Staff UX Software Engineer

Sonatype is the software supply chain management company that invented componentized software development and pioneered the software supply chain category. As leaders in the open-source community and the DevSecOps industry, we run the world’s largest repository of Java open-source components—Maven Central.   Our groundbreaking, full-spectrum platform empowers customers to rapidly create, deploy, and maintain innovative software at scale, all while aligning directly to their business needs. Trusted by more than 2,000 organizations—including 70% of the Fortune 100—and over 15 million software developers, Sonatype’s tools and guidance help deliver exceptional, secure software.   From inventing modern artifact management with Nexus Repository to introducing the world’s only solution that halts malicious open-source malware in its tracks, we’re committed to constant innovation. We leverage AI/ML to give our clients, developers, and the industry complete confidence in the quality, automation, and security of their software. Learn more at www.sonatype.com

Role Summary: Sonatype has evolved how product design works inside a modern engineering organization. We’ve moved beyond static Figma artifacts and are designing in code, co-creating solutions with engineering and PM, and leveraging AI to accelerate iteration and handoff.

If you’re a UX Engineer who thrives on understanding complex developer workflows, building real prototypes, and shaping UX with your team (not in an isolated Design bubble), you’ll be right at home here.

What You Will Do - Core Work: Develop a deep understanding of Sonatype’s multi-product developer platform, personas, and core Jobs To Be Done.

Work closely with PMs and engineers to co-create user flows and experience direction - UX leads the thinking, but the outputs are created and iterated on together , not in isolation.

Map complex IA, developer workflows, permissions models, and multi-product interactions into clear, intuitive experience patterns.

Create user,  product, and system flow diagrams in Miro that reflect real constraints, technical realities, and team input.

Shape conceptual designs and UX architectures for new features and continuous, iterative improvements.

Build coded UX prototypes using Claude Code, VS Code, GitHub workflows, and front-end fundamentals (HTML/CSS/JS/React). 

Ensure your prototypes are structured enough that AI tools can generate engineering specs, scope definitions, and implementation requirements directly from your code diffs.

Conduct lightweight, practical research (interviews, surveys, UAT, quick validation) when needed - and know when to proceed without research to keep momentum.

Collaborate early and often to align constraints, scope, design direction, and technical feasibility.

What You Will Do - Supporting Responsibilities: Facilitate iterative design and exploration sessions with PMs and engineers; guide direction without owning every artifact yourself.

Provide clear, structured UX reviews and guidance across product teams working on related areas.

Coach engineers on UX fundamentals, usability, accessibility, and interaction patterns when it relates to a project - raising the UX baseline across teams.

Contribute high-fidelity coded prototypes that solve customer problems in clear, easy ways while working with our design system and existing user flows

Support the UX Guild’s goal of improving UX quality and alignment across teams without introducing heavy processes.

Help evolve our AI-accelerated design workflows and strengthen our design system alignment.

What Success Looks Like: Your prototypes aren’t just illustrative — they behave like real product experiences and provide enough structure for AI tools to generate engineering specs, scope, and implementation requirements directly from your code diffs.

Teams ship better UX because your influence is pragmatic, collaborative, and grounded in technical realities.

You consistently transform complex developer and AppSec workflows into clear, coherent experiences.

You make smart calls about when to research and when to ship.

You adapt fluidly to evolving tools, processes, and AI-assisted workflows.

You communicate clearly with engineers, PMs, and stakeholders - zooming in or out as needed.

What We Are Looking For: Experience & Background

Significant experience designing enterprise software or developer platforms (typically 10–15+ years), with the maturity to influence across multiple product teams.

Experience collaborating deeply with engineers; hybrid UX/engineering backgrounds are a strong plus.

Research Judgment

Skilled at lightweight research (interviews, surveys, usability tests, UAT).

Able to choose the right level of research for the moment — avoiding slow, academic processes.

Technical Fluency

You don’t need to be a full-stack engineer, but you must be comfortable building working UX prototypes:

HTML/CSS/JavaScript

React familiarity

GitHub, version control

IDE + AI code editor pairings

Strong interest in expanding your code prototyping skills and leveraging AI to accelerate them

Core Strengths

Strong UX judgment, especially in complex technical domains.

Ability to simplify aggressively within real constraints.

Collaborative, positive, and non-defensive - thrives in evolving workflows.

Clear communicator who works well with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.

AI Mindset: Curious, experimental, and excited to incorporate AI into design workflows. Comfortable using AI for structure, exploration, prototyping, and iteration.

Fluency in English - verbal and written communications

This Role Is Not For You If…: Your first instinct is to open Figma to figure out what the team should build.

You prefer long discovery cycles, polished spec packages, or designing every state before engineering begins.

Code-based prototyping feels uncomfortable or outside your identity as a designer. You want to “own UX” rather than collaborate with engineers who share UX responsibility.

You need structured process, predictable phases, or linear design workflows. You feel frustrated by changing tools, evolving methods, or AI-assisted workflows.

Why Join Sonatype: Influence UX across a multi-product developer platform used at massive scale.

Prototype in real code environments and shape the future of design/engineering collaboration.

Help refine an AI-accelerated design workflow that’s growing and evolving quickly.

Work at a company that genuinely cares about better user experiences

Contribute to a collaborative UX Guild culture focused on quality, not ceremony.

Solve deep, technical UX challenges - not marketing flows or surface-level UI.

If you’re a UX Designer or UX Engineer who thinks in systems, builds in code, collaborates closely with engineers, and gets energy from evolving how design is done - this is the role for you.

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