Experience Manager (12-month contract)

Vanguard; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 75,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Vanguard is seeking an Experience Manager to shape and optimise the client experience across strategic initiatives. You will join a discovery pod, map journeys, and translate insights into design principles and value hypotheses. The role collaborates with Experience Leads and Product Managers to drive change from strategy to delivery.

Hybrid position requiring office presence three days a week. Strong analytics, stakeholder management, and financial services experience are key.

Qualifications

• Significant experience in journey mapping, service design, CX analysis, business analysis, or product design.
• Strategic thinker with background in human-centred design and experience/product strategy.
• Strong analytical skills, including interpreting performance metrics, behavioural data, and client research insights.
• Proficiency with journey mapping and design tools (e.g., Figma, Adobe tools).

Responsibilities

• Accountable for defining the strategic design of client experiences in early stage discovery for strategic change initiatives.
• Work as part of a discovery Pod to produce key discovery artefacts (e.g., design principles, needs statements, value hypotheses, low‑fidelity experience prototypes) to visualise potential solutions and align stakeholders.
• Partner with Experience Leads and Product Managers to support the transition from strategic design into detailed design and delivery teams.
• Support Experience Leads in defining strategic vision for the Client Experience across the platform journeys.
• Establish measurement approaches for assessing change impacts to ongoing journey health; building KPI baselines and qualitative/quantitative insight loops to prove the value delivery for strategic change initiatives
• Support Experience Leads by identifying key moments of truth, regulatory hotspots, and opportunities to improve or simplify the client experience
• Ensure consistency with journey management frameworks and CX vision across all client journeys

Skills

Journey mapping

Service design

CX analysis

Business analysis

Product design

Stakeholder management

Tools

Figma

Adobe tools

Job description

As an Experience Manager, you will play a pivotal role in shaping, informing, and optimising the client experience across key strategic initiatives. Working alongside Experience Leads, Product Managers and cross functional partners, you will drive the business problem and solution discovery phases of strategic change, bringing early clarity to the problem spaces, identifying the CX vision, and helping define the scope of initiatives. This role blends analytical rigour, customer understanding, journey mapping and experience design expertise to ensure our client experience and key outcomes are embedded in all strategic change initiatives

Core Responsibilities

• Accountable for defining the strategic design of client experiences in early stage discovery for strategic change initiatives
• Work as part of a discovery Pod to produce key discovery artefacts (e.g., design principles, needs statements, value hypotheses, low‑fidelity experience prototypes) to visualise potential solutions and align stakeholders.
• Partner with Experience Leads and Product Managers to support the transition from strategic design into detailed design and delivery teams
• Support Experience Leads in defining strategic vision for the Client Experience across the platform journeys
• Establish measurement approaches for assessing change impacts to ongoing journey health; building KPI baselines and qualitative/quantitative insight loops to prove the value delivery for strategic change initiatives
• Support Experience Leads by identifying key moments of truth, regulatory hotspots, and opportunities to improve or simplify the client experience
• Ensure consistency with journey management frameworks and CX vision across all client journeys

Qualifications & Experience

• Significant experience in journey mapping, service design, CX analysis, business analysis, or product design
• Strategic thinker with background in human-centred design and experience / product strategy.
• Strong analytical skills, including interpreting performance metrics, behavioural data, and client research insights.
• Proficiency with journey mapping and design tools (e.g., Figma, Adobe tools).
• Excellent stakeholder management and communication skills, adept at navigating and influencing senior stakeholders
• Ability to navigate ambiguity and drive change in a fast‑paced environment.
• Experience in financial services, regulated client journeys, or personal investment products.

Special Factors

• This is a hybrid position and would require you to work in the office 3 days per week (Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday).

Why Vanguard?

Vanguard is a different kind of investment company. It was founded in the United States in 1975 on a simple but revolutionary idea: that an investment company should manage its funds solely in the interests of its clients.

This is a philosophy that has helped millions of people around the world to achieve their goals with low-cost, uncomplicated investments.

It's what we stand for: value to investors.

How We Work

Vanguard has implemented a hybrid working model for the majority of our crew members, designed to capture the benefits of enhanced flexibility while enabling in-person learning, collaboration, and connection. We believe our mission-driven and highly collaborative culture is a critical enabler to support long‑term client outcomes and enrich the employee experience.