Before joining Cognite, I spent 15 years leading design and research across defence, finance, government, and maritime programmes - working with skilled professionals in environments where decisions carry real consequences. These programmes shaped the approach I bring to AI systems design today.
ATIX: British Military Decision Support System
BAE Systems Digital Intelligence | Principal UX Consultant | Security Clearance
Working under security clearance, I designed a real-time tactical decision-support interface for military commanders. The system integrated multiple data sources to provide situational awareness of the tactical battlespace, adapted to commanders within the context of their mission.
The design challenge was reducing cognitive overload in high-risk operational environments where interpretation speed and accuracy directly affect outcomes.
"Sam communicates well and developed a good relationship with the client. ATIX has been very successful and was very well received by the client's stakeholders: the user interface did an excellent job in selling the rest of the capability we demonstrated."
Vodafone: Permissions & Preferences (GDPR Programme)
BAE Systems Digital Intelligence | Global Head of User Experience
The Permissions & Preferences programme ensured Vodafone's compliance with new European data privacy regulations, giving customers greater control of their personal information while enabling them to benefit from more relevant offers and rewards. The core tension: telcos hold vast amounts of customer data and need to differentiate competitively - without undermining brand trust.
I led the UX team, responsible for translating complex regulatory requirements into clear, usable consent flows. This meant designing the consent architecture itself - defining conflict resolution flows and permission hierarchies across anonymous, identified, and logged-in user states - while managing information architecture across the full platform.
It was a uniquely cross-disciplinary challenge. We drew on behavioural economics, Jungian brand archetypes (Young & Rubicam), naming workshops with 50+ brand options, guerrilla testing, three rounds of usability testing, and extensive copywriting - all in service of making data privacy legible and trustworthy at scale.
"We won this based on our combination of expertise in data, security, innovative technical design, creative services and distributed delivery. A great team effort!"
UK Home Office: National Law Enforcement Data Programme
BAE Systems Digital Intelligence | Principal UX Consultant
The National Law Enforcement Data Programme (NLEDP) was working to provide law enforcement and other agencies with current, joined-up information - on-demand and at the point of need - in order to prevent crime and better safeguard the public.
I led the UX workstream, delivering investigative data workflows for UK law enforcement following the Government Digital Services (GDS) manual. I conducted cross-agency research in high-consequence investigative environments and scaled the UX team from 3 to 10.
"GDS were happy with the user research approach which is based on a systematic approach. They expressed confidence with the user profiles and personas work, and it was great to see a robust design approach based on mobile first principles and flexibility."
Lloyd's Register: Transforming a £10M Legacy System
BAE Systems Digital Intelligence | Principal UX Consultant
Lloyd's Register, a global marine classification society, was replacing outdated desktop-based inspection and certification systems with a modern platform. I led the UX strategy and delivery for this £10M transformation programme.
I worked daily with real marine surveyors who were seconded from their jobs to support the design process. Together we developed personas, journey maps, a site map, wireframes, a component library, and a style guide - all validated through multiple rounds of usability testing.
"LR absolutely love the UX design, which Paul, the Lloyd's Register Programme Director calls 'sexy' and better than the competitors."
The design won Creative Services Design of the Year at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence.
BAE Systems Maritime: Mobile App for 600+ Naval Engineers
BAE Systems Digital Intelligence | Principal UX Consultant
At Portsmouth Naval Base, 600+ maritime engineers relied on fragmented, paper-based tools for ship maintenance. I led the design of a mobile application to replace these workflows, using a combination of behavioural and attitudinal research methods with actual naval engineers.
"Thanks to the user-centered design approach, BAE AI were able to really get under the skin of our users and bring them along the journey. I'm sure we would not have had the good results and user engagement had we gone for a more traditional 'top-down' approach."
MyRefinitiv: Governing a Global Customer Platform
Refinitiv / Thomson Reuters | UCD Governance Lead
Refinitiv (formerly Thomson Reuters) was consolidating ~67 fragmented customer portals into a single platform serving 80,000+ global users. I was the first in-house UX consultant on the programme, brought in to bridge the gap between agency design and engineering delivery.
My role quickly expanded. I defined platform-wide governance standards across 12 agile teams spanning London, New York, and Bangalore. I introduced structured evaluation metrics and release gating thresholds, created a shared atomic design system, and ensured consistency across teams while balancing aggressive delivery timelines with platform integrity.
"Sam was the first in-house UX designer on the program. He turned the 'beautiful but not deliverable' agency work into something both elegant and practical - launching the MVP on time. He's been a calming and stubborn (in a good way!) influence."
The platform was widely adopted and won multiple global UX awards.