Principal Service Design Consultant London and Bristol

Our Principal Consultants shape engagements and lead our design teams, to ensure that we deliver fantastic quality work to our clients. As a senior practitioner in a user-centred design business, you will be at the heart of everything we do. You’ll be researching and crafting innovative design solutions that make a difference to people’s lives.

You will be responsible for leading our client engagements within our Digital Government pod (see here for our blog about pods), working on projects for central and local government departments, and for government agencies and other bodies (such as the UK Space Agency).

You’ll take a lead role in winning work for cxpartners. You’ll work closely with senior client stakeholders. You’ll help respond to new business opportunities and will shape, cost and communicate both individual projects and wider programmes of work.

We expect you to understand the fundamentals of the way a business like cxpartners works, and to understand our customers’ organisations too. You will work collaboratively in cross-functional, agile teams with other service design and UX consultants, visual designers, technologists, project managers and clients.

You’ll be a team leader internally. You’ll ensure other team members understand their roles and responsibilities, and you’ll mentor junior practitioners. You’ll help to recruit both freelancers and permanent staff. We might ask you to take on some line management responsibility.

You will help our Strategy Director (who leads our Digital Government pod)  to drive the vision for the pod. You’ll help with commercial forecasting. We’ll ask you to bring fresh thinking to the team.

You’ll develop your profile as a design leader both inside and outside cxpartners, for example by speaking at conferences and running workshops. You may have a particular area of technical expertise that you will deepen and develop; or you may be a highly experienced generalist.

• Work with clients to help them use digital to best effect and to meet their users’ needs through the delivery of excellent, innovative products, services and experiences.
• Take responsibility for the quality and shape of our delivery.
• Take ownership of, and lead projects or programmes of work for, your client accounts.
• Identify and nurture new business leads through your accounts.
• Shape proposals and approaches for bidding for new work.
• Provide thought leadership and design methodology as part of the process of bidding for and winning new work.
• Share your deep knowledge of the latest digital trends with your clients, and help them to develop further value from their markets.
• Be proficient in research/design/prototyping methods and processes. Be used to working lean and be familiar with agile.
• Have innovation and calculated risk-seeking in your DNA.
• Be great with clients, able to lead and willing to coach staff.
• Be proactive in projecting cxpartners’ value into the digital government, charities and digital home sectors and the wider experience design community.

You will have worked on projects within the public sector. You’ll have some established networks. You’ll have an active interest in how the government can support all citizens across all service provisions. Experience in the housing or health sectors would be a bonus.

You’ll have experience successfully taking several projects through the GDS assessment process. It would be great  if you had experience of running the Discovery and Alpha phases of projects.

You’ll have the appetite to attend digital government meet ups, conferences, and hackathons. 

You have detailed knowledge and practical experience of UX methodology and practices. We are pragmatic, not dogmatic, in our approach and very much outcome-driven. Often our work breaks new ground, and we innovate to achieve those outcomes. We’d like you to be the kind of person who is able to help us do that. 

You’ll have great communication skills (verbal and written), the ability to listen, and to articulate complex ideas clearly. You’ll need a level of natural authority to help you lead your teams, and to ensure clients listen to you and people respond to you.

We’d like you to be able to see the big picture and have a strong attention to detail - both are possible, we think.

You’ll have experience of leading teams including UX researchers and designers. 

Once travel restrictions are eased, you’ll be happy to travel to our other office around once a fortnight, and to work on site with clients if and when that is needed.

You must have the right to live and work in the UK.

Please don't be put off applying because you aren't a perfect match for our job description. If you are excited about the opportunity, and think you can achieve the outcomes we are looking for, but aren't sure if you tick every box, we'd still love to hear from you.

We’re a great place to work – you’ll love the environment, the people and the way the company looks after its staff. You’ll also get: a great package with a salary of £55k - £65k for Bristol, and £63k - £75k for London (dependent on your experience), 25 days holiday, benefits including a smartphone, a cash-back healthcare scheme, a pension plan to which we’ll contribute, a MacBook and other kit as needed. We encourage flexible working and support remote working.

cxpartners are committed to training and run an extensive training programme which will support both your individual needs and our business ambitions.

cxpartners is made up of an incredible, diverse range of people. We're an equal opportunity employer and prize diversity as a strength. We’re keen to ensure we’re designing products and services that work for everyone, so we particularly encourage applications from different underrepresented demographics. We do not discriminate based on race, ethnicity, colour, ancestry, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, disability or any other legally protected status.

If you’d like to apply, please email tamlyn.driver@cxpartners.co.uk with a brief CV  and a link to your portfolio.