Product Design Lead

Make the future real.

Big Motive is a digital strategy and design consultancy. We combine human-centred design with AI to create measurable impact — using AI where it adds value, and human insight where it matters most.

For over twenty years, we've helped healthcare organisations, government bodies, and ambitious businesses turn complex problems into exceptional digital experiences. Our work spans health, government, and social impact — from redesigning public services to launching digital products and modernising legacy systems.

We're a group of designers, researchers, and strategists with a shared belief in the power of design to make people's lives better. Among us are a pizza chef, several marathon runners, an amateur mycologist, and a few passionate but decidedly average golfers. We believe the magic lies in the mix: diverse, curious minds creating better solutions and enjoying the journey together. We're also a Certified B Corporation® and a member of the Institute of Designers in Ireland.

The Role

This is a senior product design leadership role for someone who has done the work, loves the craft, and is ready to own enterprise-level accounts. You'll sit at the intersection of UX rigour, product thinking, digital strategy, and AI-augmented design practice — leading projects, growing clients, and raising the bar for everyone around you.

You'll be a key voice in our senior team, working alongside our directors and partners on our most complex and high-value engagements. You'll partner with visionary leaders — not only imagining a better future, but making it real.

What You'll Do

• Lead end-to-end product design on enterprise accounts — from discovery and research through to shipped, tested product
• Own client relationships at senior level — comfortable in the room with a COO, Chief Digital Officer, senior civil servant, or clinical lead
• Harness AI to design, prototype and test at scale — using AI-assisted prototyping tools, generative design variants, automated usability testing, and AI-accelerated design system documentation to push the pace and quality of product work
• Drive account growth — spot opportunities, write briefs, contribute to proposals and pitches
• Mentor and elevate junior and mid-level designers on your team
• Contribute to and evolve our design system practice across clients
• Lead design sprints, prototyping sessions, and user testing programmes
• Collaborate with strategy and service design colleagues on cross-disciplinary programmes
• Contribute to venture design engagements — validating, shaping, and delivering new propositions from idea to launch
• Apply conversion-focused design thinking to website and platform projects — connecting UX decisions to measurable business outcomes and working closely with client-side marketing and digital growth teams
• Carry formal line management responsibility for designers on your team — owning their development, supporting performance conversations, and contributing to hiring decisions
• Act as escalation point for client issues on your accounts — maintaining client confidence and continuity when things get difficult
• Set collaboration cadences and establish design direction for your project teams, bringing senior leadership into milestone moments and key client-facing work
• Represent Big Motive at speaking events, drive thought leadership content, and help build our profile as a leading product design practice

What You Bring

Essential

• 10+ years in product or UX design, with a strong portfolio of complex digital products at scale
• Deep expertise in Figma and modern design tooling — you know what's coming before most people have heard of it
• Real, evidenced experience integrating AI into product design workflows — from rapid prototyping and AI-assisted iteration, to automated testing at scale and using AI to generate and evaluate design options faster than was previously possible
• Proven ability to translate user research into sharp, defensible design decisions
• Experience with design systems — building them, maintaining them, evangelising them
• Commercially literate, not just craft-literate — you've worked in environments where the question is "did it move the number?", and you had an answer. Experience designing for performance on large-scale digital platforms, working alongside marketing, analytics, and CRO teams, and confident using data (GA4, Hotjar or similar, heatmaps, A/B testing) to inform and justify design decisions
• Development literacy — you don't need to ship code, but you speak the language
• A track record of growing accounts and contributing to business development
• High energy, high standards, and genuine curiosity about what's next

Desirable

• Experience in digital health or complex regulated environments
• Familiarity with public sector or government digital environments — how decisions get made, how procurement works, and how to build trust with senior civil servants

Who You Are

You're not just a craftsperson — you're a design leader. You've managed teams, presented to boards, and pushed back on bad decisions with evidence. You're energised by hard problems and complex clients. You want to be part of something with real ambition — and you want to help build it.

You're probably the person your team comes to when they're stuck. And you're already thinking about the next generation of design tools before the rest of the room has caught up. You care about what design is for — not just how well it's executed. You're drawn to work that has real-world consequences and believe design can be a catalyst for positive change.

How You'll Work

• Hybrid role — 2 days per week in our Belfast office, up to 3 days from home
• You'll report to a member of our executive team, working closely with senior leadership across Belfast and Dublin
• You'll collaborate across disciplines — with service designers, researchers, and project managers
• You'll be a key voice in account leadership and business development conversations

What Success Looks Like

Within your first 6–12 months:

• You've taken full ownership of one or more enterprise accounts, with strong client relationships and clear design direction
• You're actively contributing to proposals and helping grow existing accounts
• Junior and mid-level designers on your team are visibly levelling up
• You've introduced at least one AI-augmented workflow that's been adopted across the team
• You're a trusted voice in senior client rooms — contributing to strategic conversations, not just design delivery
• You've helped evolve our design system practice across one or more clients

Why This Role Is Interesting

This is a rare opportunity to:

• Take real ownership of enterprise-level accounts at a consultancy with over twenty years of earned reputation
• Work at the intersection of design, strategy, and AI — shaping how a leading consultancy approaches the next generation of design practice
• Be part of a senior team that moves fast, takes craft seriously, and genuinely cares about the work
• Help grow a business with real ambition — and share in that success
• Work on programmes that have meaningful impact on people's lives — in health, government, and beyond

Why Big Motive

• One of Ireland's leading human-centred design consultancies — Certified B Corporation® and member of the Institute of Designers in Ireland
• Clients include Kingsbridge Healthcare Group, Adidas, Cabinet Office, HSE, Dublin City Council, Arts Council, and more
• For over twenty years, a senior team that takes craft seriously and moves at pace
• Real autonomy, real accountability, real impact
• Belfast base with hybrid flexibility
• United by a shared motive to use design for good

What We Offer

• £55,000 – £65,000, depending on experience
• A MacBook Pro and all the software + AI tools you need
• Flexible, hybrid working — up to 3 days a week from home
• 24 days annual leave + public holidays
• Enhanced maternity/paternity/adoption leave
• Company pension + bonus scheme
• Employee assistance programme
• Regular 1:1 development support
• Cycle to Work scheme

Apply directly here. Please submit:

• Your CV
• A link to your portfolio – we want to see complex, enterprise-scale work
• A short note on your approach to design leadership and why this role interests you

We're not looking for someone who ticks every box. We're looking for a design leader with real ambition, genuine craft, and the hunger to help build something great.

If that sounds like you, we want to hear from you!