About Whitespace
Whitespace is the UK’s sovereign AI company for Defence, National Security and Government. We design and deploy mission‑ready AI that works in real operational environments, including cloud, edge and air‑gapped settings. At the core of our ecosystem is Collective, our sovereign AI operating system.
The Role
We’re looking for a hands‑on Lead Product Designer to take ownership of user experience and interaction design across our leading‑edge Collective AI Operating System. This is a high‑impact role reporting directly into our Head of Product and Design, focused on shaping the design for Collective's AI application builder, orchestration, and natural language interfaces and the design framework for our solutions engineering applications. You will set the design strategy, deliver exceptional user experience, and define how our AI‑first products help solve real‑world problems for critical industries. Hands‑on and customer‑facing, you will also own our Springboard design system, shape our design direction, and define our team’s work—choosing the best of next‑gen AI‑tooling to supercharge our design processes. Highly collaborative, you’ll join a close‑knit, cross‑functional team of product managers, designers, researchers and engineers who work together to build AI‑powered applications for high impact industries.
Responsibilities
Design Ownership & Execution
* Lead the user experience and interface design across our Collective Operating System.
* Own the end‑to‑end design process—from early discovery and flows to final UI, prototypes, handoff and iteration.
* Create clear, user‑centred design artefacts including wireframes, flows, journey maps, and interactive prototypes for conversational design and intent‑driven UI.
* Partner closely with product managers to shape product direction and inform the roadmap.
* Balance hands‑on delivery with influencing how we make product decisions.
Design Practice & Systems
* Shape and maintain internal design standards, workflow processes, and shared libraries with a focus on AI‑first working practices.
* Collaborate with our front end engineers to build and evolve a consistent design system—an atomic design approach to create the foundational components for the Collective platform.
* Evaluate tooling and approaches that improve velocity, quality, and collaboration with product/engineering, including new Generative AI design tools including using AI coding assistants.
* Lead on file structure, documentation, and process hygiene to ensure design remains a scalable discipline.
* Take a systems approach to design foundational capability empowering our Solutions Engineers to rapidly create UI and workflows against new customer problems at speed.
Collaboration & Stakeholder Influence
* Work closely with product management, researchers and engineering to deliver usable, valuable, feasible and compliant solutions.
* Run design workshops and partner with discovery researchers to facilitate user research and understand the why.
* Support early product framing by translating research, technical insight, and feedback into clear design direction.
* Present design decisions clearly to internal stakeholders—both technical and non‑technical.
* Provide team leadership, design mentorship, and peer review for other designers, supporting a healthy and high‑quality design culture.
* Be willing to travel to customer sites on occasion, if required.
Required Experience, Skills And Attributes
* 8+ years of hands‑on product design experience, ideally including enterprise or B2B environments.
* Demonstrable Generative AI and wider AI experience, including working knowledge of the latest AI‑first working practices.
* Evidence of moving from ambiguty to designing and shipping real, complex digital products used in production.
* Comfortable moving across multiple fidelity levels—from conceptual design and structure to detailed UI.
* Deep skills in modern design tools and prototyping practices, but with an eagerness and adaptability to identify and use next‑gen tooling – No strong allegiance to ways of working or specific tooling, you are motivated by shipping high quality user experiences.
* A basic understanding of code and experience using AI tooling to move from concept to prototype is advantageous.
* A pragmatic mindset—you bias toward good‑enough solutions without compromising user outcomes.
* Strong design communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
* Experience working in or around regulated industries, Defence, Government, or complex platforms is a plus.
* Due to UK Government and Defence customers, it is preferable that applications are willing and eligible to obtain UK Security Clearance (SC), or hold active SC.
What we offer
Work on impactful, cutting‑edge products powered by artificial intelligence. Be part of an agile, close‑knit team that values creativity, quality, and continuous learning. Influence to shape and lead design across our flagship Collective Operating System. A Flexible Working Environment, With Typically 2 Days Of Hybrid Working In Our Belfast Office, And One Of The Best Work‑life Balances You’ll Find.
* A 4‑day week during the holidays - July, August and December
* Early finish every working Friday at 3pm
* 25 days of annual leave, plus all NI bank holidays
A salary up to £90,000 – depending on experience.
Join us
If you're a designer who loves solving complex problems through thoughtful, validated, hands‑on design — and you're ready to lead by doing — drop us a line.
Whitespace is committed to creating an inclusive, supportive environment for all team members—we welcome candidates from diverse backgrounds and experiences.
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