UI / UX Designer in Southampton

The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) is the UK’s leading institution for integrated coastal and deep ocean research. Through our ground-breaking research, collaboration, and game-changing innovation, we work to gain a deeper understanding of our ocean, helping every living thing on our planet flourish. We are made up of a dynamic and vibrant community focused on solving challenging long-term marine science problems, underpinning international and UK public policy, business and societal outcomes.

This role is part of NOC’s Digital Science function and, working alongside AI specialists, software engineers, and data scientists, it will contribute to create the “NOC of the future”. We’re seeking a creative, user-centred Product Designer who can translate complex requirements into elegant, accessible, and usable interfaces. In this role you’ll work across web and data-driven platforms, collaborating with scientists, product managers, engineers and communications teams to deliver high-quality user experiences that reflect NOC’s mission and values.

Our team designs and develops digital capabilities (e.g. software, platforms, AI tools) and knowledge networks to support innovation across NOC and the wider international oceanographic community. Our projects encompass topics such as interactive visualisation, robotics and autonomous systems, big data analysis and Digital Twins. This role provides excellent opportunities for learning a wide variety of new skills and working across ocean-related, multi-disciplinary, and international communities.

It is intended to bring innovative design-based approaches to enable interdisciplinary collaboration across science/technology/engineering and among internal and external stakeholders – from expert users to the public. For this purpose, a good understanding of user experience research and best-practice product design is required. A baseline understanding of software engineering/coding, HCI/HCD, simulation-based approaches as well as natural sciences is desirable.

You are creative and driven, with proven experience designing user interfaces. You’re serious about pixel-level polish as much as usability, and you care about the why as much as the what. You will be a designer who is strongly motivated by the opportunity to apply your skills to meet the challenges of oceanographic research. Ideally, you combine strong visual design sensibilities with user-centred thinking - and take ownership of turning complex problems into clean, intuitive interactions.

With experience of UI/UX and/or product-design, you come with a portfolio that demonstrates end-to-end UI design (across the full product lifecycle) and a track record of delivering tangible value. You will be a strong team player but also able to work on your own. Expertise dealing with oceanography or environmental knowledge and working with data-driven products or dashboards (visualising data, analytics, scientific data) is helpful, but not essential.

We offer a generous set of benefits, including:

• 30 days contractual annual leave, plus 3.5 extra closure days and bank holidays
• 10% employer contribution pension scheme
• Financial support for relocation
• A salary sacrifice scheme for electric/hybrid vehicles
• Access to our Employee Assistance Programme
• A flexible benefits portal offering online discounts, cashback and eGift cards
• A Cycle2Work scheme
• A great working environment with a number of social events

This position can be based in Southampton or Liverpool. Our Southampton site is well connected by public transport and has ample cycle parking in addition to free onsite car-parking with over 40 EV charging points. The Liverpool centre is part of the University campus and is only a short walk from the city centre and Lime Street station. We have a hybrid working approach where for most positions staff can work from home up to 2 days per week.

If you are interested in this position, please click ‘Apply for this job’ and submit an up-to-date CV and cover letter. If you are unable to apply online, please contact the NOC recruitment team at careers@noc.ac.uk / 07955 851648.

We are committed to fostering diversity and inclusion in our workplace. We actively encourage qualified candidates from all backgrounds to apply for this position, as we strive to create a supportive and equitable environment where all voices are valued and heard.