UX Lead

We’re looking for a UX Lead to join our global UX practice at Springer Nature and lead UX within a substantial programme of work that publishes the latest scientific research to the world.

The role is based in Lisbon (Portugal) and you’ll be collaborating with colleagues there, as well as Berlin (Germany), London (UK), Pune (India) and other locations globally. Some travel may be required.

About Springer Nature

Springer Nature is a global scientific publisher helping to advance science and accelerate solutions to address the world’s urgent challenges. With origins as far back as 1842 (Springer) and 1867 (Nature), content has been published from multiple nobel prize winners including Darwin and Einstein. Examples of published research include the first physical sequencing of the human genome to COVID-19 studies, publishing over 24,000 pieces of research and making over 70k articles and books free to access. Some facts:

• By the end of 2024, there were 1.9 million research submissions, and 370,000 articles published via SNAPP, Springer Nature’s own editorial management system.
• There are over 5 million articles in more than 3,000 scientific journals and 3 million chapters in more than 190,000 books.
• Springer Nature is a leading publisher of Sustainable Development Goals content with more than 800,000 articles and supports the SDGs in how we work - Springer Nature has been carbon neutral since 2020.

Visit sndigital.springernature.com to learn more about who we are and what we do.

Team Vision

The Snapp Business team aims to improve the experience of funders, institutions, and internal users that are involved in the process of publishing scientific research.

Why this matters

Funders and institutions form an integral part of publishing via Open Access, which allows the research to be freely available for anyone to access. Springer Nature has been moving towards this publication model as it can increase the visibility and reach of research, accelerate the dissemination of findings, and the application of knowledge. Improving the experience of these groups, as well as optimising the workflows of internal users, contributes to Springer Nature’s mission to help advance scientific discovery.

How the team works

The cross-functional team evolves and continuously improves, both individually and collectively. Whilst being agile helps to structure our work, we look to focus on the right problems in the right way. We have room to experiment but also take pride in understanding business needs and delivering on them. But we need help!

About you

It is essential that you have:

• Proven UX experience in a Senior/Lead role,
• A clearly designed UX portfolio (website or PDF) demonstrating your critical thinking, analysis, and decision-making as well as diverse UX methods and techniques.
• Strong User Research skills and define your UX outcomes from research insights,
• Proven experience working with stakeholders and non-designers and have an empathetic, articulate, and open communication style.
• Proven experience of working in a collaborative (remote and in-person) team, where there is collective ownership of the product.
• Awareness of your strengths and recognise opportunities to learn and improve.
• Experience getting involved with every stage of the UX lifecycle and planning UX strategies.
• Experience mentoring and supporting other designers.

What you’ll be doing

This role is a terrific opportunity for friendly, curious people who want to get involved in our work and develop our culture and help make Springer Nature Digital a place where people and ideas can thrive. You will be responsible for overseeing the redesign of the editor experience and you will aim to develop a coherent, user-focused, experience that delivers a best-in-industry set of tools and services.

Within 3 months

Get settled:

• Get to know Springer Nature as a business and the groups within it.
• Research - understand what's been done, context/history of it.
• Design - what the teams have been working on, how they do it and how it is going.
• Meet the stakeholders, understand their experience/background/hopes.
• Begin to work with your Domain lead and get to know your UX peers/community.

Within 6 months

Be involved:

• Research – planning, conducting and sharing.
• Design - prioritising, reviewing, delivering, sharing. Keeping user-centred design and design standards part of the culture.
• Strategic work with stakeholders.
• Collaborating regularly with other leads and keeping aligned with peers.
• Joining the UX community as an active participant and becoming an example to others.
• Line management - giving support and direction to your team, getting involved if/where needed but equally supporting their learning and development - potentially allowing them to fail early.
• Recruitment - helping to assess applicants.

Within 12 months

Make a change and see your impact:

• Research - know where there are gaps and assumptions. You know the relative risk and potential effort of each that is clearly laid out in a plan for the foreseeable future.
• Design - is informed by research and the Design System, any new elements and insights are fed back into the design system.
• Strategic work with stakeholders is informed by research and design outcomes.
• Learnings shared within your team, with the wider UX community and beyond.
• Line management - Ensuring any reports are challenged, developing and becoming even better. You'll be a mentor, coach, champion and supporter for your direct reports.
• Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) - This is core to you and your team, you’re an advocate for DEI not just in what we deliver to our users but also in how we work together.

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Why work here?

We are an ambitious and dynamic organisation, and home to some of the best-known names in research, educational and professional publishing.

Working at the heart of a changing industry, we are always looking for great people who care about delivering quality to our customers and the communities we work alongside. In return, you will find that we open the doors to discovery for all our employees – offering opportunities to learn from some of the best in the business, with a culture that encourages curiosity and empowers people to find solutions and act on their instincts. Whether you are at the beginning of your career or are an experienced professional, we invite you to find out more about the roles we offer and explore our current vacancies.