Product Design Lead

Why we're hiring:

The Product Design Lead is an experienced, craft-led role within our product design team, responsible for leading design execution and quality across complex workstreams on our digital platform, WPP Open. Reporting to the Head of Design / Design Director, the Product Design Lead will work closely with cross-functional teams, champion user-centred design practices, and contribute positively to the growth and craft of the wider design team.

Key Responsibilities:

Design Ownership & Execution

• Take full end-to-end ownership of complex design workstreams, from discovery through to delivery, demonstrating a strong product mindset and a high degree of independence.
• Translate complex product requirements and user needs into clear user flows, wireframes, prototypes, high-fidelity designs, and detailed design specifications.
• Ensure all design deliverables are thorough, well-structured, and developer-ready — with clear specifications, consistent naming conventions, annotations, and supporting documentation.
• Consistently produce design work that meets a high bar for craft, usability, and accessibility, setting a quality standard for the wider team.

UX Vision & Design Direction

• Defines, owns, and evangelises the North Star for their product area
• Proactively identify usability gaps, friction points, and experience opportunities within their workstream, surfacing well-considered recommendations to the Product Design Lead.
• Contribute informed, evidence-based input that helps shape design direction at the workstream level, feeding insights upward to influence broader product experience decisions.

Research & Insight

• Lead evaluative research activities within their workstream, including usability testing, concept testing, and synthesis of findings, using insights to validate and iterate on design solutions.
• Develops and evolves comprehensive B2B personas and end-to-end customer journey maps
• Apply a rigorous, hypothesis-driven approach to design, ensuring decisions are grounded in user evidence and clear rationale.

Design Systems & Standards

• Oversees design system quality and consistency across their product area; collaborates with Design System team
• Identify and flag gaps, inconsistencies, or opportunities for improvement in the design system to the appropriate team.
• Advocate for and uphold usability and accessibility standards (WCAG) across all workstreams, embedding inclusive design practices into everyday ways of working.

Collaboration & Communication

• Act as an internal consultant and design evangelist across the organisation by working closely with Product Managers, Engineers, and other cross-functional partners to align on priorities, ensure feasibility of design solutions, and maintain the integrity of design through to implementation.
• Communicate design rationale clearly and confidently to cross-functional team members and product stakeholders, explaining decisions in terms of user needs, business goals, and design principles.
• Often leads Agile ceremonies; manages design debt and dependencies proactively

Mentoring & Team Contribution

• Formally manages and mentors a team of designers; responsible for team growth and performance by Supporting the development of more junior designers through informal guidance, sharing of knowledge, and leading by example in craft and ways of working.
• Contribute positively to team culture, helping to raise the collective bar for design quality and collaborative practice.

Skills & Qualifications:

• 8+ years of experience in UX/UI or product design with demonstrated experience owning complex design workstreams independently and delivering high-quality outcomes.
• A strong portfolio showcasing design craft, rigorous UX thinking, and evidence of working across the full design process — from research and discovery through to high-fidelity delivery and design specification.
• Expert-level proficiency in Figma, including component management and advanced prototyping, and strong working knowledge of collaboration tools such as Miro and usability testing platforms.
• Deep understanding of human-centred design principles, interaction design best practices, information architecture, and usability.
• Extensive experience working with and contributing to design systems, with a strong eye for consistency, scalability, and adherence to established patterns.
• Solid knowledge of usability and accessibility guidelines (WCAG), with practical experience applying these in real product contexts.
• Strong communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to translate high-level business strategy and enterprise objectives into experience vision
• Proven ability to work autonomously in fast-paced, ambiguous environments, managing priorities and delivering high-quality work within Agile sprint cycles.
• Experience working in Agile teams, contributing meaningfully to ceremonies and iterative delivery processes.

Bonus Skills:

• Familiarity with service design concepts or ecosystem mapping.
• Strong preference for experience designing for SaaS or enterprise platforms at scale is important
• Experience with or strong interest in data visualisation or AI-enhanced user experiences.
• Actively sought — important for platform direction demonstrating an understanding of mobile-first or app-native interaction patterns.
• Additional knowledge of accessibility standards beyond WCAG baseline requirements.
• Familiarity with Sketch, Adobe Illustrator, or Photoshop.

Who you are:

You're open: We are inclusive and collaborative; we encourage the free exchange of ideas; we respect and celebrate diverse views. We are open-minded: to new ideas, new partnerships, new ways of working.

You're optimistic: We believe in the power of creativity, technology and talent to create brighter futures or our people, our clients and our communities. We approach all that we do with conviction: to try the new and to seek the unexpected.

You're extraordinary: we are stronger together: through collaboration we achieve the amazing. We are creative leaders and pioneers of our industry; we provide extraordinary every day.

 

What we'll give you:

Passionate, inspired people – We aim to create a culture in which people can do extraordinary work.

Scale and opportunity – We offer the opportunity to create, influence and complete projects at a scale that is unparalleled in the industry.

Challenging and stimulating work – Unique work and the opportunity to join a group of creative problem solvers. Are you up for the challenge?

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