Service Design Lead Maternity Cover

Service Design Lead (12 months - Maternity Cover)

Hours:

12 months FTC - Maternity cover. 35 hours per week, hybrid. Salary: £68,000 Per Annum. Closing Date:
Sat, 30 May 2026.

We are recruiting for a Service Design Lead to join our Journey Experience Team. If you put the customer at the heart of everything you do, enjoy working in a fast‑paced and agile environment, and have a talent for designing and delivering seamless end‑to‑end experiences that transform how our customers interact with us, then this may be the job for you!

We’re the fourth‑biggest building society in the UK, and what makes us a bit different is that we’re a mutual organisation. We don’t have shareholders; we’re owned by our members.

Our co‑workers say Skipton is a great place to work — and you could be one of them, bringing new ideas for how we can keep customers at the heart of what we do. Whatever your background and goals, we’ll help you take the next step towards a better future.

You’ll be joining the Journey Experience team, consisting of 2 Service Design Leads, 4 Senior Service Design Specialists, 3 Senior Researchers and 6 Senior UX Design Specialists. Our core role is to shape and drive exceptional member experiences by designing simple, seamless journeys that deliver meaningful value for the business and our customers.

Skipton values work/life balance, and we are proud to support hybrid and flexible working where possible. Our newly refurbished head office offers a vibrant and collaborative working space. We have a range of benefits available, including:

• Annual discretionary bonus scheme
• 25 days’ standard annual leave + bank holidays, rising by 1 day per year of service to a maximum of 30
• Holiday trading scheme, allowing you to buy or sell additional annual leave
• Matching employer pension contribution (up to 10% per annum)
• Colleague mortgage (conditions apply)
• Salary‑sacrifice scheme for hybrid and electric cars
• Commitment to training and development
• Private medical insurance for all colleagues
• 3 paid volunteering days per year
• Diverse and inclusive colleague networks, including our Carers and Pride Alliance groups
• Wellbeing benefits, including cycle‑to‑work initiative and discounted gym membership

• Leading a multidisciplinary team of Service Designers, User Researchers and UX Designers, nurturing a collaborative, user‑centred and outcome‑focused culture.
• Ensuring design, research and service activities across product teams align to the Experience Strategy set by the Senior Experience Lead and deliver measurable value for our members and the corporate plan.
• Providing day‑to‑day direction, support and coaching, enabling the team to deliver high‑quality, evidence‑based work within outcome‑focused product environments.
• Overseeing the planning and prioritisation of service design, UX and research activities to ensure the right problems are addressed at the right time.
• Driving consistency of practice across all disciplines by maintaining standards, processes, tools and ways of working.
• Guiding teams to turn insights, data and journey analysis into clear service recommendations that influence product roadmaps and priorities.
• Leading the creation of service design outputs such as service blueprints, current and future state journeys, concepts and system maps to identify friction points and improvement opportunities.
• Collaborating closely with Product, Engineering, Data, Compliance and Operations teams to ensure end‑to‑end solutions are viable, inclusive and grounded in evidence.
• Facilitating workshops, co‑creation sessions and alignment activities to build shared understanding of problems and opportunities.
• Partnering with the Senior Experience Lead to mature the experience practice, shape capability development, influence planning and embed service thinking across the organisation.
• Championing inclusive design, accessibility, evidence‑based decision making and continuous improvement across all experience disciplines.

• Proven leadership experience within service design or a closely related discipline, with responsibility for managing and developing practitioners.
• Deep…