UX Designer Job at Kainos in Belfast

Kainos is advertising a full-time UX Designer role for a 12-month fixed-term contract. The Belfast vacancy sits within the product team responsible for Kainos Smart products for Workday, a suite of applications intended to help organisations gain more value from their Workday investment. The work centres on understandable, accessible product experiences shaped by user needs and established design principles.

This UX Designer job at Kainos in Belfast calls for a practitioner who can move confidently between research, interaction design, visual design and collaborative product delivery. The advert places particular emphasis on AI-assisted experiences: design choices need to make features intuitive, transparent and grounded in real user needs. It also asks for a portfolio that can demonstrate the depth and range of the applicant’s design practice.

Opportunity Details

Overview of the Vacancy

Location, Sector, and Role Context

The advertised position is based in Belfast, while the vacancy also identifies Derry-Londonderry, Homeworker - UK and Birmingham as additional locations. It is listed as full time and as a 12-month fixed-term contract. Within the Kainos Smart product team, the designer will help shape a growing collection of Workday-focused applications. The stated purpose is not simply to produce screens: the role connects product experiences with user research, usability practice and the needs of organisations using enterprise systems.

A central part of the brief is the design of AI-powered features and workflows. The employer describes a product setting that includes intelligent automation, analytics, reporting and user productivity, so the work requires attention to how people understand and trust technology. Product managers, engineers, data scientists and customers are named as regular collaborators. That makes the post appropriate for a designer able to explain design rationale, test concepts with users and turn technical capability into a useful customer experience.

The advertised responsibilities span discovery and delivery. Journey and process maps are used to help set priorities and guide direction, while research and usability testing are used to validate concepts. Feedback and usage data also inform improvement work. This creates a role in which the designer needs to connect qualitative insight with product evidence, rather than treating research as separate from day-to-day design decisions. The portfolio request is therefore especially important: it gives applicants a practical way to show how their own work has moved from an identified need to a considered design outcome.

About the Employer: Kainos

Organization and Relevant Services

Verified Employer Overview

Kainos is a technology organisation that says it reimagines how organisations operate and develops new ways of working intended to improve people’s experiences and lives. Its public materials describe work across digital services and Workday. The organisation presents its work as a combination of technology, customer collaboration and practical problem-solving, with projects for businesses, public-sector bodies and other organisations. This background is relevant because the UX Designer post focuses on enterprise products rather than a consumer-only product environment.

The Workday practice provides services for deployment, optimisation, testing and auditing. Kainos also describes a set of products that includes Smart Test, Smart Audit, Smart Shield and Kainos Employee Document Management. Its Workday page explains that these products can be used separately or together alongside a customer’s Workday configuration. For the advertised designer, that product context gives a clear link between research-led interface decisions and applications used within complex organisational processes.

Kainos describes its Workday work as supporting organisations through the introduction, ongoing use and development of the platform. Its public account of the practice includes configuration, process improvement, integrations, test management and audit-related activity. The vacancy’s reference to a growing product suite is consistent with that setting: a UX Designer will be considering how people interact with software that may sit alongside established systems, different business processes and changing operational requirements. The role’s stated focus on transparent AI experiences is particularly relevant where users need to understand what a feature is doing and why.

Professional Setting and Role Context

Work Environment, Operations, and Facilities

Kainos states that its people work across digital transformation challenges and that its teams include specialists serving healthcare, commercial and public-sector clients. In the vacancy, the designer is positioned in a team working with product, engineering and data science colleagues as well as customers. The professional setting therefore combines product discovery and delivery with communication across different disciplines. Accessibility is named in the advert as a consideration throughout the product development lifecycle, not as an afterthought at the final interface stage.

Its careers material describes employee-led wellbeing initiatives, advocacy and networking groups, alongside an emphasis on learning and development. Kainos Academy is presented as a route for professional development that can include technical and Workday certifications. Those broader careers statements do not change the requirements of this individual vacancy, but they help explain the organisation’s stated environment for people who want to develop their knowledge. The UX Designer role fits that setting through its focus on shared design practice, research evidence and collaboration across product disciplines.

The employer also describes a culture in which people are encouraged to contribute ideas and build their capability over time. For this post, the most relevant practical implication is the need to make design work legible to others: the published criteria specifically include presenting designs and rationale to stakeholders. A designer who can articulate trade-offs, show how user evidence affected a decision and work constructively with technical specialists will be well placed to address the stated responsibilities. That is a professional communication requirement grounded in the advert, rather than a claim about any particular project or team arrangement.

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Open Positions

1. UX Designer (12 months FTC)

Official title: UX Designer (12 months FTC)

Location: Belfast | Employment information: 12-month fixed-term contract, full time

The role is intended for a UX professional who can frame product decisions around evidence, create and assess design concepts, and advocate for user-centred and accessible practice. The vacancy combines hands-on design output with research activity, mapping and communication. A successful contributor will be able to work through the detail of an enterprise software experience while keeping users, product priorities and the practical implementation context in view.

Responsibilities

• Create wireframes, prototypes and high-fidelity mock-ups that follow usability practice and accessibility standards.
• Design clear AI-powered features and workflows that remain aligned with identified user needs.
• Lead the use of journey maps and process maps to inform priorities and design direction.
• Facilitate user research and usability testing to inform decisions and test concepts.
• Help the wider project team understand the value of UX design as a discipline.
• Analyse user feedback and usage data to identify where an experience can be improved.
• Work with Product, Engineering and Data Science colleagues to make AI capabilities meaningful and usable for customers.
• Promote UX and accessibility practice across the product development lifecycle.

Qualifications

• Proven experience designing enterprise software or SaaS solutions is required.
• An understanding of AI design patterns and approaches to AI-assisted user experiences is required.
• Knowledge of information architecture, interaction design and visual design principles is required.
• A strong UX portfolio demonstrating research, interaction design and visual design expertise is required.
• Experience using design and prototyping tools such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe XD or similar tools is required.
• Experience with Agile delivery methodologies is desirable.
• Knowledge of Workday product architecture and of enterprise governance, compliance, audit or risk-management processes is desirable.

Skills and Competencies

• Use a needs-based approach to digital product design and make decisions grounded in user evidence.
• Present designs and the reasoning behind them clearly to stakeholders.
• Collaborate effectively with product, engineering, data science and customer stakeholders.
• Balance business objectives with user needs when developing high-quality solutions.
• Apply research, usability testing and concept validation to practical product decisions.
• Translate complex AI capability into transparent, understandable user experiences.

Benefits and Employment Information

• The advertised schedule is full time, with a 12-month fixed-term contract.
• The employer has not published benefit or salary details for this vacancy.
• The vacancy states that adjustments or accommodations can be discussed with the talent acquisition team during the recruitment process.

Application Guidance

Prepare a Focused Application

CV, Evidence, Documents, and Interview Preparation

This is general preparation guidance, not an additional employer requirement. Make the portfolio straightforward to navigate and select work that shows how research, interaction design and visual design informed an outcome. Short case studies can explain the initial user problem, the evidence gathered, the alternatives considered, the prototype or interface work and what was learned after testing. Where confidentiality prevents detailed disclosure, describe the design method and personal contribution without sharing restricted material.

The written application can map experience directly to the published criteria. Give concise examples of enterprise or SaaS work, collaboration with technical colleagues, and design decisions made from user feedback or usage data. Prepare to discuss how an AI-assisted workflow can remain understandable and how accessibility is considered throughout development. The advert also identifies optional experience with Agile methods, Workday architecture and enterprise governance; distinguish clearly between direct experience and transferable knowledge.

• Choose portfolio examples that show wireframes, prototypes or high-fidelity designs as well as the reasoning behind them.
• Explain the research methods used and how testing or feedback changed a design decision.
• Prepare an example of working with engineers, product managers or data specialists on a shared product problem.
• Be ready to describe an accessible design choice and how it was considered during delivery.
• Frame any relevant AI, Workday or governance experience accurately, separating hands-on work from familiarity.

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How to Apply

Submit Your Application Through the Verified Route

Apply Through the Official Kainos Vacancy Page

Use the official Kainos vacancy page below. Review the role information and select the visible Apply control to continue on the employer’s Workday recruitment portal. The route may ask an applicant to sign in or create an account before the application form can be completed. Submit the requested information and portfolio material through that official portal.