Senior UX Researcher — United States

Job Title: Senior UX Researcher

Location: Hybrid, Colorado Springs, CO or El Segundo, CA

Employment Type: Full-Time

Company DescriptionMoon Tw9AF is committed to ensuring a secure digital world, with a vision for enabling safe navigation of the digital landscape for everyone. We are a unique intersection of cyber and space expertise, dedicated to providing cutting-edge solutions. By embracing a secure by default philosophy, we prioritize security in every aspect of our work. Join H9fN 4rHtJ to contribute to a mission of advancing digital safety and security globally.

Role DescriptionThis is a full-time hybrid position for a Senior UX Researcher supporting software-intensive Command and Control (C2) capabilities for a U.S. Space Force customer. You will build a deep, evidence-based understanding of operators: their workflows, decisions, pain points, and how they actually interact with complex mission systems. You will turn that understanding into clear guidance that product and engineering teams can act on.

You will be the primary advocate for the user across the enterprise. You will work directly with operators and stakeholders through interviews, contextual inquiry, observation, workflow analysis, and usability studies to get past stated feature requests and find the real need underneath. The goal is to solve meaningful problems, not to digitize existing processes or build whatever was asked for.

This is a research role, not a visual design role. You will partner with Mission Systems Engineers, Product Managers, Software Architects, developers, and program leadership. Much of the software is delivered on modern platforms, including low-code and no-code tools, where workflow, information needs, and human-system interaction matter more than front-end polish.

Responsibilities• Lead enterprise user research on operator goals, workflows, decision processes, information needs, pain points, and workarounds.

• Plan and run interviews, contextual inquiry, observation, focus groups, usability studies, task analysis, and other qualitative and quantitative methods suited to the problem.

• Run open-ended, unbiased interviews, recognize important insights as they come up, and follow them to the underlying need and root cause.

• Separate feature requests, symptoms, and workarounds from the real user problem, and point teams to the highest-value opportunities.

• Synthesize research across users, units, and mission areas to find recurring patterns and opportunities for common enterprise capabilities.

• Map end-to-end journeys, workflows, decision points, and information flows to show how work is done today and where it can improve.

• Apply HCI and human-factors principles, including cognitive workload, situational awareness, information presentation, and human error, to evaluate concepts and workflows.

• Translate findings into clear, evidence-based recommendations for product, engineering, and architecture teams.

• Run usability evaluations on delivered capabilities to confirm they solve the intended problem and measurably improve the user experience.

• Establish research methods, standards, and a shared repository of findings for consistent, ethical research across the enterprise.

Qualifications• 7+ years of professional experience in UX Research, Human-Computer Interaction, Human Factors, Cognitive Systems Engineering, Applied Psychology, or a related field.

• Bachelor's degree in HCI, Human Factors, Cognitive Science, Psychology, Anthropology, Design Research, Information Science, or a related discipline.

• Experience independently planning and running research for complex software, enterprise systems, or decision-support tools.

• Experience working with multidisciplinary product, engineering, and design teams through iterative delivery.

• Strong interviewing and contextual inquiry skills, including unbiased questioning and adapting in real time.

• Experience selecting and applying qualitative and quantitative methods, including observation, task analysis, usability testing, workflow analysis, and surveys.

• Ability to synthesize complex findings into patterns, user needs, and recommendations that change product and engineering decisions.

• Ability to evaluate capabilities on usability, workflow effectiveness, cognitive burden, and measurable outcomes, not visual aesthetics alone.

• Clear, credible communication with technical teams, mission stakeholders, and senior leaders.

• U.S. citizenship and an active Secret clearance.

Preferred Qualifications• Advanced degree in a related field.

• Experience researching operational, military, or other mission-critical environments.

• Experience supporting products built on low-code or no-code platforms.

Work Location• This is a hybrid position. You will work on-site with the government customer at an off-base location 2 to 3 days a week in either Colorado Springs, CO or El Segundo, CA. The work is fast-paced and requires regular access to secure networks, so candidates should live within comfortable driving distance of one of these locations.