About the position
Department Head: Experience Design
Job Purpose
We are seeking a strategic and visionary leader to drive organisational transformation through Experience Design. This role is responsible for embedding human-centred design practices across the enterprise and leading a Centre of Mastery to deliver exceptional, innovative, and measurable user experiences.
The successful candidate will define and evolve the Experience Design vision in alignment with business strategy and brand objectives, while building and nurturing a high-performing design capability.
Key Responsibilities
Strategic Leadership & Vision
- Collaborate with senior leadership to shape and influence client experience and broader business strategy.
- Define and lead the enterprise-wide Experience Design (UX) vision aligned to business goals, market trends, and user needs.
- Lead the Experience Design function within the Centre of Mastery, ensuring delivery against strategic objectives.
- Establish, embed, and monitor design standards, frameworks, processes, and ways of working.
- Develop and communicate design roadmaps, drive design maturity, and foster a culture of innovation.
- Champion design thinking and ensure alignment across cross-functional teams including product, engineering, marketing, and research.
- Build and manage strategic stakeholder relationships at a senior level.
People Leadership & Team Development
- Lead and manage the Experience Design Centre of Mastery team, including recruitment, performance management, and succession planning.
- Build a strong, collaborative team culture through coaching, mentoring, and continuous engagement.
- Delegate effectively to empower teams and drive high performance.
- Oversee team workload, project allocation, and delivery tracking.
- Provide leadership and guidance to distributed Experience Design teams across the organisation.
- Partner with business leaders to build and sustain high-performing design teams.
- Manage resource allocation and capacity planning across multiple teams.
Experience Design Practice Leadership
- Define and maintain design standards, principles, and quality frameworks.
- Establish governance models, audit processes, and compliance programmes for design delivery.
- Oversee complex design initiatives, ensuring data and user insights inform decision-making.
- Guide teams through strategic design challenges and approve key design outcomes.
- Champion and govern the design system, ensuring scalability and consistency.
- Drive innovation in design tools, processes, and methodologies.
- Develop communities of practice and centres of excellence to strengthen capability.
- Partner with stakeholders to define competency frameworks, career pathways, and development programmes.
- Contribute to talent strategy, including hiring, onboarding, and retention of design professionals.
Organisational Impact & Advocacy
- Develop and manage reporting frameworks to measure and communicate design impact.
- Present insights and performance metrics to executive leadership.
- Promote design education, accessibility, and inclusive design practices across the organisation.
- Represent Experience Design in strategic planning and decision-making forums.
- Build relationships with external partners and participate in industry events and forums.
- Foster knowledge sharing and community building across the organisation.
- Manage and optimise relationships with external vendors and partners.
Qualifications
- Bachelor's degree in User Experience Design, Human-Computer Interaction, or a related field.
- Advanced certifications in UX, design, or business from recognised institutions are advantageous.
- Leadership or transformation certifications are preferred.
Experience
- Proven experience managing large, distributed Experience Design teams.
- Strong background in digital product development.
- Experience working with enterprise-scale design systems.
- Demonstrated ability to establish standards, optimise processes, and drive continuous improvement.
Knowledge
- Deep understanding of business strategy and product development lifecycles.
- Strong expertise in UX principles, design thinking, and human-centred design methodologies.
- Familiarity with UX research, usability testing, and analytics.
- Awareness of industry trends, emerging technologies, and best practices.
Key Skills & Competencies
- Strategic and commercial thinking
- Strong leadership and decision-making ability
- Problem-solving and analytical skills
- Excellent interpersonal and stakeholder management skills
- Negotiation and influencing capability
Desired Skills:
- UI
- UX
- Data Analytics
- Leadership
- Stakeholder engagement
