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:
Sun, 5 Jul 2026.

We’re hiring a Service Design Lead to join our Experience Team. We’re looking for an experienced and accomplished Service Design professional who brings proven leadership in the service design discipline. This role is ideal for someone who has successfully worked as and developed service design practitioners, and who can drive high‑quality, outcome‑focused design across complex, end‑to‑end journeys. You’ll bring a deep understanding of core service design methods — including service blueprinting, journey mapping, systems mapping and service concept development — alongside strong working knowledge of UX design and user research, and how these integrate within agile product teams.

If you put the customer at the heart of everything you do, thrive in a fast‑paced, agile environment, and have a track record of designing and delivering seamless, end‑to‑end experiences that transform how customers interact with organisations, we’d love to hear from you.

We’re the fourth‑biggest building society in the UK and a mutual organisation owned by our members. Our colleagues 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 or 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.

• 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
• A 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
• A range of wellbeing benefits, including our cycle‑to‑work initiative and discounted gym membership

• Lead a multidisciplinary team of Service Designers, User Researchers and UX Designers, nurturing a collaborative, user‑centred and outcome‑focused culture.
• Ensure design, research and service activities across product teams align with the Experience Strategy set by the Senior Experience Lead and deliver measurable value for our members and the corporate plan.
• Provide day‑to‑day direction, support and coaching, enabling the team to deliver high‑quality, evidence‑based work within outcome‑focused product environments.
• Oversee the planning and prioritisation of service design, UX and research activities to ensure the right problems are addressed at the right time.
• Drive consistency of practice across all disciplines by maintaining standards, processes, tools and ways of working.
• Guide teams to turn insights, data and journey analysis into clear service recommendations that influence product roadmaps and priorities.
• Lead 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.
• Collaborate closely with Product, Engineering, Data, Compliance and Operations teams to ensure end‑to‑end solutions are viable, inclusive and grounded in evidence.
• Facilitate workshops, co‑creation sessions and alignment activities to build shared understanding of problems and opportunities.
• Partner with the Senior Experience Lead to mature the experience practice, shape capability development, influence planning and embed service thinking across the organisation.
• Champion inclusive design, accessibility, evidence‑based…