Principal UX Designer

We’re looking for an experienced Principal UX Designer to join our Experience Design team. This is a senior, hands‑on role combining deep UX expertise, service design thinking and strong visual craft across websites, mobile apps and digital services.

You’ll work from the earliest stages of client engagements, uncovering the real problems, shaping the approach and guiding teams through discovery, design, delivery and optimisation. You’ll connect digital and non‑digital touchpoints with the people, processes and technology behind them, improving both customer experiences and how businesses operate.

Equally comfortable in the detail and leading client workshops, you’ll set the experience direction across multiple projects while staying actively involved in the work. Our clients span sectors and markets, so you’ll need to adapt quickly, influence roadmaps and help shape new opportunities. You’ll also mentor designers and raise standards across the practice.

Your portfolio should showcase polished digital products and experiences, with clear evidence of how your research, strategic thinking and design leadership have improved user outcomes and delivered business results.

• Lead discovery and research, unpicking complex briefs and aligning stakeholders on user needs, business objectives and success measures. Combine research, analytics, audits and market insight into actionable recommendations.
• Use journey mapping and service blueprinting to connect customer‑facing experiences with the people, processes, systems and operational dependencies behind them. Identify opportunities to improve digital and non‑digital touchpoints, simplify business processes and reduce friction.
• Map current-state (“as‑is”) and future-state (“to‑be”) experiences, establish performance baselines and evaluate the delivered service against intended outcomes to measure success and demonstrate return on investment.
• Set and communicate a clear experience vision across projects, translating insight and technical constraints into coherent UX direction, prioritised opportunities and actionable roadmaps.
• Balance strategic leadership with hands‑on design, creating IA, flows, wireframes, polished interfaces and interactive prototypes. Test and refine solutions throughout delivery.
• Raise design quality through clear standards, constructive critiques and reusable design systems. Champion accessibility, inclusive design and effective content, working with engineers to maintain quality through implementation.
• Act as a trusted advisor to clients and senior stakeholders, bringing together technical and non‑technical teams, presenting recommendations persuasively and navigating competing priorities with confidence and empathy.
• Lead design collaboration across squads, anticipating risks and supporting feasibility, documentation and quality through to launch. Work with clients and delivery teams to plan optimisation, further development or handover.
• Mentor designers, including senior colleagues, across strategy, research, craft and stakeholder management. Improve our processes, tools and workflows, including practical uses of AI and advanced prototyping.
• Shape design approaches, scopes and estimates for proposals and Statements of Work. Balance ambition, feasibility and budget with commercial and delivery colleagues, support pitches and identify further client opportunities.
• Represent the design practice through case studies, articles, workshops and industry events, sharing expertise and building relationships.

• You bring clarity to ambiguity, combining strategic thinking with hands‑on craft and attention to detail.
• You look beyond the interface, considering how people, processes and technology work…