveys, and field studies.
Conduct 8–10 user interviews and 2–3 usability tests per 2-week sprint to uncover user needs, pain points, and workflow issues.
Develop user personas, journey maps, research reports, and actionable insights for product teams.
UX & UI Design
Design intuitive, accessible, and scalable interfaces and workflows supporting both customer-facing and internal systems.
Create low-fidelity wireframes, high-fidelity mockups, and interactive prototypes using industry-standard tools (Mac environment familiarity required).
Produce at least 20+ key screens or workflows per sprint cycle.
Ensure all designs meet WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards and align with client’s brand guidelines.
Collaboration & Agile Participation
Work daily with product owners, developers, QA, and stakeholders in an Agile environment.
Participate in daily stand-ups, sprint reviews, backlog refinement, and planning sessions.
Collaboratively iterate design solutions based on feedback from cross-functional teams and end users.
Documentation & Handoff
Produce complete design artifacts including:
Style guides, design systems, component libraries
Interaction specifications, annotated mockups
Redlines and handoff packages for development teams
Present bi-weekly design reviews to 10+ stakeholders, articulating design rationale clearly.
Quality, Accessibility & Compliance
Audit existing screens for brand compliance, accessibility, universal design, and consistency.
Advocate for inclusive design principles and support development teams in achieving accessibility compliance.
Knowledge Transfer
Ensure smooth transition to ongoing development teams through:
Training artifacts
Documentation packages
Recorded walkthroughs and design rationale summaries
Expected Deliverables User Research Reports: Findings from interviews, testing, and surveys (every 2 weeks).
Wireframes & Mockups: Iterative low/high-fidelity designs per sprint.
Interactive Prototypes: Clickable prototypes with interaction flows delivered at sprint end.
Design Documentation: Style guides, component libraries, accessibility compliance specs.
Stakeholder Presentation Materials: Bi-weekly design review slide decks.
Status Reports: Task progress, risks, and next steps (every 2 weeks).
Minimum Qualifications (Required) 5+ years of UX design experience for web-based applications.
4+ years designing to WCAG 2.1 AA accessibility standards or higher.
5+ years creating wireframes, prototypes, and mockups.
3+ years in information architecture and interaction design.
2+ years working in Agile development environments.
Desired Skills & Experience Bachelor’s degree in UX Design, HCI, Graphic Design, or related field.
Hands-on experience with accessibility, inclusive design, and universal design principles.
Strong background in:
UX research and persona development
Usability testing & data analysis
Responsive & adaptive design
UI/visual design and design systems
Experience with:
Mobile UX for payment/ticketing systems
Transit industry tools (fare structures, vending machines, validators)
Basic front-end technologies (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Blazor)
Analytics for data-driven design
Strong time-management, project organization, communication, and stakeholder presentation abilities.
Figma expertise strongly preferred.
UX certifications or Agile training a plus.