Design Lead

ustwo is looking for a Design Lead to join our design team in the London studio. We are a global studio committed to making a measurable positive impact on people's everyday lives through the products we make. We’re renowned for crafting amazing digital experiences - to do this, we work across the entire product lifecycle; from visioning and discovery, validating propositions through to launching products and services that are valuable to both users and businesses. We have a lasting and transformative effect on the businesses and organisations we work with.

As a Design Lead at ustwo you'll be intuitive on how best to support the needs of the people, projects and studio. You know when to get hands-on with the detail yourself and when to set your teams up for success by delegating work while directing and teaching. You'll be responsible for ensuring that our designers are learning and developing through role modelling, and you'll provide guidance and support to individual designers and teams, bestowing vision and direction during projects, from discovering value to validating propositions all the way through to delivering product and services.

You will often be hands-on during projects, working with other designers, developers, and delivery coaches to define, build, and iterate solutions for our fantastic clients and partners. In addition, you'll have the opportunity to work with other senior members of the design team, helping us improve process, approaches, and strategy for both the design team and the studio as a whole.

ustwo is known for exceptional design craft, we are looking for a Design Lead that can help lead teams to create experiences that not only express brands within products but resonate emotionally with audiences.

Location

This role will be based in the London studio in Shoreditch at 154-158 Shoreditch High Street E1 6HU. We currently have a hybrid policy in which you are required to be in the studio on our universal day on Tuesdays and are welcome to either work from the studio or from home for the rest of the week. Our design team has committed to also coming into the studio on a Thursday too. We are keen for you to be involved in studio culture so the more you can get involved in opportunities for in-person social interaction; the better!

The role

• Comfortable, confident and competent at managing and directing individuals and teams.
• Able to frame and communicate challenges and opportunities to clients and teams, and create alignment on a way forward.
• Adept at growing client relationships and contributing to business development.
• A brilliant and accomplished designer with proven experience working on things that exist in the real world, not only as prototypes. Experienced and confident in visualising and prototyping concepts fast to communicate ideas.
• A natural storyteller and presenter alongside being an inclusive collaborator who can speak to a range of professionals from different backgrounds.
• Experienced with carrying out strategic opportunity discovery work within a design practice that creates value for our clients.
• Well versed in conducting research, creating and validating ideas, creating prototypes and making confident recommendations to our businesses.
• Someone who takes a wide strategic view of problems, seeking multiple inputs and solutions and challenges the thinking of the teams and clients you work with.
• Able to understand progressive ways of working to drive both commercial and design value and have the ability to simplify complexity.
• Has proven experience creating and leading expressive, effective and emotionally joyful digital experiences.
• Someone that enjoys being hands-on. We believe lead designers shouldn’t be separated from the reality of making things.
• Someone who gives and receives quality feedback in equal measures.
• Comfortable with experimentation and clear understanding when to experiment and where to use defined solutions.
• Has a product mindset and is able to make pragmatic trade-offs while holding a bigger strategic goal in mind.

Requirements:

Aside from having a portfolio that demonstrates breadth of cross-platform work, core craft skills and design process, you are;

• A Design Leader: Work with multidisciplinary teams on a range of products as the design authority on the project, often managing designers from a range of backgrounds.
• User-centric focus: Advocate for the user at all times to drive value for our client businesses. These projects typically range from 6 weeks to a year and vary from early-stage opportunity discovery through to producing products that go into the market through to recommending changes to existing products and services.
• Highly Collaborative: Work very closely with other designers, technologists, coaches and business partners to successfully deliver projects from kick-off through to delivery for our clients. You will own the design process, outputs and integrity of the project(s). Work with the team to develop prototypes, alphas, betas and live services. Regularly conduct testing with users, design the methodology for these and turn the output into intelligence.
• Open to sharing: Give and action feedback and input into all aspects of the design process and support by advising on team resourcing for the projects you are working on.
• Supporting growth: Support your line managees with career development, if you are asked to line manage people.
• Confident client facing: Carry out client-facing workshops and presentations and help develop accounts that you are working on.
• Studio support: Work with the new business team on developing pitches.
• Expert in your field: Be an expert who is continually learning about your field and help your colleagues improve their design practice.
• Improving culture: Contribute to progressing & improving our culture and ways of working - offering up new approaches.
• Able to travel: from time to time, when required and with advance planning.

Remuneration

Our Lead Design salary bandings are £75k-90k depending on experience. Our full benefits package is available to all permanent employees, please see further details here.

Interested but think your experience doesn’t perfectly align with this job description? That’s ok. Research shows underrepresented groups in particular are less inclined to apply for jobs where they don’t meet 100% of the requirements listed. We’d still love to hear from you if you feel passionate about this role! We are committed to creating an inclusive environment for our colleagues, clients, community, and the users of our products. We don’t have all the answers but we’re on a journey, and we are learning together.