Staff UX Software Engineer - Sonatype

About Sonatype

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.

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 Responsibilities

• 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 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 code diffs.
• Conduct lightweight, practical research (interviews, surveys, UAT, quick validation) when needed.

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.
• 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 design system alignment.

What Success Looks Like

• Your prototypes 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.

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.

Technical Fluency

Comfortable building working UX prototypes with:

• HTML, CSS, JavaScript
• React familiarity
• GitHub and version control
• IDE + AI code editor pairings
• Strong interest in expanding code prototyping skills and leveraging AI to accelerate them

Core Strengths

• UX Judgment: Strong UX judgment, especially in complex technical domains.
• Simplification: Ability to simplify aggressively within real constraints.
• Collaboration: Collaborative, positive, and non-defensive — thrives in evolving workflows.
• Communication: Clear communicator who works well with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• AI Mindset: Curious, experimental, and excited to incorporate AI into design workflows.
• Language: Fluency in English (verbal and written).

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.