UI/UX Designer (Japan)

Job Description

Company Overview

Mind Foundry is an Oxford University company, founded by world-leading academics. Our mission is to create a future where humans and AI work together to solve the world's most important problems

We believe that AI is one of the most important technological advancements in human history, and in order to create a better future, it must be created responsibly and in a way that aligns with human values. We do this by creating AI responsibly from trusted scientific principles. We develop algorithms that are humble, honest, and aware of their limitations.

Our work focuses on creating a future where humans and AI work together to radically transform our world for good. Our technology has been used to solve problems when no other solution was available. The Mind Foundry Platform powers comprehensive offerings for the most complex problems in Insurance, Infrastructure, Defence & Security, and others.

Position Overview

Our mission is to redefine wide-scale industry innovation within insurance and civil infrastructure with proactive and responsible human and AI collaborative experiences that set new standards and new possibilities in detection, automation, optimisation and orchestration. We are now seeking to unlock operational and strategic advantages with our partners in Japan and around the world.

As our UX/UI Designer in Japan, you will be the first person we hire as we establish a physical footprint in Tokyo. This means that you will be employee number one at our soon-to-be-opened Japanese office and as such will temporarily share some job responsibilities that are not normally part of a Design role, but will be a requirement until we have sufficiently scaled our team in Japan. This is crucial, so please read on to understand more.

As a UX/UI Designer, you will be joining as a crucial member of our Product Design team. Building on the design system, methodologies, and values we’ve created within the Design team, you will focus on creating user-centric designs for the AI solutions we are building for our partners and customers in Japan, including but not limited to the insurance and civil infrastructure sectors.

You will be responsible for both the user experience and user interface design, ensuring our AI solutions and products provide real value by being functional, visually appealing, easy to use and take advantage of the latest in Machine Learning.

Additionally… As our First Employee At Our Tokyo Office you will be asked to assist in the launch of our Tokyo office by engaging in partner-related activities such as hosting meetings in our office, as well as some operations-related activities until we build up our Japanese team (learn more below).

Key Responsibilities

As a UX/UI Designer at Mind Foundry, you will play a vital role in making our AI an essential part of enterprise technologies in Japan and around the world. You will be required to:

• Conduct in-depth user research to understand the needs and behaviours of clients, customers and end-users.
• Initiate, build and maintain relationships with customers, clients and partners. Ensuring responsive, pro-active communication and collaboration both in-person and online.
• Collaborate with interdisciplinary teams, including Machine Learning Scientists and Engineers, Product and Project Managers and Software Engineers, to define user requirements and design objectives.
• Develop user personas, user journeys, user stories, wireframes, interactive prototypes, and high-fidelity UI designs, primarily using Figma.
• Apply best practices in UX/UI, interaction and visual design to create intuitive, engaging, and visually appealing user experiences.
• Design, facilitate and synthesise usability testing and gather feedback to refine and enhance design solutions.
• Maintain a deep understanding of UX/UI trends, AI technology advancements and specific challenges in the insurance industry to inform design strategies.
• Ensure consistency in design language and branding across all digital applications.

As our First Employee At Our Tokyo Office, you will help us lay the foundation that will eventually become a small cross-functional team of highly capable people in Mind Foundy’s Tokyo office. You may be required to:

• Work remotely in the Tokyo region until the new office is launched
• Answer incoming phone calls to the Tokyo office (remotely from your preferred working space)
• Spend 1-2 days per week in the new Tokyo office (once it opens)
• Travel to Oxford, England for 2-3 weeks of on-boarding and training
• Conduct meetings with key stakeholders in the Mind Foundry office or in other locations in Tokyo, and occasionally in other parts of Japan.

What you’ll need

• Minimum of 4 years experience in UX/UI design, with a preference for experience in software technologies for the enterprise.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating UX/UI design expertise, especially in complex user interfaces.
• High proficiency in Figma for creating wireframes, prototypes and UI designs.
• Skilled in user research, usability testing, and translating complex requirements into user-friendly designs.
• Strong in the many techniques within the UI/UX stack.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment and manage multiple projects simultaneously while adapting to changing demands at short notice.
• Experience in finance, insurance and civil infrastructure sectors is a plus.
• Excellent communication and presentation skills. This role will be highly customer, client and partner facing, requiring the ability to engage and manage relationships.
• Bilingual with native language proficiency in Japanese and fluency in English as a second language
• Knowledge of AI and its application in professional organisational-wide systems is not a requirement but is highly beneficial.

If you are a full-stack UX Designer who has a passion in making exceptional user experience throughout enterprise customer journeys, then please do get in touch to discuss.

Remote within commuting distance to Tokyo (only available to candidates residing in Japan). Available for out-of-hours calls with Mind Foundry head office and colleagues in the United Kingdom (London time).