Senior/Principal AI Product Designer

Location(s): UK, Europe & Africa : UK : London 

BAE Systems Digital Intelligence is home to 4,500 digital, cyber and intelligence experts. We work collaboratively across 10 countries to collect, connect and understand complex data, so that governments, nation states, armed forces and commercial businesses can unlock digital advantage in the most demanding environments.

Job Title

Senior Principal AI Product Designer

Location

London. Full-time.

Job Description

Are you passionate about cutting-edge AI and machine learning in digital services, and want to deliver positive real-world value to the UK? We are looking for a Senior UX Designer to join our team and help solve a variety of interesting problems in the national security space. 

At BAE Systems Digital Intelligence, we work with a wide range of government customers, across defence, space, and government. In our national security AI team, we undertake a variety of projects covering exploratory research into AI methods and approaches, bespoke solutions to complex customer problems, and infrastructure projects working across large customer datasets.

We’re looking for a talented designer with experience of delivery AI products or features to help shape the next generation of digital products for Government and National Security customers. If you’re passionate about solving complex problems, crafting elegant user experiences, and guiding teams towards thoughtful, research-driven design decisions, you’ll thrive here. You’ll join a collaborative, multidisciplinary design community working at the forefront of AI-enabled systems, data-rich platforms, and digital services.

This is an exciting time to join our team to help pioneer both our customer's and our own AI adoption journey. Not only will you be directly making a huge impact through the solutions you develop, you’ll be doing it for an organisation who makes a huge impact to the security of the UK.

Core duties

All roles in our Digital Experience community require a passion for creating digital experiences that delight and inspire diverse audiences. Our UX Designers work collaboratively to shape compelling digital services that are empathetic to user needs and deliver measurable business results.

• Design intuitive AI-powered experiences, applying Human-Centred AI principles to ensure transparency, trust, and ethical use.
• Build client understanding of AI, clearly framing capabilities, limitations, and responsible design choices.
• Translate research and business requirements into user interface and visual design concepts that maintain brand consistency and visual quality. 
• Lead end-to-end design across discovery, concept development, interaction design, and delivery.
• Direct and oversee interface interactions through an iterative, evidence-based approach. Drawing insight from interviews, analytics, usability studies, and user feedback.
• Guide and support creation of user-centred design artefacts such as wireframes, information architecture (e.g. site maps and navigation models), and interactive prototypes.
• Take ownership of major areas of work, ensuring consistent high-quality delivery with minimal direction from senior management.

• Lead, coach and develop less experienced team members, building capability in design and research practices. 

• Represent BAE DI in senior client engagement, presenting research findings, design rationale, and user needs clearly to teams, stakeholders and sponsors.

• Champion user-centred and agile design practices, driving a collaborative environment across delivery teams.

• Keep pace with emerging trends in AI, ML, and interface design, evaluating new tools, interaction patterns and responsible-AI practices to identify opportunities within secure government contexts.
• Evaluate and improve existing digital products with a focus on usability, inclusivity, and accessibility.

About you

You’re an experienced UX, Service, or Product Designer who thrives on bringing structure to complexity and communicates with clarity. You’re comfortable leading workshops, crafting prototypes, and clearly articulating design rationale for a range of audiences. You apply User-Centred Design (UCD) methodologies across all phases of delivery, from research through to implementation, ensuring alignment between user needs, business objectives, and technical feasibility.

You will have experience in many of the following:

• Designing intuitive interfaces for AI-powered features and products, translating complex capabilities into clear, user-friendly experiences.
• Performing research to understand user types, behaviours, and needs — ensuring that digital experiences are truly user-led, whilst balancing business and technical constraints.
• Champion Human-Centred AI principles, ensuring AI features are transparent, ethical, and genuinely useful.
• Leading end-to-end design across discovery, concept development, interaction design, and delivery.
• Directing and overseeing tasks such as persona development, needs analysis, site mapping, wireframing, and prototyping, ensuring quality and consistency across outputs.
• Translating research and insights into visual and interactive concepts that evoke engagement and response, leveraging imagery, motion, and interaction.
• Guiding and influencing cross-functional teams and senior clients in consuming and acting on research insights to improve policy, service design, and digital product outcomes.
• Excellent analytical, communication, and collaboration skills.
• Working effectively in a fast-paced, team-driven environment.

It would be great if you also had:

• A degree in Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or related field.
• Proficiency in design software such as Figma.
• Familiarity with ethical AI frameworks and data privacy principles.
• Working on government or national security projects.
• Experience with Agile/Scrum methodologies.
• Familiarity with front-end technologies (HTML/CSS, basic JavaScript).

If you are not currently Security Cleared, you will need to be willing and eligible to go through the process.

How we will support you

• Work-life balance is important; you can work around core hours with flexible and part-time working
• As many of our customers work predominantly in the office, we expect all of our staff to work at least 3 days per week in the office
• You’ll get 25 days holiday a year and the option to buy/sell and carry over from the year before
• Our flexible benefits package includes private medical and dental insurance, a competitive pension scheme, cycle to work scheme, taste cards and more
• You’ll have a dedicated Career Manager to help you develop your career and guide you on your journey through BAE
• You’ll be part of our company bonus scheme
• You are welcome to join any/all of our Diversity and Support groups. These groups cover everything from gender diversity to mental health and wellbeing

About our team

Our people are what differentiates us; they are resourceful, innovative and dedicated. We have a mix of generalists and specialists and recognise that this diversity contributes to our success. We recognise the benefits of forming teams from a mix of disciplines, which allows us to come up with cutting-edge, high-quality solutions. Our breadth of work across the Public Sector provides diverse opportunities for our people to develop their careers in new areas of expertise and with new clients.

You’ll be part of a big company, but we try to create a culture that feels like a small one. The work will stretch you and be challenging, but we encourage a healthy work-life balance. Most of all, we know teams who work well together also perform well. We’ll do everything we can to ensure you have fun at work, and in social activities outside of it whether that’s virtually or in person, as conditions allow.

You will be joining our National Security business which is the largest area within our UK business. Our mission is to be the most trusted partner for our National Security clients in delivery of their core mission. At the end of 2020 we had over 700 employees working across our security and law enforcement customers. This year, we are looking to build on our success and grow even further by recruiting over 100 new members to our team.

We have a rich history of working within National Security. In fact, we have over 40 years’ experience of delivering advice and solutions to our customers in this sector, supporting them in carrying out their vital missions.

More about BAE Systems

You will work for a division of BAE Systems who helps nations, governments and businesses around the world defend themselves against cyber crime, reduce their risk in the connected world, comply with regulation, and transform their operations. We’re a consultancy and products business and employ smart, motivated individuals who work together across a range of projects and products. You’ll get to work on a variety of different systems for different customers throughout your career with us. We’re passionate about Diversity and Inclusion in our workforce and the people you’ll work with will reflect this. We employ over 4,000 people across 18 countries in the Americas, APAC, UK and EMEA.

For more information please visit our website:
https://www.baesystems.com/en-uk/uk-businesses/digital-intelligence/markets/national-security-and-law-enforcement

Help us secure a connected world. Apply now and be inspired.

Life at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence 

We are embracing Hybrid Working. This means you and your colleagues may be working in different locations, such as from home, another BAE Systems office or client site, some or all of the time, and work might be going on at different times of the day.

By embracing technology, we can interact, collaborate and create together, even when we’re working remotely from one another. Hybrid Working allows for increased flexibility in when and where we work, helping us to balance our work and personal life more effectively, and enhance well-being.

Diversity and inclusion are integral to the success of BAE Systems Digital Intelligence. We are proud to have an organisational culture where employees with varying perspectives, skills, life experiences and backgrounds – the best and brightest minds – can work together to achieve excellence and realise individual and organisational potential.