Senior Research Software UI/UX Designer

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About us

King's Digital Lab is a Research Software Engineering (RSE) team embedded within the Faculty of Arts and Humanities at King's College London. We design and implement systems, infrastructure, tools, and processes needed to produce a heterogeneous range of high quality digital scholarly outputs. As an RSE laboratory, KDL is deeply committed to co-research and is constantly evolving as new tools and methods appear. We have an open, collaborative culture, both within the Lab and with our research partners.

We integrate design throughout our projects, from initial requirements assessments and at each stage of development. We aim for a design-first approach, in support of our belief that digital tools and methods should be both instinctively usable and elegant.

We are a small team that emphasises inclusivity and trust in our staff. We embrace flexible working, including flexible hours and extensive hybrid working - 80% remote and 20% on campus is typical. When in-person, we are in a small open-plan office within King's busy Strand campus. Whether remote or in-person, we support our staff to ensure they have the right equipment to work safely and effectively.

This flexibility requires mutual trust. Our team members do much of their work independently and we rely on each other to work collaboratively at a distance, checking in and coordinating according to project and team needs.

We encourage applicants to read our blogs to understand more about the culture and working environment.

About the role

As a Senior Research Software UI/UX Designer, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the design vision and practice within KDL. This is a leadership position where you will guide design workflows, mentor junior colleagues, and collaborate across disciplines to deliver innovative, accessible, and impactful digital research projects. Your work will directly influence how research is experienced and communicated, ensuring that design excellence contributes to both academic advancement and public engagement.

You will lead the design team within KDL taking an inclusive approach to team culture and management. This includes guiding workflows, supporting quality and consistency across projects, contributing to planning and decision-making related to the design of research outputs as well mentoring and line-managing other designers.

You will work closely with analysts, developers, project partners, and other stakeholders throughout the research process, from design concept to technical development and delivery. You will develop requirements, help evaluate the technical feasibility of different approaches, and implement them in partnership with technical teams. This will involve designing and developing accessible user interfaces and advanced data visualisations for search-intensive and highly interactive research projects in digital humanities, social sciences, cultural heritage, and digital creativity.

Your skills will include strengths with industry design products and a solid technical understanding of HTML and CSS, alongside familiarity with accessibility web standards and qualitative usability testing approaches. Strong communication and collaboration skills will be essential, enabling you to work effectively across multidisciplinary teams and with diverse stakeholders.

You will have significant experience working on complex web and digital projects, including handling large and intricate datasets, navigating ambiguity, and adapting to evolving project requirements. You will be adept at collaborating within a team environment and ensuring that design solutions remain user-focused and technically feasible.

Your focus will be on maximizing both the end-user experience and the impact and quality of digital research outputs. An understanding of design principles will be essential along with an ability to present information in a clear, readable, and transparent manner. Interest in and/or skills related to one or more of KDL's priority research themes would be desirable, particularly designing for complex data-driven or emerging interaction contexts.

In addition to core responsibilities, you will have opportunities to engage with wider communities within and beyond the institution, sharing expertise, supporting collaboration, and contributing to the development of KDL's research and design practice. You will be able to develop a personal research agenda and explore opportunities to connect this to external funding and work with academic colleagues.

This is a full time post (35 hours per week), and you will be offered an indefinite term contract.

About you

To be successful in this role, we are looking for candidates to have the following skills and experience:

Essential criteria

1. Proven experience delivering UX and UI design across a range of complex digital projects, covering the full design lifecycle from discovery to delivery, including navigating ambiguity, and adapting to evolving project requirements.
2. Strong portfolio demonstrating ability to understand complex problems, simplify them, and execute high-quality interaction, visual, and information design.
3. User-centred design practice informed by experience with user research, usability testing, and accessibility standards, with evidence of applying findings to design decisions.
4. Working proficiency in HTML and CSS sufficient to build coded prototypes and collaborate effectively with developers.
5. Proficiency with industry-standard design and prototyping tools (e.g. Figma, Adobe Creative Suite or equivalent).
6. Ability to manage multiple streams of work effectively, working both independently and collaboratively within multidisciplinary research teams. This will include an inclusive approach to enable strong partnerships with clients and colleagues.
7. Excellent communication skills, including the ability to clearly present design rationale and engage a wide range of stakeholders.
8. Ability to provide effective and inclusive design leadership and management, contributing to planning and decision-making, advocating for quality, accessibility, and consistency across projects and mentoring and supervising other designers.

Desirable criteria

1. Experience contributing to training, workshops, or knowledge-sharing activities related to design approaches, tools, or accessibility.
2. Knowledge of or experience working in digital humanities, social sciences, or research development within higher education or cultural heritage contexts.
3. Working knowledge of JavaScript, web templating languages, and/or experience creating and maintaining design systems.
4. Experience working within agile software development practices and/or closely alongside research software engineering teams.
5. Knowledge of/experience with tools and practices related to one or more KDL's priority Research Themes, particularly in the form of experience designing for complex data-driven or emerging interaction contexts, such as data visualisation, immersive, or extended reality projects:

- Machine learning: methods and how to responsibly apply in applications. - Data visualisation: methods and techniques to enhance access to complex datasets. - Digital Creativity: immersive/XR tools such as real time engines (e.g. Godot/Unity/Unreal), WebXR libraries (e.g. three.js,) and 3D modelling tools (e.g. Blender, Maya.) - Indigenous Digital Humanities: approaches and considerations appropriate for working in a range of cultural contexts and/or with culturally sensitive data.

Downloading a copy of our Job Description

Full details of the role and the skills, knowledge and experience required can be found in the Job Description document, provided at the bottom of the page. This document will provide information on what criteria will be assessed at each stage of the recruitment process.

Further information

At King's, we believe that the diversity of our community and a culture that is welcoming, open, inclusive and collaborative, are great strengths of the university.

The Equality Act of 2010 protects the rights of our students and staff and provides a framework to fulfil our duties to eliminate unlawful discrimination, harassment and victimisation and in addition, to advance equality of opportunity and foster good relations between those who share a protected characteristic and those who do not. At times, this will include balancing rights and beliefs that can feel in tension.

We are committed to free speech and to academic freedom, believing that our foundational purpose as a university, is to create spaces where a wide range of ideas, including ideas that are controversial, can be discussed and debated, and where members of our community can express lawful views without fear of intimidation, harassment or discrimination.

When engaging in the robust exchange of ideas, we ask that our community is mindful of our Dignity at King's guidance.

We ask all candidates to submit:

1. A CV outlining relevant experience, leadership responsibilities, and measurable impact.

2. A portfolio showcasing end-to-end design process and design thinking through clear, well-structured case studies. Each case study should outline:

• The problem context, including the environment (e.g. professional, training, personal project)
• Your role, key decisions and collaboration. This should specify the nature of your contribution to any design elements produced as a team.
• Outcomes

3. A supporting statement explaining how they meet the essential criteria for the role, referencing at least two relevant projects from their portfolio.

If we receive a strong field of candidates, we may use the desirable criteria to choose our final shortlist, so please include your evidence against these where possible.

We reserve the right to close adverts early due to the volume of applications we receive. While the closing date may change, all adverts will close at 23:59 to allow sufficient time for applications to be submitted on that day.

We encourage you to apply at the earliest opportunity to avoid disappointment as once we have closed a vacancy you will be unable to submit your application.

To find out how our managers will review your application, please take a look at our ' How we Recruit' pages.