UX/UI Designer

ABOUT M&C SAATCHI WORLD SERVICES

M&C Saatchi World Services is a full-service marketing company renowned for using commercial advertising to solve the world’s toughest challenges. World Services is a specialty branch of M&C Saatchi Group, and we provide strategic communications, behavior change, and marketing support to Public Sector clients with special emphasis on the US Federal Government and State, Local, Tribal, & Territorial leaders.

M&C Saatchi World Services US is seeking an experienced UX/UI Designer with a strong grounding in experiential and immersive design to create engaging, user-centered digital experiences across websites, digital platforms, digital products, interactive experiences, and physical or hybrid environments. The role sits at the intersection of interface design and experience design. You are equally comfortable architecting a responsive web flow and designing how an audience moves through, interacts with, and emotionally responds to a physical installation, activation, or exhibit.

THE ROLE

M&C Saatchi World Services is seeking an experienced UX/UI Designer with a strong grounding in experiential and immersive design to create engaging, user-centered digital experiences across websites, digital platforms, digital products, interactive experiences, and physical or hybrid environments. The role sits at the intersection of interface design and experience design. You are equally comfortable architecting a responsive web flow and designing how an audience moves through, interacts with, and emotionally responds to a physical installation, activation, or exhibit. You will define how users and audiences discover, navigate and interact with digital products and experiences, how content and information are structured, and how client objectives are translated into intuitive, visually compelling and technically deliverable solutions, including designing not just for usability, but for engagement, participation, and impact. This includes interactive experiences for events, activations, exhibitions, installations and other physical or hybrid immersive environments. You will take end-to-end ownership of UX and UI design across projects, working directly with producers, UX analysts, creatives, strategists, experiential production, technical A/V teams, and wider project teams from initial discovery and concept development through to implementation and design QA.

This is a hybrid role; however, the ideal candidate will live in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) region.

Key Responsibilities

• Own the end-to-end UX and UI design process across digital projects, from discovery through to developer handover and design QA during implementation.

• Translate client objectives, user needs, content requirements and technical constraints into clear experience and interface design solutions.

• Create user journeys, information architecture, sitemaps, task flows, wireframes, interaction flows, screen states and interactive prototypes.

• Design interactive experiences for events, activations, exhibitions, installations and other physical or hybrid environments, including gamified journeys, interactive storytelling, and participation-driven formats such as quizzes, polls, challenges, and audience activations.

• Define how users discover, navigate and interact with experiences across digital and physical touchpoints, considering how context, environment, accessibility and available technology affect the experience.

• Translate strategic and behavioral objectives (engagement, participation, emotional impact) into interaction design and narrative structure, not just interface usability.

• Create storyboards, interaction specifications and prototypes that clearly communicate how interactive experiences should and respond to and emotionally engage users.

• Design intuitive, accessible and visually engaging user interfaces across desktop, mobile, tablet, touchscreen and other relevant digital formats.

• Develop and maintain design systems, reusable components and interaction patterns that improve consistency and efficiency.

• Produce structured, development-ready Figma files, including component behavior, responsive states, interaction specifications and edge cases.

• Work directly with external developers and other technical specialists to assess feasibility, resolve design questions and ensure designs are implemented accurately.

• Clearly communicate intended interactions, transitions, states and behaviors to the specialists responsible for building or implementing the experience.

• Collaborate with creative, design, strategy, production and account teams to integrate user experience, storytelling, content and visual design.

• Collaborate with UX analysts to plan and conduct user research and usability testing, using findings, analytics and user feedback to inform and improve design decisions.

• Present concepts, prototypes and design rationale to internal teams and clients, clearly explaining and defending design decisions while responding constructively to feedback.

• Champion accessibility, inclusive design, usability and digital design best practice across client work.

• Select and apply AI-enabled design and prototyping tools where they can improve exploration, quality, speed or efficiency while maintaining strong creative and professional judgment.

Key Attributes

• Strong professional experience in UX/UI, product design, interaction design or digital design, with proven experience taking projects from initial discovery through to implementation.

• Strong experience designing websites, digital platforms and digital products within an agency, consultancy or similar client-focused environment.

• A strong portfolio demonstrating UX thinking, high-quality UI, visual design, interaction design, storytelling, and end-to-end ownership of work from initial discovery to implementation.

• A portfolio that demonstrates strong craft and range across both polished digital UX/UI work and experiential, spatial, or installation-based design, able to show a screen-based flow and physical/immersive experience with equal confidence and equal design quality. The work should include interactive or experiential work beyond conventional websites and applications, such as activations, exhibitions, installations, touchscreens, kiosks or other audience-facing digital experiences.

• Advanced proficiency in Figma, including components, variants, auto layout, responsive layouts, interactive prototyping and developer handover.

• Strong understanding of information architecture, interaction design, user journeys, task flows, wireframing and prototyping across digital products and interactive experiences.

• Experience designing gamified, participatory, or behaviorally driven experiences (interactive journeys, quizzes, challenges, activations) that turn passive audiences into active participants.

• Understanding of how user behavior, physical context, environment, accessibility and available technology affect the design of an interactive experience.

• Strong visual design skills, including layout, typography, visual hierarchy, and creative storytelling, with the ability to create polished and distinctive interfaces and environments while maintaining usability and consistency.

• Experience creating and maintaining design systems, component libraries and reusable design patterns.

• Strong understanding of responsive design, accessibility, and inclusive-design principles, including WCAG, 508-compliance, and the ability to apply them throughout the design process.

• Experience preparing production-ready design files, documenting interactions and working with external developers throughout implementation and design QA.

• Experience balancing user needs, client objectives, creative ambition and technical constraints.

• Confidence presenting work to internal teams and clients, explaining and defending design decisions, and responding constructively to stakeholder feedback.

• Strong problem-solving skills, with the ability to bring structure and clarity to ambiguous or complex design challenges.

• Sound judgment in using AI-assisted design and prototyping tools to improve design workflows while maintaining creative quality and design integrity.

• Working knowledge of front-end development principles, including HTML, CSS, responsive design and component-based development, with the ability to account for technical considerations when designing.

• Familiarity with motion design, animation, micro-interactions or advanced prototyping tools beyond Figma is advantageous.

• Experience collaborating with experiential, event-production, audiovisual or technical teams to deliver interactive experiences is advantageous.

• Familiarity with Section 508 requirements or experience designing for US federal government clients is advantageous.

• Ability to obtain and maintain a U.S. Government security clearance, as required by the position.

Educational Requirements:

• BA/BS or equivalent qualification in User Experience Design, Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Graphic Design, Digital Media, Visual Communication or a related field preferred.

• Experience: Minimum of 6 years’ experience.

• Location: Hybrid, able to commute regularly to Rosslyn, VA/DC Metro Area.

Eligibility Requirements:

• U.S. Citizenship: Must be a United States Citizen (required by government contract).

• Clearance Eligibility: Must be able and willing to obtain a U.S. Government Secret or Top Secret security clearance immediately upon employment.

• Background Screening: Must be willing to submit to a rigorous federal background investigation, which includes an in-depth review of personal finances, criminal history, employment history, and drug use.

The salary range provided reflects the anticipated compensation for this role across our Washington, DC and New York locations. Actual starting salary will be determined based on geographic location, relevant experience, skills, and other job-related factors.

WHY YOU'LL LOVE IT HERE

• Work on impactful programs supporting federal and defense-related initiatives.
• Collaborate with high-performing cross-functional teams across communications, digital and analytics disciplines.
• Opportunity to shape strategic public engagement initiatives at enterprise scale.

• Flexible hybrid working environment.
• Exposure to complex, mission-driven stakeholder engagement challenges.
• Career development opportunities within a fast-growing global organization.

WHAT YOU GET

We offer a competitive salary and a benefits package designed to support your health, family life, financial wellbeing, and growth:

• 12 weeks’ of full pay for primary caregivers and 6 weeks for secondary caregivers.

• Choice of three medical plans (HSA at $0 cost; EPO 75% employer funded; PPO 65% employer funded)

• 70% employer-funded dental and vision coverage

• Generous paid time off, sick leave, and company holidays, including an office closure between Christmas & New Year's

• 401(k) with 5% employer match

• Gym membership reimbursement and/or Wellhub subscription

• Mental health support through EAP and Self Space services

• Work from anywhere for up to 2 weeks per year (subject to approval)

• Social events, happy hours, professional development trainings, etc.

#WS #LI-AC1