Senior Product Design Engineer
Hybrid · Full time · Harwell (Oxford) / occasional London
A note from the founders
Oxford Dynamics is at an inflection point.
We operate in some of the most complex and high-stakes environments in the world: defence, national security, AI and robotics. The decisions we make now will define not just how fast we grow, but who we become.
You will work closely with the whole team. You will be trusted with judgment calls. You will influence the business. And you will see the impact of your work in the hands of real users every day.
If you are excited by ownership, pace and purpose, and by building products that genuinely matter, we would love to hear from you.
Who we are
Founded in 2019, Oxford Dynamics is a fast-growing UK frontier technology company developing both digital and physical AI systems built to operate in dynamic, mission-critical environments.
At the core of everything we build is AVIS™ (A Very Intelligent System), our orchestration platform: the intelligence layer that fuses multi-modal data, including text, imagery, telemetry and sensor feeds, so operators can interrogate complex information at speed and make better decisions under pressure. AVIS™ powers our digital decision products, such as ORION for multi-source decision-to-effect, and it powers our physical platforms, including STRIDER for CBRN operations and BARBARIAN for explosive ordnance disposal. The same brain reasons across the screen and the machine.
We work where wrong decisions can be catastrophic, partnering with defence and security organisations internationally to help protect nations, infrastructure and lives.
Requirements
The role
This is our first dedicated product design engineering hire. We hand you a loose signal, not a spec: "we think there's something here for this customer, go find it." You go and make it real, and you own it end to end, the thinking and the craft.
Three things define this role, and you need all three.
First, you find the real problem. The brief you're handed is almost always wrong, not because people are careless but because they describe the solution they can imagine, not the problem they actually have. A serving officer asks for a better map. Often the real issue is that they can't triage what matters under time pressure, and the map is a red herring. Your first job is to figure out what the thing should even be before you make it. In our world that reframe usually lives inside a constraint: the operator is wearing gloves, the decision has eight seconds, the link is degraded. Those constraints aren't obstacles to the design. They are the design problem, and often the place the real answer is hiding.
Second, you realise it with craft. Once you know what the thing is, you make it right, not just functional, and you build it yourself in production code. You have taste that operates below conscious thought, and you obsess over the details because they are what make the idea real, not because finish is a personality trait. In our world an interface is often the first thing a senior officer or a procurement lead ever sees of us, and it has to earn their trust in seconds.
Third, you get there by talking to people, not around them. There is no product manager translating for you here. You are the translation layer. You sit with an OD engineer, a serving officer, an analyst, a customer in a room, build a proof of concept, put it in front of them, and iterate on their reaction. You run that loop yourself, with internal and external stakeholders, until the thing is right.
One week it's the tactical map UI for ORION. The next it's an analyst dashboard a real analyst depends on. The next it's a customer-facing surface for AVIS or STRIDER. The brief will always be loose. Finding the real problem and realising it with craft are what make it sharp.
You'll report to the CTO and work alongside Product Leads and Business Development. You won't own the roadmap, that sits with product, but you will shape it constantly, because you're the one closest to what users actually respond to.
What you'll own
- The problem, not just the pixels: working out what a surface should actually be before designing it, then the visual and interaction language and finished quality of it (ORION, AVIS, analyst tooling).
- The full loop from loose brief to shipped artefact: reframing the real requirement, designing, building it in production code, and iterating on live feedback.
- Direct liaison with the people who use and buy what we build, internal engineers and external stakeholders alike. You don't wait for a brief to be written for you.
- Over time, the product design engineering function itself: hiring, standards, and the craft bar across everything we ship. This role is on a clear path to leading that function.
What makes you right for this
- You reframe the problem before you solve it. You don't take the brief at face value. You find the real problem behind what someone asked for, and you treat the hard constraints (the glove, the eight seconds, the degraded link) as the raw material of the design, not as things in your way. You know that the best product is often not a better version of what was requested but a different thing entirely.
- You have the taste, and the hands to realise it. You have an eye for layout, hierarchy, typography, and spacing that operates below conscious thought. Something being 4px off bothers you until it's fixed. You obsess over the details because they're what make the idea real, and you don't hand that vision to someone else to build, you build it yourself, in production code, because that's the only way it comes out right.
- You extract the brief, you don't wait for it. You're comfortable, energised even, sitting with someone who can't articulate what they need, and leaving with the real requirement. You'll talk to an OD engineer, a serving officer, or a customer directly, build a proof of concept, and iterate in front of them. No product manager will pre-digest the problem for you, and you wouldn't want them to.
- You learned to code because design tools were too slow. You're not an engineer who picked up Figma. You're a designer who learned React because you wanted to build and ship the thing, not just draw it. You write production front-end code (React/Next.js, TypeScript, Tailwind) to a standard that goes live, not just clickable prototypes.
- You build at the fidelity the moment requires. Sometimes that's a rough flow to test an idea with a user in an afternoon. Sometimes it's production-grade because it's going live to someone forming a first impression of the company. You choose the right level of finish instinctively.
- You think in products, not screens. You care about the whole journey (the empty states, the error paths, the second visit), not just the happy-path hero shot. You ship, watch how it lands, and improve it.
- You've operated with real autonomy before. You've owned an artefact or a surface, run the loop with real users, and shipped things that mattered. You don't need a detailed brief or a committee to do your best work. You need the problem and the room to solve it.
- AI-assisted development is second nature. You use Claude, Cursor, v0 or similar daily and have internalised how to prompt, iterate and ship with them. It's what closes the gap between a conversation with a stakeholder and something real in front of them the same day.
Tech you will use
- Core: React/Next.js, Tailwind CSS, TypeScript
- Design: Figma, for when you need to think before you build, and for handoff when your work becomes a production spec
- AI-assisted dev: Claude Code, Cursor, v0, Bolt.new
- You'll also encounter: mapping libraries (MapLibre GL, Deck.gl), data visualisation (D3.js), Vercel, GitHub Actions
You won't need day-one familiarity with all of these. At this level we expect you to pick up whatever the problem needs.
A work sample is required to apply. Share something you built: a live URL, a GitHub repo, a case study. Show us a design decision you made and the product you shipped as a result. Personal projects are fine.
send your work sample and a short note on one product decision you're proud of.
Interview process: Intro call, a build exercise followed by a technical discussion with the CTO
Benefits
Why Oxford Dynamics?
Join the most exciting growth area in the UK: AI and robotics. Every member of the Oxford Dynamics team has a major impact on the products and services we provide. Regardless of job title, you will get to make a real difference and learn from colleagues across every area of our business.
Benefits include:
- Meaningful equity in a fast-growing frontier company
- Genuine scope and a clear path into design leadership
- Flexible and hybrid working pattern
- Company pension (NEST) with 4% employer contribution
- Private healthcare
- Generous 29 days holiday plus public holidays
Oxford Dynamics is committed to creating an inclusive team experience for all. Regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, or parental status, we believe our work is at its best when everyone feels free to be their authentic self.
