Wealth Management Lead Design Researcher

Lead Design Researcher | Barclays.

We are looking for a Lead Design Researcher to embed client insight at the heart of decision‑making across Wealth Management.

You will lead research strategy across complex digital wealth journeys, ensuring that product, proposition, design and strategic decisions are grounded in robust client evidence. Through discovery and evaluative research, you will uncover evolving behaviours, unmet needs and opportunities to make investing and wealth management simpler, more intuitive and more accessible.

Working closely with Product, Proposition, Design, Data Science, Technology and Strategy teams, you will influence roadmaps and help shape the future of our digital wealth experiences. You will also lead and develop a team of researchers, building capability, coaching best practice and creating an environment of continuous learning and professional growth. In addition, you will oversee relationships with external research agencies, ensuring high‑quality delivery and value from partner engagements.

You will bring external perspectives into the organisation, identifying market trends, competitor developments and emerging client expectations that could influence our future direction. By translating business strategy into a proactive research roadmap, you will ensure that research activities anticipate future business and client needs rather than simply responding to them.

You will provide leadership to the wider research and design community, strengthening research standards and building a culture of insight‑led decision‑making.

You will ensure that client evidence has a visible and measurable influence on Wealth Management strategy, propositions and digital experiences. You will build confidence in research across the organisation, surface opportunities before they become obvious and help teams make better decisions for clients.

• Lead and develop the research strategy across digital Wealth Management journeys.
• Build, manage and coach a high‑performing team of researchers, supporting their development and elevating research capability across the organisation.
• Plan and deliver end‑to‑end discovery and evaluative research programmes.
• Manage external research agencies and strategic research partners to ensure high‑quality insight generation and effective delivery.
• Apply appropriate qualitative and quantitative methods to understand client behaviours, attitudes, needs and friction points.
• Translate research findings into clear, actionable recommendations for product, proposition, design and strategy.
• Identify unmet client needs, emerging behaviours and opportunities for future capabilities and propositions.
• Bring external perspectives into the business by monitoring market trends, competitor activity and industry best practice.
• Translate business strategy and priorities into a proactive research roadmap that informs future product, proposition and experience development.
• Influence senior stakeholders through compelling evidence, storytelling and practical recommendations.
• Partner with multidisciplinary teams to create insight‑led strategies and roadmaps.
• Champion research excellence and foster a culture of insight‑led decision‑making across Wealth Management.

• Extensive experience in UX research, design research, customer insight or service design research.
• Experience leading substantial research programmes across complex digital products or customer journeys.
• Strong knowledge of qualitative and quantitative research methods, including discovery and evaluative approaches.
• A track record of translating research into actionable product, proposition, service or design recommendations.
• Experience influencing senior stakeholders and shaping strategic decisions through client evidence.
• Strong synthesis, communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to make complex findings clear and compelling.
• Experience working collaboratively with Product, Design, Technology, Data and other multidisciplinary teams.
• Ability to operate strategically while remaining close to research planning, delivery and quality.
• Experience establishing or improving research practices,…