Design Lead

Job Description

• London (Hybrid)
• £75-85k per annum + stock options
• Permanent

The Role

Unibuddy has experienced explosive growth since launching in 2017. We now work with 500 higher ed institutions across 35 countries worldwide. We’ve raised over $33M from top-tier investors, and we’re on course to achieve our ambitious goal of empowering 10 million students to make the right choices in their higher ed journey.

Here’s where you come in:

We’re looking for an ambitious Product Design Lead who loves to mentor and lead a group of talented designers and is obsessed with continually elevating the team’s Product Design craft to create world-class customer experiences.

You will have full strategic ownership of the craft of Product Design at Unibuddy and lead on all aspects of design to help us become the #1 student engagement platform for higher ed institutions.

Your day-to-day

• Empower a team of fellow designers to do career and industry-defining work, by cultivating a team culture of craftsmanship, kindness, curiosity, respect, and support.
• Define an inspiring Product Design vision to drive customer centricity and own the delivery and execution of this across the Product Design team and other contributing teams (Product Management, Engineering, Marketing etc.)
• Evolve the techniques and methods used to identify, validate and deliver customer experiences in the most effective ways, delivering value and delight to our users and customers sooner.
• Level up the way we research, develop experiments, test hypotheses and validate potential solutions.
• Upskill the team to use qualitative and quantitative data to make informed design decisions.
• Orchestrate the creation, adoption, and maintenance of the Unibuddy UI Design System and ensure its scales with the business and team.
• Be an ambassador for the importance of copy, icons, imagery and other assets that make up a user experience.
• Be a champion for our users and customers as well as the Design team, to educate the whole business on customer centricity and design excellence.
• Coach and mentor the entire team, providing feedback and support to help them to grow and develop, as well as hiring new team members as necessary.
• Work closely with the marketing team to help shape Unibuddy’s Brand and visual identity, ensuring experiences are consistent across all customer touchpoints.
• Help showcase our design principles, processes and culture to the wider product design community, so we become known for what we do and attract talent as a result.

This might be for you if

• You have a passion to deliver world-class user experiences, are intrigued by human psychology and why users act in the way they do and appreciate the importance of UX, visual design and copy within an experience.
• You have proven leadership within a high-performing multi-disciplinary design team, in a fast-paced Agile environment preferably within a B2B2C environment.
• You have demonstrable experience of having successfully elevated the craft of Product Design (including UXR, UXD, UI, Brand, etc.) in a rapidly scaling business
• You are confident in building a data-driven, experimentation culture and establishing new methodologies and techniques for user research, prototyping and solution validation.
• You love mentoring product designers and getting a kick out of helping people grow and develop.
• You have an insatiable appetite for continuous improvement, identifying efficiencies and development opportunities and are comfortable teaching and mentoring these to others.
• You can effortlessly balance the needs of being in a delivery team whilst supporting and leading a team of designers.
• You want to work in a category-defining business, are obsessed with problem-solving and enjoy bringing structure to ambiguity.

If you don't meet all the requirements but think you might still be right for the role, please apply anyway. We're always keen to speak to people who connect with our mission and values.

About our Team

The Product Design team is part of the Product organisation at Unibuddy and collaborates with Product Managers and Engineers on a daily basis. The incredibly talented Design team currently consists of 4 Product Designers and 1 Graphic Designer, responsible for the visual identity and customer interactions across all our customer touch points and journeys.

The Product team’s role is to create a vision and build experiences that delight our customers, solve their needs and help Unibuddy grow as a business. We know that building great products and defining a new category is hard, as is making best-in-class user experiences. Our product process combines research, prototyping, user testing, as well as continual data analysis and A/B testing to validate we’ve actually solved the problem.

This role will report to the VP Product.

Perks and Benefits

• Salary of £75-85k plus stock options.
• Highly flexible work culture. Hybrid (1 day per week on campus) & flexible hours, we focus on impact over input.
• 25 days of annual leave, national holidays plus 4 additional days for Christmas break.
• Family-friendly policy. Enhanced maternity, paternity and adoption leave.
• Home working setup provided.
• Private healthcare provided by Bupa.
• Mental health support provided by Spill.
• Life insurance.
• Learning & development budget of £800 per year.
• Enhanced equipment budget. We supply you with a laptop with the highest specs to enable you to work best.

Students are at the heart of what we do. Our mission is to empower students to make the right decisions throughout their higher education journey. We provide higher ed institutions with the right tools to enable students to connect with each other, share experiences that create a sense of belonging, and feel confident in making one of the most crucial decisions of their life.

We rock! It’s our people that make us successful. We’re a great bunch with a fantastic culture. But don’t take our word for it - we’re proud to be named as one of the best mid-sized companies to work for in the US, we are named as one of the top 100 workplaces for benefits, we’re Flexified and listed as one of the top three most flexible companies to work for in the UK.

Ready to apply?

Great! Please send a CV and supporting statement which outlines why you would like to work with Unibuddy, and why you are well suited to this role. We encourage you to send us something that showcases your skills! ​​A link to your portfolio is encouraged. Flaunt your skills!

Not ready to apply or have some questions? Then please get in touch with the Yasmin, Senior Talent Acquisition Manager at yasmin.russell@unibuddy.com

Unibuddy is an equal opportunity employer. We're actively looking to increase the diversity of our buddies across the company and we encourage people to apply from minority groups.

🛂 Please note that Unibuddy does not sponsor visas for this role.