Design Engineer

Security clearance: This role requires eligibility for UK security clearance (BPSS and SC). SC requires 5 years of continuous UK residency. If you are not currently eligible, please do not apply.

A work sample is required to apply for this role. Share something you built - a live URL, a GitHub repo, a case study. Show us a design decision you made and the thing you shipped as a result. Personal projects are fine.

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 every day.

If you are excited by ownership, pace and purpose - and by building something that genuinely matters - we would love to hear from you.

This role in one sentence

You have an instinct for what good looks like - and you've built the technical skills to make it real, fast.

What this role is

Most design roles separate thinking from building. This one doesn't.

You design and build in the same motion. You take a rough brief - a Slack message, a whiteboard sketch, a "what if we showed them this?" - and produce something working and considered quickly. Not rough-and-ready. Working and considered.

Your prototypes become the blueprint. Production teams build from what you prove works. That means the quality of your design instinct directly shapes the quality of our products - permanently.

You'll work directly with the CTO, product leads, and business development. One week it's a tactical map UI for ORION (autonomous decision-making for Defence). The next it's an analyst dashboard. The next it's a pitch demo for AVIS (agentic AI) or STRIDER (tactical robotics). The brief will always be ambiguous. The output must always be sharp.

Reports to: CTO

What you won't be doing

• Writing production backend services
• Sitting in two-hour planning meetings
• Writing Jira tickets about Jira tickets
• Designing by committee

You should know

• We work in defence and national security. Some of what we build can't be shown publicly.
• This is a small company (under 40 people). You'll have creative autonomy within a product portfolio that spans defence, maritime, and AI.
• As OD scales, this role grows into leading a design engineering function - setting the visual and interaction language across all our products.

Requirements

What makes you right for this

Design is your identity, not your job title

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 know the difference between a UI that works and a UI that's right - and you care about that difference even when nobody else in the room does.

You prototype at the fidelity the decision requires

Sometimes that's a rough flow to test an idea. Sometimes it's pixel-perfect because the stakeholder is a senior military officer forming a first impression of your company. You make that call instinctively. You don't default to rough because it's faster - you choose the right level of finish for what the prototype needs to do.

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 the thing, not just draw it. Code is the tool that serves your design instinct - not the other way round.

AI tools have made you significantly faster

You use Claude, Cursor, v0, or similar daily. You've internalised how to prompt, iterate, and ship. AI-assisted development is what makes this role possible - it closes the gap between your design instinct and what you can ship in a day. You treat these tools as a power tool, not a novelty.

You're comfortable with ambiguity - but not with mediocrity

"Build something that makes the Navy want to buy ORION" is a brief you'd find exciting. You'd start with what the Navy officer needs to feel in that room, work backwards to the UI, and ship something that delivers that feeling. You iterate on real feedback. You're not precious about your work - but you are precise about it.

Tech you'll use

• Core: React/Next.js, Tailwind CSS, TypeScript
• Design: Figma - for when you need to think before you build, and for handoff when prototypes become production specs
• 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 all of these on day one. The whole point of this role is that you pick things up fast.

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 about all areas of our business.

Benefits include:

•     Rapid career progression and personal growth

•     Flexible working hours

•     Opportunity to shape the future of a fast-growing business

•     Hybrid working model

•     Company pension (NEST) with 4% employer contribution

•     Private Healthcare

•     29 days holiday + 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.