Principal UX researcher (IP Tech Transfer) in Sheffield

IP Tech Transfer is a new product line for RWS using AI to drive the Patent Attorney collaboration with inventors, through to the drafting of patent applications and the subsequent prosecution responses to PTOs. Own the research and experience design for complex, AI-enabled workflow products in IP Tech Transfer. Work closely with product managers, engineers, customers, and stakeholders to understand user problems, map complicated workflows, and turn insight into clear, usable product experiences. This role is much more about research, synthesis, workflow design, and problem solving than making polished screens. You should be comfortable working directly with patent attorneys, inventors, IP managers, and internal teams to uncover needs, shape solutions, and improve decision making.

About Product & Technology: Product & Technology plays a pivotal role in aligning the organization with its strategic objectives and enhancing shareholder value. Product & Technology is responsible for establishing unified standards and governance practices throughout the company. Additionally, we oversee the development and maintenance of core applications essential for the seamless operation of various functions across the organization. We are committed to driving and executing future roadmaps that are in line with the overall strategic direction of RWS. With a global reach, Product & Technology provides support services to over 7500 end users worldwide. We take pride in managing the information security operation and safeguarding all our assets. Our core functions encompass Enterprise & Technical Architecture, Network & Voice, Infrastructure, Service Delivery, Service Operations, Data & Analytics, Security & Quality Compliance, Transformation, Application Development, Enterprise Platforms. With a dedicated team of over 500 staff, Product & Technology ensures a strong presence across all regions, enabling efficient and effective support to our global operations.

Key responsibilities:

• Lead user research across customers, users, and internal teams to understand workflows, pain points, behaviours, and unmet needs.
• Plan and run interviews, workshops, and other discovery activities with users such as patent attorneys, inventors, and IP managers.
• Turn research findings into clear problems, user needs, journey maps, service blueprints, and design opportunities.
• Work closely with product and engineering to shape product direction and simplify complex workflows.
• Design useful, intuitive experiences for workflow-heavy and AI-enabled products, focusing on clarity, trust, and usability.
• Help define and test concepts, prototypes, and interaction patterns early, before heavy development begins.
• Bring a strong point of view on information architecture, workflow design, and end-to-end user experience.
• Use feedback, testing, and evidence to refine designs and improve outcomes over time.
• Help the team adopt a more research-led, low-handoff way of working across discovery and delivery.

Success measures:

• Better understanding of user workflows, problems, and unmet needs.
• Complex product areas are translated into clear, usable experiences.
• Research leads to better product decisions and stronger prioritisation.
• Early concepts and prototypes help the team learn faster and reduce wasted development.
• Users find the products easier to understand, trust, and use.

Skills & Experience:

• Strong experience in UX, product design, or service design for B2B software, workflow tools, platform products, or complex service environments.
• Strong user research skills, including interviews, synthesis, journey mapping, and problem framing.
• Ability to turn messy qualitative input into clear insights, problems, and design direction.
• Experience designing for complex workflows, multi-step tasks, and operationally heavy environments.
• Strong UX and interaction design skills, with less emphasis on visual polish and more on clarity, structure, and usability.
• Comfortable working closely with product managers, engineers, and customers with minimal handoffs.
• Able to create prototypes, test ideas early, and use evidence to improve designs.
• Strong communication and facilitation skills, especially in workshops and customer conversations.
• Curious, pragmatic, and comfortable working in ambiguous environments with modern, low-bureaucracy ways of working.

Useful, but not essential:

• Experience in legal tech, IP, patents, document-heavy products, or other trust-sensitive domains.
• Experience designing AI-enabled products or human-in-the-loop workflows.
• Experience with service design, workflow mapping, or operational tooling.

Equal opportunity: RWS embraces DEI and promotes equal opportunity. We are an Equal Opportunity Employer and prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind. All employment decisions are based on business needs, job requirements, and individual qualifications, without regard to race, religion, nationality, ethnicity, sex, age, disability, or sexual orientation.