Design & Research Manager (12 Month FTC)

British Airways PLC; City Of London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading airline company in London seeks a Design and Research Manager to lead a team focused on enhancing digital experiences across BA.com and the app. The role requires expertise in UX/Product Design and a strong portfolio, alongside effective stakeholder management skills. As part of the digital leadership team, you'll directly impact customer satisfaction and revenue growth while advocating for innovative, user-centered design practices.

Benefits

Staff travel benefits

Discounted airfares

Opportunities for development and progress

Qualifications

• Strong experience in UX or Product Design with a portfolio of intuitive digital product designs.
• Proven experience in mobile application development.
• Familiarity with agile environments.

Responsibilities

• Lead and manage a team of product designers and researchers.
• Oversee design and research functions aligned with business objectives.
• Champion user research and customer-centric design across the organization.

Skills

People management

Design principles

User research

Collaboration

Customer-focused mindset

Education

Qualification in design or relevant experience

Tools

Figma

UserTesting

Job description

The role:

Design and Research Manager - BA.com and App (12 Month FTC)

Join our Commercial directorate at British Airways, where innovation meets customer-centric design. As part of the BA.com and app Digital leadership team, you'll be at the forefront of transforming our digital estate, ensuring seamless and intuitive experiences for millions of customers. This department plays a pivotal role in driving revenue growth, enhancing customer satisfaction, and delivering a frictionless journey across our digital platforms.

What you\'ll do:

• Lead and manage a team of 6-10 product designers and researchers across the BA digital estate
• Oversee end-to-end design and research functions, ensuring alignment with Commercial, Customer, and Operations objectives
• Collaborate with digital delivery partners and their design teams to drive consistency and excellence
• Work closely with the Head of Product and Product Tribe Leads to shape a long-term design and research roadmap
• Champion the exploration of new service and product opportunities by conducting trend analysis, synthesising insights, and identifying future areas for growth within the digital estate
• Champion user research using a range of methodologies and tools, enabling frequent cycles of user feedback
• Advocate for customer-centric design across the organisation, including senior leadership
• Ensure design work aligns with British Airways\' brand and supports Ba.com development milestones
• Shape visionary design work by contributing to the development of early-stage concepts, storyboards, and prototypes that bring forward-thinking ideas and service journeys to life
• Communicate design rationale and value behind design decisions clearly to stakeholders and facilitate cross-functional collaboration
• Balance creative ambition with practical constraints

What you\'ll bring to British Airways:

• Strong people management skills, with experience leading diverse design and research teams
• A deep understanding of design, research and human-centred design principles, with the ability to apply these approaches to complex, long-term, or ambiguous challenges
• Proficiency in qualitative and quantitative research methods, including remote tools like Askable and UserTesting
• Proficiency in prototyping and storytelling, using tools such as Figma to communicate ideas through visuals, interactive prototypes,and compelling narratives
• Excellent collaboration, communication, stakeholder management, receptive to feedback, and effective at building relationships and influencing across functions
• A proactive, flexible, and customer-focused mindset with a bias for action and results
• Organised, detail-oriented, and confident in engaging with senior business leaders
• A curious mindset, with a passion for emerging technologies, cultural trends, and evolving customer behaviours, and the confidence to challenge conventional approaches

Your experience:

• A qualification in design or relevant experience is preferred.
• Strong experience in UX or Product Design,with a strong portfolio of intuitive digital product designs
• Proven experience in mobile application development and device-agnostic product delivery
• Familiarity with agile environments and cross-functional collaboration with Product, Research, Content, and Development teams
• Experience working on consumer-facing, revenue-generating products.

What we offer:

We believe that all the people who work with us should feel valued for the part they play. It\'s one of the reasons our rewards go far beyond a competitive salary.

From the day you join us, you\'ll get access to brilliant staff travel benefits including unlimited basic and premium standby tickets on British Airways flights. You'll also receive up to 30 discounted Hotline\' airfares per year for yourself, friends, and family.

At British Airways you\'ll have the chance to take on new challenges and move forward in a way that feels right for you. We encourage all those who work for us to consider opportunities right across our business to help you develop and progress.

We never stand still, and we don\'t expect our people to either.

Inclusion & Diversity

At British Airways we all have a part to play in creating an inclusive place to work. Diverse representation among our people is really important to us and we recognise that all our colleagues are uniquely different and bring their own originality, creativity and identity to work.

Inclusion and diversity is a key driver of innovation and we\'re committed to creating a culture where everyone feels that they can be themselves. We\'re looking for people from all backgrounds and cultures to join us and be a part of our journey to become a Better BA as we continue to connect Britain with the world and the world with Britain.