Design Lead - Research & Experience Strategy (12 Month FTC)

End Date:
Tuesday 11 August 2026

Salary Range: £92,701 - £109,060

You support flexible working –  for more information on flexible working options

Flexible Working Options:
Hybrid Working, Job Share

JOB TITLE:

Design Lead (Research & Experience Strategy) - 12 Month FTC

SALARY: £92,701-£109,060

LOCATION(S):
London

HOURS:

Full Time

WORKING PATTERN:
Our work style is hybrid, which involves spending at least two days per week, or 40% of our time, at one of our office sites. Colleagues with disabilities can be supported with workplace adjustments including hybrid working expectations in line with our Flexibility Works policy.

We’re looking for an experienced Design Lead to help shape the future of intelligent customer experiences within Intelligent Customer Products. This is a design leadership role with design research as a core specialism. You'll use customer insight, behavioural understanding and critical thinking to help define the experiences, products and services we build, while leading design direction across a multidisciplinary squad. We're looking for someone who is curious, comfortable with ambiguity and excited by the opportunity to help define new interaction models, products and services in a rapidly evolving space.

This is a role for someone who can combine deep customer understanding with strategic leadership, helping teams decide not just how to build things, but what should be built in the first place.

Lead design direction for a strategic product area, aligning customer needs, business priorities and technology opportunities. Shape experience strategy and future vision for intelligent, AI-enabled customer experiences. Use customer insight and research to influence product strategy, roadmap decisions and investment priorities.

Lead and guide research activity across the lab, ensuring teams have the evidence needed to make confident decisions. Build and evolve research capability within Intelligent Customer Products, helping establish standards, practices and ways of working that increase the impact of customer insight. Ensure customer understanding is embedded throughout the product lifecycle, from opportunity identification through to delivery and optimisation.

Line manage and develop designers and researchers, supporting career growth, capability development and high performance. Create an inclusive, supportive environment where individuals can thrive and deliver their best work. Coach and mentor designers, helping raise capability across the team.

Work with Product, Engineering and Design leaders to define and track Objectives and Key Results. Establish clear success measures and ensure customer, business and design outcomes remain aligned.

We’re transforming esting billions in our people, data and tech to change the way we meet the needs of our 28 million customers. We’re growing, and we’d love you to be part of the journey.

8+ years experience leading design for complex digital products, platforms or services. Experience working on AI-enabled customer products, conversational experiences, virtual assistants, chat experiences or agentic systems. Strong understanding of the opportunities, limitations and design considerations associated with AI-powered customer experiences. Strong expertise in design research and using customer evidence to shape decisions, strategy and product direction. Experience leading and developing designers and researchers, including coaching, performance management and capability building.

Experience influencing senior partners and building alignment across multidisciplinary teams. Ability to connect customer insight, business goals and technology opportunities into a clear design direction. Strong facilitation, communication and storytelling skills.

We know that great talent comes from many backgrounds. Whilst this job advert may reference specific years of experience, we recognise that skills are developed in many ways, so if you have relevant,…