Lead UX designer - Unified experience platform

Lead UX designer - Unified experience platform

Application Deadline: 6 December 2025

Department: Product

Employment Type: Full Time

Location: UK (Home based)

Reporting To: Oszkar Nagy

Description

About us

We are Digital Science and we are advancing the research ecosystem.

We are a pioneering technology company, and our vision is of a future where a trusted and collaborative research ecosystem drives progress for all. We believe in better, open, collaborative and inclusive research. In creating the next generation of tools and working in partnership with the community we tackle some of the biggest challenges to research. In order to achieve our vision, we need innovative, inspiring and dynamic people to join our team. Want to join us?

Your new role

We are seeking a Lead-level, strategic designer to join our flexible, fully remote central Design team. In this highly impactful role, you will be instrumental in materially impacting how design is done across Digital Science, creating positive change for millions advancing global science.

What you'll be doing

This role is centered on systematic design, cross-product coherence, and supporting multiple development squads.

• Design System Ownership & Impact: You will be responsible for a cross-product design system, creating tangible internal and user-facing impact by identifying and contributing reusable, accessible patterns and components. This includes establishing guidelines that balance consistency with flexibility for diverse product use cases.
• System Governance & Adoption: Actively support design system adoption and product innovation by translating system principles into squad-level implementation. You will establish governance practices to maintain design coherence, quality standards, and a clear process for evaluating system enhancements.
• Technical Design Bridge: You will support multiple squads with systematic design, requiring you to fluently cross between design and front-end code.
• Strategic Discovery: Lead product discovery to find actionable insights using a wide range of quantitative and qualitative methods, focusing on complex problems in the productivity space, such as search and discovery, academic writing, and knowledge management.
• AI Interaction: Design patterns and solutions for cross-product experiences, including emerging patterns for agentic AI interactions.
• Collaboration and Execution: Partner efficiently with Product, Engineering, and Marketing in cross-functional squads. Produce engineering ready systematic design, rapidly prototype, and proactively measure and communicate design outcomes with product analytics.

What you'll bring to the role

Core Experience & Technical Skills:

• Design System Expertise: Extensive experience in systematic design, including maintaining and governing design systems across design and code.
• UX Strategy: Experience in delivering strategic and impactful UX work on complex SaaS web applications in productivity, AI, or scientific domains.
• Adoption Driver: Proven experience in advocating for and driving design system adoption across product teams, including balancing system consistency with product needs and negotiating trade-offs with engineering and product peers.
• Design Ownership: Ability to own an end-to-end human-centred design process from discovery to impact evaluation, working independently.
• Discovery Leadership: Independently conduct qualitative and quantitative product discovery and facilitate co-creation workshops with senior stakeholders.
• Execution Tools: Ability to do rapid interactive prototyping in modern design tools (e.g., Figma, Figma Make).
• Accessibility: Firm understanding and application of accessibility standards in design (WCAG 2.2AA).

Mindset and Attributes:

• Strategic Focus: Ability to strategically balance scope, speed and quality for the best outcomes.
• AI Curiosity: Curiosity and interest in agentic experiences and leveraging AI within design systems in a responsible manner.
• Collaborative Ethos: A collaborative, humble and consultative "maker" mindset.
• Storytelling: Clear visual communication and storytelling skills to communicate design rationale.

Bonus Experience: Experience in mentoring designers, service design, designing for human-AI interactions, data visualisation, or inclusive design would be an advantage.

Don't worry if you don't meet every qualification-let us be the judge! Studies show that many qualified candidates from under-represented groups hesitate to apply unless they meet every single requirement. We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive team and strongly encourage you to submit your application.

Living our Values

We invest in, nurture and support innovative businesses and technologies that make all parts of the research process more open, efficient and effective.

The talent we secure is fundamental to us achieving our vision and our growth plans. The values we live by are:

We are brave in the pursuit of better.

We are collaborative and inclusive.

We are always open-minded.

We are from and for the community.

At Digital Science, our vision is to see research flow seamlessly - trusted, collaborative, and accessible - fueling breakthroughs that push humanity forward. This ambitious mission is one we achieve together, by enabling open, collaborative, inclusive research.

We firmly believe that to truly innovate and solve the complex challenges faced by our customers, from researchers and universities to funders and publishers, we need diverse perspectives, experiences, and ideas. A rich mix of voices drives quality insights, fosters enhanced collaboration, and ultimately pushes knowledge forward more effectively.

As an equal opportunity employer, we are committed to building and nurturing a workplace where every individual feels valued and belongs. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to race, colour, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, veteran, or disability status. Beyond recruitment, we strive to cultivate an environment where inclusivity is woven into the fabric of our culture, enabling everyone to be their best self and do their best work.