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Senior Software Usability Engineer
Sophos Plc
Abingdon, UK

Salary: Up to £39K + bonus + benefits

Reference: WUK556

Please note: Sophos is able to accept applications only from EU nationals for this job.

Role

As a Software Usability Engineer you will drive User Interface design activities in line with customer, business and technical requirements on multiple concurrent cross-functional project teams. You will play a key role in growing the user experience discipline at Sophos to help shape the next generation of security and control products. This is an excellent opportunity to expand upon existing knowledge and develop a full range of usability skills.

This role is based at our headquarters in Abingdon, Oxfordshire.

Main duties

  • Conduct research on users and develop and maintain Personas that detail experiences, qualifications, skills, motivations and preferences, identify and raise Usability requirements to the cross-functional team
  • Question customers, partners, Product Management and Technical Support to establish and maintain a collection of environment descriptions for each Persona
  • Communicate with customers, partners, Product Management and Technical Support to identify tasks performed, workflows, and create user scenarios to assist in the development of functional specifications
  • Make recommendations for design and convince the cross-functional project team, to ensure the delivery of usable and useful products based on business requirements
  • Produce detailed user interface mock-ups, prototypes and specifications so that designs can be validated
  • Review designs and functional specifications and provide recommendations for improvements in line with Usability principles to the cross-functional project team
  • Coordinate and conduct user testing to validate designs, and make enhancements to designs based on feedback
  • Coach developers in usability theory, practice and techniques to allow them to develop highly usable products
  • Define and publish sections of user interface standards for Sophos products across all platforms, as directed by the Usability Lead
  • Exchange information with representatives from other Engineering departments to share ideas and make recommendations to resolve issues

Experience and skills

Essential:

  • Experience of user interface design, prototyping and specification in a Windows environment
  • Experience of all stages of the usability life cycle
  • Experience providing usability perspective for the development of software across the complete SDLC
  • Evaluation of user interface designs against platform user interface standards

Desirable:

  • Experience designing and running usability testing with users
  • Requirements analysis for software systems
  • Knowledge of the IT security industry

You will also need to:

  • Be adaptable and resilient
  • Be a problem solver
  • Possess strong negotiation skills

Benefits

The remuneration package includes:

  • Annual holiday entitlement of 25 days, which can increase to 28 days
  • Share options plan
  • Profit-related bonus scheme
  • Group personal pension scheme
  • Private medical insurance
  • Critical illness insurance
  • Death in service policy (life assurance)
  • Permanent health insurance
  • Travel insurance
  • Personal accident cover

Working conditions at Sophos are very good and include:

  • Subsidised staff restaurant
  • Free beverages, fruit and pastries

Please note: Sophos has a non-smoking policy inside its buildings.

To submit an application for this position please visit our website at www.sophos.com/careers.

Received: 22-Nov-07

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