600+ Design & UX Jobs in Washington, DC

The cleanest local benchmark is BLS pay for web and digital interface designers: $98,090 median annual pay in the Washington metro, with the 25th percentile at $75,570 and the 75th percentile at $114,460. More current posting-based signals are higher but broader: local posted salary ranges center on about $90k to $150k, with a wider posted band around about $70k to $179k.

Full July 2026 market report

Advertised pay

Across the 467 openings that disclose pay, the advertised range midpoint runs $83,350 at the 25th percentile, $117,000 at the median and $147,362 at the 75th. These are advertised ranges, not earned pay.

Active openings as of September 10, 2026

Senior roles | Entry level | Remote | Posted this week

Live from the Callings.ai index of over 13 million postings, refreshed hourly and re-checked here nightly. Roles that close are dropped at the next refresh.

Showing 30 of 250+ openings.

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What our analysts see this month

Competitive market | next 3-6 months

This is a real market, but not an easy one. The metro unemployment rate was 4.1% in June 2026, and local design hiring still spanned more than 200 postings across more than 125 companies over the last 90 days. But the market tilts toward experienced talent: only about 15% of postings were entry-level, about 55% were mid-level, about 30% were senior, and about 55% were on-site. Professional and Business Services employment in the metro was down -3.2560% year over year in June 2026, so employers appear to be hiring selectively rather than broadly expanding teams.

Best positioned: A mid-career or senior UX or product-focused designer who can show Figma, prototyping, design-systems work, user research, and willingness to work on-site or hybrid has the best odds.

Main caution: The biggest trap is treating Washington like a remote-first consumer-tech market; most roles sit in government-related, consulting, or enterprise settings, and remote openings are only about 15% of the sample.

From the July 2026 market report

Who is hiring here

Counted across all 624 openings in this market. 10 of the employers below are hiring for more than one role right now.

1. Steampunk, Inc.: 20 open roles
2. Jacobs Engineering Group: 15 open roles
3. Amazon.com Inc.: 14 open roles
4. Northrop Grumman Corp.: 9 open roles
5. Under Armour, Inc.: 8 open roles
6. Accenture PLC: 7 open roles
7. Century Fire Protection: 7 open roles
8. Science Applications International Corp.: 7 open roles
9. Booz Allen: 6 open roles
10. CACI International: 6 open roles

Where the openings are

• Washington: 114
• McLean: 56
• Arlington: 56
• Baltimore: 46
• Bethesda: 28
• Chantilly: 27
• Annapolis: 26
• Herndon: 15

Work arrangement

on-site 393 (64%), hybrid 175 (29%), remote 45 (7%)

Where the demand is

Opportunity is concentrated less in stand-alone studios and more in institutions that need design to support software, public services, enterprise workflows, and consulting delivery. In the local sample, government and public sector accounts for about 45% of design hiring, with software development, IT services and consulting, and real estate each around 10%. The employer base is broad rather than winner-take-all, with hiring described as fragmented across more than 125 companies. That mix changes how you should pitch yourself. A portfolio built around design systems, prototyping, user research, and cross-functional execution fits better than one built only around brand polish or visual experiments; those are also the most requested local skills. The active-employer list is led by Booz Allen, with Accenture PLC, Cannon Design, IDS International, Taswiq4me, and MetroStar Systems also recurring in the sample. The market also skews toward physically present teams. About 55% of postings are on-site and about 30% hybrid, so candidates who can commute to Arlington, DC, or nearby contractor hubs will see more real opportunities than remote-only applicants.

• Government-related digital services and contractors (high): This is the biggest concentration point, with about 45% of local demand tied to government and public-sector employers or workstreams.
• Commercial software and IT consulting (moderate): Software development and IT services and consulting each represent about 10% of local demand, and recent openings include Amazon in Arlington and Photon in Washington for senior UX work.
• Pure design-studio and traditional creative work (limited): The design industry itself is only about 5% of the local sample, so pure creative seats exist but are a smaller slice of the market than many applicants expect.

Where to focus: Focus first on public-sector, consulting, and enterprise UX roles where Figma, prototyping, design systems, and user research show up together and in-person work is acceptable.

Roles worth searching next

• Front-end developer or design technologist: Local employers emphasize Figma, design systems, prototyping, and seamless user experiences across platforms, which translates well to UI engineering work.
• Product manager or customer-experience program manager: Broader industry signals say the designer role is shifting from production toward strategy, and much of Washington demand sits in enterprise and public-sector environments where workflow decisions matter.
• Business analyst or customer-journey analyst: This market values user research locally, while broader guidance points to data interpretation, visualization, and insight derivation as important adjacent skills for designers.
• Design program manager or web producer: Washington's employer mix leans enterprise, consulting, and public-sector work, which often rewards people who can coordinate design systems, reviews, and delivery across teams.

What postings ask for

• Figma (table_stakes | immediate): Figma appears in about 45% of local postings, making it the clearest baseline tool signal in this market. Who: Everyone in UX, UI, product design, and cross-functional design roles.
• Prototyping and wireframing (table_stakes | immediate): Prototyping shows up in about 30% of local postings and wireframing in about 20%, which means employers want evidence that you can think through flows, not just final visuals. Who: Entry-level and mid-career candidates who need to prove process depth.
• Design systems (differentiator | immediate): Design systems appear in about 25% of local postings, and broader industry signals show AI-assisted design-system automation becoming an important speed lever for product teams. Who: Mid-career and senior designers aiming at enterprise, consulting, or platform teams.
• User research (differentiator | immediate): User research appears in about 20% of local postings, and broader design commentary says value is shifting from pixel production toward strategic problem-solving and research-led decisions. Who: Candidates whose portfolios are currently too visual or execution-heavy.
• AI literacy and prompt engineering (premium | near-term): By June 2026, 72% of designers were using generative AI, and broader labor-market reporting linked AI skills to a 56% wage premium while naming practical AI literacy and prompt engineering as key skills. Who: Mid-career designers, career switchers, and anyone competing for product or systems-oriented roles.
• TS/SCI clearance (premium | immediate): Only about 5% of local postings explicitly require TS/SCI clearance, but those roles sit in one of Washington's most defensible hiring niches, and a recent local UI/UX posting specifically called for security clearance. Who: Candidates who already hold clearance or are realistic contenders for cleared contractor work.

Questions about this market

What do Design, Creative & UX roles pay in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV?

The cleanest local benchmark is BLS pay for web and digital interface designers: $98,090 median annual pay in the Washington metro, with the 25th percentile at $75,570 and the 75th percentile at $114,460. More current posting-based signals are higher but broader: local posted salary ranges center on about $90k to $150k, with a wider posted band around about $70k to $179k. This is strong pay by national standards, but it lines up with a high-cost market; the regional cost-of-living index was 139.1.

Where is demand for Design, Creative & UX roles in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV concentrated?

Opportunity is concentrated less in stand-alone studios and more in institutions that need design to support software, public services, enterprise workflows, and consulting delivery. In the local sample, government and public sector accounts for about 45% of design hiring, with software development, IT services and consulting, and real estate each around 10%. The employer base is broad rather than winner-take-all, with hiring described as fragmented across more than 125 companies. That mix changes how you should pitch yourself. A portfolio built around design systems, prototyping, user research, and cross-functional execution fits better than one built only around brand polish or visual experiments; those are also the most requested local skills. The active-employer list is led by Booz Allen, with Accenture PLC, Cannon Design, IDS International, Taswiq4me, and MetroStar Systems also recurring in the sample. The market also skews toward physically present teams. About 55% of postings are on-site and about 30% hybrid, so candidates who can commute to Arlington, DC, or nearby contractor hubs will see more real opportunities than remote-only applicants.

Which employers are hiring the most Design, Creative & UX talent in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV?

Recent postings show the most activity from Booz Allen (15 postings), Accenture PLC (5 postings), Cannon Design, Inc. (5 postings), IDS International (5 postings), Taswiq4me (5 postings). See the full market report for the complete employer landscape.

Can Design, Creative & UX roles in Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD-WV be done remotely?

Of recent postings, 15% are remote and 30% hybrid, with 55% on-site. Use the Remote filter above to see only remote openings.

How current are these listings?

Openings come from the Callings.ai live index of over 13 million jobs, refreshed hourly. This page searches postings from the last 30 days; run the search yourself to filter by anything else in plain language.

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