UX Design Lead

Job Title: UX Design Lead
Location: Aberdeen/Glasgow/Inverness/Perth, UK (Hybrid 50/50 home and office) - any location but need to attend 2-3 days per week
Salary/Rate: £500 per day inside IR35
Start Date: 01/06/2026
Job Type: Contract - 10 months

Company Introduction
Working at a Value Chain level, the purpose of this support is to lead on the design and creation of user-centred design plans across multiple projects. This includes all UX Leads supporting the creation and implementation of a user-centred delivery approach within the IT Transformation team and developing an experience framework that will be used across the 4 value chains. The experience framework will develop over time and will be our central location for shared outputs, user-centred design resources, and guides.

Job Responsibilities/Objectives

. Conduct and oversee user research using qualitative and quantitative methods.
. Ensure insights are translated into high-quality outputs such as wireframes, prototypes, and journey maps as appropriate to stage in project.
. Apply and advise on appropriate techniques dependent on project scope, stage and delivery methodology (Agile, Waterfall, Hybrid).
. Oversee project UX people where available, ensuring design standards and outputs are delivered consistently and to a high quality.
. Monitor progress and manage change variances, reporting on UX risks and metrics.
. Develop and maintain core artefacts (User journeys, design principles, personas, risk logs, governance materials) within the Experience Framework.
. UX Leads should work collectively to ensure consistency and knowledge exchange across programmes and projects, developing:
o Insight hub.
o Design standards.
o Journey management.
. UX Leads should support the UX maturity of the IT Transformation programme and team through expertise, advice, demonstration, acting as a trusted contributor to the team who can work at a strategic and hands on level.

Required Skills/Experience
The ideal candidate will have the following:

We encourage applicants with expertise or interest in developing or leading in one or more of the following:
. User Research - Techniques and insight management.
. Design Standards - Principles, standards, accessibility guidance, and brand alignment.
. Journey Management - Personas, journey mapping, opportunity and outcome mapping.

Deliverables may vary by project and programme but may include the following as a minimum and we expect UX Leads to oversee and contribute to:
. User research plans.
. Design principles.
. User group mapping.

If you are interested in this opportunity, please apply now with your updated CV in Microsoft Word/PDF format.

Disclaimer
Notwithstanding any guidelines given to level of experience sought, we will consider candidates from outside this range if they can demonstrate the necessary competencies.
Square One is acting as both an employment agency and an employment business, and is an equal opportunities recruitment business. Square One embraces diversity and will treat everyone equally. Please see our website for our full diversity statement.