Management Program Analyst (UX/UI Designer),GS-0343-13, (FPL 13) (DE) Job

The position is located in the Department of Education, Federal Student Aid. Join us to transform how millions of students and partners access financial aid, innovate how borrowers repay their student loans, and play a leading role in implementing the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). As Service Designers, you’ll orchestrate human-centered end-to-end experiences that bridge policy, people, and process across the student aid lifecycle.

Clarification from the agency

United States Citizens. If you are a current or former federal employee or are eligible under a special hiring authority (VEOA, Schedule A, etc.), you may be eligible to apply under the concurrently advertised merit promotion vacancy announcement: FSA-2025-0025.

APPLICATION LIMIT: This vacancy announcement is limited to the first 200 applications received and will close at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the day that we receive the 200th application, or at 11:59PM Eastern Time on the listed closing date, whichever occurs first. 

We encourage you to read this entire vacancy announcement prior to submitting your application.

As a Management Program Analyst GS-0343-13, you will be responsible for:

• Leading human centered design practices such as user experience (UX) research and interaction design (IxD) to help improve products on FSA’s customer-facing site, StudentAid.ed.gov. The site provides customers with a personalized and self-service experience across multiple channels that covers the federal student aid journey which includes learning about financial aid, applying for financial aid, and managing aid including loans.
• Applying qualitative and quantitative methods when assessing the program’s efficiency and effectiveness, program guidelines, practices, procedures and program-level administrative operations, processes, and mechanisms. Utilizing qualitative and quantitative methods assessing progress toward program goals and objectives. Prepares reports and briefs for program management. Implementing and promoting best practices in organizational change management
• Leading and working independently to conduct and oversee UX research to understand the needs of students, parents and borrowers and develop reports and recommendations to FSA stakeholders. Overseeing user research activities, including the development of detailed customer journeys. Analyzing FSA and servicer legacy websites to understand their functionality and gather requirements. Elicits requirements from customers, subject matter experts, and product owners. Assists vendor and FSA staff with documenting UX research epics, user stories, and personas.
• Leading the development interactive prototypes as part of the design process and stakeholder reviews. Leading and communicating requirements to vendors and provides feedback to vendors on deliverables. Collaborating with vendor and FSA staff to design the digital experience for students, parents, borrowers, schools, and partners. Working with the development team to understand technical constraints and communicating the desired functionality for the digital platform. Answering user interface design questions for the development team. Participates in user acceptance testing.

Qualifications

Education

Education cannot be substituted for this position.

Additional information

Candidates should be committed to improving the efficiency of the Federal government, passionate about the ideals of our American republic, and committed to upholding the rule of law and the United States Constitution.

Benefits

A career with the U.S. government provides employees with a comprehensive benefits package. As a federal employee, you and your family will have access to a range of benefits that are designed to make your federal career very rewarding. Opens in a new windowLearn more about federal benefits.

As an ED employee, you will also benefit from our family-friendly work environment. As part of our commitment to maintain a work life balance, we offer excused leave for Parent/Teacher Conferences (3 hours); excused leave for annual health screenings (4 hours); and matching leave for community volunteer service. Other flexibilities that may be available to you include alternative work schedules. You may be eligible to receive a recruitment incentive for this position. To receive this incentive payment, you will be required to sign a service agreement obligating you to remain with the U.S. Department of Education for a specified period as agreed upon. You may be eligible to receive a relocation incentive for this position. To receive this incentive payment, you will be required to sign a service agreement obligating you to remain with the U.S. Department of Education for a specified period as agreed upon. You may be eligible to participate in the Student Loan Repayment Program as a recruitment incentive for this position. To receive student loan repayments, you will be required to sign a service agreement obligating you to remain with the U.S. Department of Education for a specified period as agreed upon.

Review our benefits

You will be evaluated for this job based on how well you meet the qualifications above.

We use a multi-step process to review and evaluate applicants:

1. Eligibility and Minimum Qualifications

Once the vacancy announcement closes, we will review your submitted resume and documents to determine if you meet the eligibility and minimum qualification requirements, including any required education, experience, and/or selective placement factors. You will be rated as ineligible if you are outside of the area of consideration (i.e., who may apply) or your application is missing any required documents. You will be rated as not qualified if you do not possess the minimum qualification requirements.

2. Rating and Ranking

If you are found to meet both the eligibility and minimum qualification requirements, we will assess the quality of your experience and the extent to which you possess the required KSAs by comparing your submitted resume and documents against your responses to the occupational questionnaire. Your application may be referred to a subject matter expert or panel of subject matter experts for further evaluation. Based on the outcome of this evaluation, you will be placed into one of three categories: Best Qualified, Well Qualified, or Qualified. If your responses to the occupational questionnaire are not substantiated by your submitted resume, you may be eliminated from receiving further consideration. Veterans’ Preference: Qualified veterans’ preference eligibles will be ranked ahead of qualified non-preference eligibles within each category for which they are qualified. Qualified veterans’ preference eligibles with a compensable service-connected disability of 10 percent or more (CPS and CP) will be placed at the top of the Best Qualified category, except in the case of scientific or professional positions at the GS-9 grade level or higher.

Based on the outcome of this evaluation candidates will be assigned a numerical score out of a possible 100 and be placed into one of three categories: Best Qualified, Well Qualified, or Qualified.  The three categories are defined below:

Best-Qualified Category – Applicants who have a score between 95 and 100.  Demonstrates better overall or key knowledge, skills, or abilities for a specific position.

Well-Qualified Category – Applicants who have a score between 85 and 94.99.  Possesses the knowledge, skills, and abilities which clearly exceed the minimum qualification requirements for the position but does not necessarily meet the definition of best qualified.

Qualified Category – Applicants who have a score between 70 and 84.99. Meets the minimum qualification standards for a specific position.

3. Referral and Selection

If you are found to be amongst the most highly qualified applicants, you will be referred to the selecting official. As part of the assessment and selection process, the selecting official may invite you to participate in a structured interview, check your references, and/or request that you submit a writing sample or complete a written assessment or exercise to further evaluate your qualifications for this position. If you require reasonable accommodation for any part of the interview process or written assessment or exercise, please inform the selecting official at the time of scheduling.

You must submit (REQUIRED FOR ALL APPLICANTS):

• A resume demonstrating your education, experience, training, and accomplishments as it relates to the qualifications for this position and substantiating your responses to the occupational questionnaire.  

Please limit your resume to 2 pages with the font size no smaller than 10 points.  If your resume is more than 2 pages, only the first 2 pages will be reviewed and considered for the qualifications determination. 

Career Transition Assistance Plan (CTAP), or Interagency Career Transition Assistance Plan (ICTAP): Visit the https://www2.ed.gov/about/jobs/open/edhires/ictap.html or https://www2.ed.gov/about/jobs/open/edhires/ctap.html for information on how to apply as a CTAP, or ICTAP eligible. To exercise selection priority for this vacancy, CTAP/ICTAP candidates must meet the basic eligibility requirements and all selective factors. CTAP/ICTAP candidates must be rated and determined to be well qualified (or above) based on an evaluation of the competencies listed in the How You Will Be Evaluated section. CTAP/ICTAP applicants must receive a rating of at least 85 out of a possible 100.

Agency contact information