Design Strategist

Design Strategist - Permanent - Hybrid/Remote

Locations: London, Manchester, Newcastle, Glasgow

Competitive Market Rate Annual Salary on offer

We are partnered with a leading Consulting client who are the look for a UCD Lead / Design Strategist to join their Digital Excellence practise in the UK.

You will lead teams of designers, nurture their growth and development while fostering best practice and innovation within our Design community. You will help shape the strategic vision of products and services for our clients and oversee the delivery of design work to ensure technical excellence and high quality, customer focused outcomes.

What You'll Do

• Define and shape product vision and strategy using evidence-based insight, ensuring alignment to customer needs and organisational goals.
• Enable clear decision‐making and alignment, ensuring product goals, design intent, and delivery plans are understood and embraced across teams.
• Identify opportunities for product innovation, optimisation, and differentiation, connecting design thinking with commercial viability.
• Champion accessibility, inclusive design, and standards compliance, ensuring products and services are usable, ethical, and scalable.
• Shape responsible AI-enabled experiences, ensuring emerging technologies are integrated in a human-centred and commercially sound way.
• Collaborate across disciplines working closely with Designers, Researchers, Product Managers, and Engineers to ensure strategy comes to life in the experience.
• Lead and mentor designers across UX, Service Design & Content Design

Your Profile

• Experience in Design and Research, including hands-on delivery and team leadership, ideally within a consulting or agency environment.
• Proven experience managing multi-disciplinary teams
• Strong stakeholder and client management skills, with experience presenting to and influencing senior audiences.
• Proven track record of developing and growing design talent, fostering a high-performing and inclusive team culture.
• Experience establishing and refining DesignOps processes from shaping the strategy to scaling and improving ways of working.
• Confident working in agile, iterative environments and collaborating closely with technical and delivery teams.