📍 Job Overview
Job Title: UX/UI Designer
Company: Darktrace
Location: Cambridge, Ontario, Canada
Job Type: Full-Time
Category: UI/UX Design, Product Design
Date Posted: 2025-06-16T12:04:19
Experience Level: Mid-Level (2-5 years)
Remote Status: Hybrid (Minimum 2 days per week in office - Thursdays and Fridays)
🎨 Role Summary
- Translate user needs into intuitive and effective digital product designs, focusing on the cybersecurity domain.
- Drive the end-to-end product design process, from initial user research and discovery through to testing and refinement.
- Develop and maintain design systems to ensure visual consistency and scalability across multiple platforms and applications.
- Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams, including UI developers and technical teams, to deliver viable and technically feasible design solutions.
🖼️ Primary Responsibilities
- Design detailed wireframes, interactive prototypes, and high-fidelity user interfaces based on user research findings and product requirements.
- Conduct user research activities, including usability testing and experiments, to gather insights and validate design decisions.
- Contribute to the maintenance, enforcement, and expansion of existing design systems and internal design processes.
- Collaborate effectively with the UI development team to ensure designs are accurately implemented and meet technical specifications.
- Work closely with technical teams and product managers to balance user needs, business objectives, and technical constraints throughout the design process.
🎓 Skills & Qualifications
Education: While not explicitly stated, a Bachelor's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), or a related field is typically preferred or equivalent practical design experience demonstrated through a strong portfolio.
Experience: Proven track record in UX/UI Design, typically 2-5 years, with a strong portfolio showcasing a range of projects and design methodologies.
Required Skills:
- Robust understanding of the entire product design lifecycle, from discovery and research to testing and iteration.
- Experience designing for both desktop and mobile platforms, including responsive design principles.
- Proficiency with industry-standard design tools such as Figma and the Adobe Creative Suite (e.g., Adobe XD, Photoshop, Illustrator).
- Skill in creating infographics and data visualizations to effectively communicate complex information.
Preferred Skills:
- Keen eye for maintaining visual consistency across a portfolio of digital products.
- A basic understanding of cybersecurity concepts, common threats (e.g., malware, phishing), and the security landscape.
- Familiarity with Darktrace products and technology, demonstrating an interest in the company's domain.
🎨 Portfolio & Creative Requirements
Portfolio Essentials:
- A strong online portfolio showcasing a diverse range of UX/UI design projects.
- Include case studies that clearly articulate your design process, from problem definition and research to ideation, prototyping, and testing.
- Demonstrate your visual design skills through high-fidelity mockups and interactive prototypes.
- Highlight projects where you have designed complex interfaces, data visualizations, or security-related dashboards (if applicable).
Process Documentation:
- Detail your approach to user research, including methodologies used and how insights informed your design decisions.
- Showcase your ideation process, including sketches, wireframes, and iterations.
- Explain your approach to usability testing and how feedback was incorporated into your designs.
💵 Compensation & Benefits
Salary Range: CAD $70,000 - $100,000 per year. This range is an estimate based on average salary data for UX/UI Designers with 2-5 years of experience in the Cambridge, Ontario region, considering the cybersecurity industry context and company size. Actual salary may vary based on experience, specific skills, and negotiation.
Benefits:
- 23 days of paid holiday plus all public holidays, increasing to 25 days after two years of service, providing ample rest and personal time.
- An additional day off for your birthday, promoting work-life balance and personal celebration.
- Comprehensive private medical insurance covering the employee, cohabiting partner, and children, ensuring health and well-being for families.
- Life insurance coverage equal to four times your base salary, offering financial security for dependents.
- Participation in a salary sacrifice pension scheme, facilitating retirement planning and savings.
- Enhanced family leave policies, supporting employees through significant life events.
- Access to a confidential Employee Assistance Program (EAP), providing support for personal and work-related challenges.
- Cycle to work scheme, encouraging sustainable commuting and healthy lifestyle choices.
Working Hours: Standard full-time working hours apply, with a hybrid model requiring a minimum of 2 days per week in the Cambridge office (specifically Thursdays and Fridays), allowing for focused in-office collaboration and flexible remote work. Expect approximately 40 hours per week.
🎯Team & Company Context
🏢 Company & Design Culture
Industry: Computer and Network Security. Darktrace is a global leader in cyber security AI, operating in a highly dynamic and critical industry focused on protecting organizations from evolving cyber threats.
Company Size: 1,001-5,000 employees globally, with over 2,500 employees. This indicates a well-established company with structured teams and processes, yet still potentially agile enough for designers to have a noticeable impact.
Founded: 2013. Founded by mathematicians and cyber defense experts, the company has a strong foundation in innovation and AI research.
Team Structure:
- The role is within the R&D department, suggesting a focus on product innovation and development.
- The design team likely includes other UX/UI Designers and potentially UX Researchers, collaborating closely on product features.
- Expect cross-functional collaboration with UI development teams, technical teams, product managers, and potentially cybersecurity experts.
Methodology:
- The mention of user research, usability tests, and experiments suggests a user-centered design approach.
- Collaboration with technical teams implies an iterative design process, likely incorporating elements of Agile or Lean methodologies.
- Maintaining and expanding design systems indicates a focus on scalability and efficiency in design implementation.
Company Website: http://www.darktrace.com
📈 Career & Growth Analysis
Design Career Level: This role is positioned as a Mid-Level UX/UI Designer. This typically involves taking ownership of design tasks for specific features or product areas, contributing to the design system, and collaborating with minimal supervision. It requires a solid foundation of design skills and the ability to work independently.
Reporting Structure: The role is within the R&D department, suggesting reporting lines likely lead to a Design Lead, Manager, or Head of Design within that department. Collaboration across R&D teams is expected.
Design Impact: Designers at Darktrace likely have a significant impact on how users interact with complex cybersecurity AI products, influencing usability, understanding of threats, and effectiveness of security measures. The role contributes directly to the core product offering.
Growth Opportunities:
- Potential for advancement to Senior UX/UI Designer, leading larger projects or mentoring junior designers.
- Opportunities to specialize in specific areas like data visualization for cybersecurity, enterprise UX, or design system architecture.
- Growth through learning about cutting-edge AI and cybersecurity concepts, expanding technical domain knowledge relevant to design.
🌐 Work Environment
Studio Type: Primarily an office-based environment with a hybrid work model. The Cambridge office serves as a central hub for collaboration and team interaction on Thursdays and Fridays.
Office Location(s): Cambridge, Ontario, Canada. The specific address can typically be found on the company website or job board listing.
Design Workspace Context:
- The hybrid model suggests dedicated workspace in the Cambridge office for in-person collaboration, brainstorming, and team meetings on designated days.
- Expect access to necessary design software and hardware, along with collaborative tools for remote work.
- The R&D setting likely fosters a technically-oriented and innovative environment.
Work Schedule: Hybrid, requiring a minimum of two days per week (Thursdays and Fridays) in the Cambridge office. The remaining days offer flexibility for remote work, allowing designers to manage their schedule while ensuring regular in-person team cohesion.
📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process
Design Interview Process:
- Initial screening call with HR or a recruiter to discuss experience and fit.
- Technical interview(s) with design team members, focusing on portfolio review and discussing your design process for past projects.
- Potential design challenge or take-home assignment to assess problem-solving skills and design execution.
- Interviews with cross-functional stakeholders (e.g., product managers, engineers) to evaluate collaboration and communication skills.
- Cultural fit interview to assess alignment with company values and team dynamics.
Portfolio Review Tips:
- Curate your portfolio to highlight projects relevant to enterprise software, data visualization, or technically complex interfaces if possible.
- For each case study, clearly outline the problem, your role, your design process (research, ideation, testing), your solutions, and the impact of your work.
- Be prepared to articulate your design decisions and the rationale behind them, especially in the context of user needs and technical constraints.
- If you have experience designing for security or technical users, emphasize your understanding of their unique needs and workflows.
Challenge Preparation:
- Familiarize yourself with common design challenge formats (e.g., improving an existing feature, designing a new feature based on a prompt).
- Practice articulating your thought process while solving a design problem, explaining your assumptions and constraints.
- Be prepared to present your solution and receive feedback, demonstrating your ability to iterate and incorporate suggestions.
ATS Keywords: UX Design, UI Design, User Experience, User Interface, Product Design, Interaction Design, Usability Testing, User Research, Wireframing, Prototyping, High-Fidelity Mockups, Design Systems, Figma, Adobe XD, Adobe Creative Suite, Data Visualization, Infographics, Visual Consistency, User-Centered Design, Agile, Lean UX, Cybersecurity, Cyber Defence, AI, Machine Learning, Enterprise Software, Desktop Design, Mobile Design, Cross-Functional Collaboration, Stakeholder Management, Design Process, Case Studies, Portfolio Review, Information Architecture, Usability, Accessibility, Design Handoff, Component Library, Pattern Library, Design Thinking, Iterative Design.
🛠 Tools & Technology Stack
Primary Design Tools:
- Figma: Expected to be highly proficient in using Figma for collaborative design, wireframing, prototyping, and creating high-fidelity interfaces.
- Adobe XD: Familiarity and experience with Adobe XD for prototyping and design workflows.
- Adobe Suite (Photoshop, Illustrator): Proficiency in other Adobe Creative Suite tools for visual design, image editing, and creating assets like infographics.
Collaboration & Handoff:
- Tools for design handoff to developers (potentially within Figma or other dedicated platforms like Zeplin or InVision Inspect).
- Collaboration platforms for communication with cross-functional teams (e.g., Slack, Microsoft Teams).
- Documentation tools for maintaining design systems and style guides.
Research & Testing:
- Tools for conducting user research and usability testing (e.g., user testing platforms, survey tools).
- Potential use of analytics tools to inform design decisions and measure the impact of design changes.
👥 Team Culture & Values
Design Values:
- A passion for understanding complex user needs and translating them into intuitive design solutions, particularly within the challenging cybersecurity domain.
- Commitment to creating products that effectively serve users and address critical security concerns.
- Emphasis on collaboration and communication, working effectively with diverse team members across R&D and technical departments.
- A proactive and experimental mindset, comfortable exploring new ideas and visual interfaces to optimize user experience.
Collaboration Style:
- Close collaboration with UI development teams for seamless design implementation.
- Active participation in discussions with technical teams to balance user needs with technical feasibility.
- Likely involves design critiques and feedback sessions to improve designs iteratively.
⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities
Design Challenges:
- Designing user interfaces for complex cybersecurity data and AI-driven insights, requiring clear data visualization and intuitive navigation.
- Balancing the need for powerful functionality with ease of use for users with varying levels of technical expertise.
- Staying updated on the rapidly evolving cybersecurity landscape and translating new threats and concepts into understandable user experiences.
- Maintaining design consistency and scalability across a growing suite of products and platforms.
Learning & Development Opportunities:
- Opportunity to deepen expertise in designing for the cybersecurity domain, a highly specialized and in-demand field.
- Exposure to cutting-edge AI and machine learning technologies and their application in user interfaces.
- Potential for professional development through conferences, workshops, and access to learning resources related to design, AI, and cybersecurity.
💡 Interview Preparation
Design Process Questions:
- Be prepared to walk through your design process for a complex project from your portfolio, focusing on your approach to research, ideation, and testing.
- Discuss how you balance user needs, business goals, and technical constraints in your design work.
- Explain how you utilize design systems and ensure visual consistency across projects.
Company Culture Questions:
- Research Darktrace's products and recent developments in AI and cybersecurity to demonstrate your interest and understanding of the domain.
- Be prepared to discuss your collaboration style and how you work effectively with developers, product managers, and other stakeholders.
- Ask thoughtful questions about the design team structure, collaboration practices, and the impact of design within the organization.
Portfolio Presentation Strategy:
- Select 2-3 strong case studies that showcase your relevant skills and experience, particularly those involving complex interfaces or data visualization.
- Structure your presentation to clearly articulate the problem, your process, your solution, and the results or impact of your design work.
- Be ready to answer questions about your design decisions and the trade-offs you considered.
📌 Application Steps
To apply for this design position:
- Submit your application through this link
- Tailor your resume and cover letter to highlight your specific UX/UI design experience, particularly any relevant experience with complex interfaces, data visualization, or the cybersecurity domain.
- Ensure your online portfolio is up-to-date and easily accessible, featuring case studies that showcase your design process and the impact of your work.
- Prepare for interviews by reviewing your portfolio projects, practicing articulating your design process, and researching Darktrace and the cybersecurity industry.
- Research the Darktrace design team and their work if publicly available to understand their approach and identify areas of alignment.