Lead UI/UX Designer

Location: Singapore, Singapore

Thales is a global technology leader trusted by governments, institutions, and enterprises to tackle their most demanding challenges. From quantum applications and artificial intelligence to cybersecurity and 6G innovation, our solutions empower critical decisions rooted in human intelligence. Operating at the forefront of aerospace and space, cybersecurity and digital identity, we’re driven by a mission to build a future we can all trust.

In Singapore, Thales has been a trusted partner since 1973, originally focused on aerospace activities in the Asia-Pacific region. With 2,000 employees across three local sites, we deliver cutting-edge solutions across aerospace (including air traffic management), defence and security, and digital identity and cybersecurity sectors. Together, we’re shaping the future by enabling customers to make pivotal decisions that safeguard communities and power progress.

Responsibilities:

UX leadership and strategy

·       Define and own the UX strategy, design principles and UX roadmap for the NexGen scope delivered from Singapore, aligned with the system architecture, the Project Design Authority and the Thales LAS France (TLF) solution team.

·       Lead, mentor and review the work of UX/UI designers: assign work, set quality standards for research, interaction design and visual design, and grow local UX capability.

·       Act as the design authority for UX decisions within the delegated scope, recording significant decisions and their rationale so they can be defended to the customer and in reviews.

UX requirements elicitation and traceability

·       Plan and lead UX elicitation with operational users and the customer: contextual inquiry and observation of controller workflows, stakeholder interviews, workshops, task analysis, and review of existing systems and operational procedures.

·       Turn findings into artefacts the team can use: personas or user profiles, user journeys, task flows, scenarios, and an information architecture.

·       Write UX requirements that are verifiable, not aspirational: usability, workload, task-time, error-tolerance, alerting and accessibility criteria with stated acceptance measures. Ensure they are held in the programme's requirements tool and traced to system requirements, designs and verification evidence.

·       Work with systems engineering and the safety and human factors specialists so that HMI-related requirements, human error considerations and safety mitigations are reflected in the design.

Design, modelling and prototyping in Figma

·       Lead design work in Figma or equivalent: wireframes, high-fidelity screens, interaction specifications and interactive prototypes that model realistic operational scenarios, including normal, degraded and emergency modes.

·       Set the team's Figma practices: file and project structure, naming, versioning and branching, component and variables usage, and Dev Mode handoff, so that designs are a reliable source of truth for developers.

·       Use prototypes to validate concepts with users before build, and to align the customer, engineering and test teams on intended behaviour.

Design system

·       Own the design system for the solution: foundations (colour, typography, spacing, iconography), components and patterns, usage guidance, and contribution and governance rules, maintained in Figma and kept in step with the coded component library.

·       Define the design system for operational conditions such as control-room lighting, multi-monitor layouts and high-density data displays, and include accessibility standards (e.g. WCAG 2.2 where applicable) and colour rules that keep alerts and states distinguishable.

·       Work with front-end engineering to keep design tokens and components consistent between Figma and code, and run a versioned release and change process for the design system.

Agile and SAFe delivery

·       Integrate UX into the SAFe cadence: contribute to PI Planning, size and sequence UX work as Features, Stories and Enablers, and keep design work at least one iteration ahead of development.

·       Work with Product Owners and the Release Train Engineer to prioritise UX work, and present UX progress at System Demos and Inspect & Adapt events.

·       Define UX Definition-of-Ready and Definition-of-Done criteria with the agile teams, and review built features against the design before acceptance.

Validation and project delivery

·       Plan and run usability evaluations (formative tests, heuristic reviews and scenario-based walkthroughs with controllers), and track findings to closure.

·       Own UX deliverables against the project schedule and contract milestones, including inputs to design reviews, customer HMI reviews, and factory and site acceptance.

·       Estimate UX effort, identify UX risks and dependencies, and report status to project management and the Project Design Authority.

·       Follow Thales processes and practices and contribute to their improvement.

Requirements:

Education

• Bachelor's degree in interaction design, human-computer interaction, human factors, industrial or visual design, computer science or a related discipline.
• A portfolio is required. It should show the problem, the research, the design decisions and the outcome, not only final screens.

Essential Skills/Experience

• Typically 8+ years in UX/UI design, including at least 2–3 years leading designers or leading UX on a multi-team product or project.
• Expert, hands-on Figma or equivalent skills: components and variants, auto layout, variables and modes, interactive prototyping, team libraries, and developer handoff through Dev Mode.
• Proven experience eliciting UX requirements directly from users and stakeholders, and turning them into verifiable requirements and design artefacts.
• Has built or governed a design system used by several teams, including components, tokens, documentation and a contribution model.
• Has worked in agile teams and in a SAFe (or similar scaled agile) environment, including PI Planning and working with Product Management and Product Owners.
• Project delivery experience: has delivered UX work to a fixed scope, schedule and customer acceptance, not only continuous product iteration.
• Experience planning and running usability tests, and using the results to change the design.
• Ability to explain and defend design decisions to engineers, customers and senior stakeholders using evidence.
• Demonstrated experience in multi-cultural and multi-disciplinary teams.
• Good communication skills in English.

Desirable Skills/Experience

• Experience designing for complex, data-dense or mission-critical systems, such as air traffic management, aviation, defence, control rooms, transport or healthcare.
• Knowledge of human factors and human-centred design standards (e.g. ISO 9241-210 human-centred design, ISO 9241-110 interaction principles).
• Experience with requirements management tools (e.g. DOORS, Polarion, Jama Connect) and with tracing UX requirements to verification.
• Familiarity with front-end technologies (HTML, CSS, a component framework) and design token workflows.
• SAFe certification (e.g. SAFe for Teams or SAFe POPM).

Essential / Desirable Traits

·       Leads by example, and develops and mentors designers

·       User-focused, and makes decisions on evidence

·       Possesses learning agility, flexibility and pro-activity

·       Comfortable with agile teamwork and user engagement

At Thales, we’re committed to fostering a workplace where respect, trust, collaboration, and passion drive everything we do. Here, you’ll feel empowered to bring your best self, thrive in a supportive culture, and love the work you do. Join us, and be part of a team reimagining technology to create solutions that truly make a difference – for a safer, greener, and more inclusive world.