UX Design Principal (Mat Cover 10 Months Contract)
Role details
Job location
Tech stack
Job description
The Principal UX Designer leads the design of complex, high-impact customer experiences, helping shape product strategy, influence organisational direction, and elevate UX maturity across the business. You'll join a highly collaborative, supportive, and talented UX team with a strong culture of partnership, continuous learning, and shared success, where great ideas can come from anyone and design excellence is achieved together.
Working across multiple squads and initiatives, you will provide leadership through expertise, coaching, and strategic influence. You'll collaborate closely with UX Research, UX Writing, Product, Engineering, Analytics, and the Design System team to deliver intuitive, accessible, and effective digital experiences that meet customer and business needs.
This is an opportunity to play a key role in a significant user-centred transformation within a leading financial services organisation., UX Strategy & Leadership
- Partner with the UX Design Manager to define and drive UX strategy across products, platforms, and customer journeys.
- Help evolve the UX discipline by shaping standards, practices, and ways of working.
- Identify opportunities to improve customer outcomes and business performance.
Design Excellence
- Lead the design of complex, strategically important initiatives spanning multiple products, teams, and journeys.
- Drive end-to-end design activities from discovery through to delivery and optimisation.
- Create and contribute to journey maps, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity designs.
- Set the benchmark for design quality, craft, and execution across the UX team.
Standards, Accessibility & Design Systems
- Champion UX best practices, accessibility, and inclusive design throughout the product lifecycle.
- Support the adoption and evolution of the Design System to ensure consistency and scalability.
Mentoring & Influence
- Act as a role model for UX, sharing expertise and helping grow capability across the team.
- Communicate design strategy and rationale to stakeholders at all levels.
- Influence decisions through customer insight, evidence, and design expertise.
- Advocate for user-centred design and help strengthen a customer-focused culture.
Requirements
Must Have
- Significant experience in a Principal, Lead, Staff, or equivalent senior UX design role.
- Proven track record designing complex digital products, platforms, and customer journeys.
- Strong portfolio demonstrating strategic thinking, design leadership, and measurable impact.
- Expertise in UX design, interaction design, information architecture, and complex problem solving.
- Experience leading large-scale or strategically important design initiatives.
- Excellent stakeholder management, communication, and presentation skills.
- Strong understanding of accessibility, inclusive design, and WCAG standards.
- Experience working with and championing Design Systems.
Desirable
- Experience within regulated industries, particularly financial services.
- Experience leading transformation programmes or strategic design initiatives.
- Experience influencing organisational change and design maturity.
- Understanding of end-to-end customer journeys across multiple channels.
- Experience using AI-powered tools to support research, ideation, and design delivery.
Benefits & conditions
- Group Personal Pension Plan - 8% employer contribution and 4% employee contribution
- Life Assurance and Group Income Protection
- Private Medical Insurance - Provided by Bupa
- 25 Days Annual Leave, plus bank holidays
- Staff Discounts on our investment products
- Personal & Well-being Fund - Supporting your physical and mental wellness
- Retail Discounts - Savings at a wide range of high street and online retailers
- Voluntary Flexible Benefits - Tailor your benefits to suit your lifestyle