Interaction Design Lead

IDEO; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

IDEO London is seeking an Interaction Design Lead to guide multidisciplinary teams from research to delivery, shaping human-centered experiences and helping clients navigate AI-enabled products and services. You’ll stay close to the craft, mentor designers, and connect strategy with tangible outcomes across digital and physical touchpoints, with travel as projects require.

You will lead with craft, guide clients, and collaborate across Europe to deliver meaningful, accessible experiences that

Qualifications

• 6–8 years of professional experience in interaction design, UX/UI or related discipline, including 1–2+ years leading projects or multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong interaction design craft with a portfolio showing how you turn complex requirements into clear experiences; fluency across digital, visual, service or systems design.
• Grounding in human-centred design, research and usability testing, with ability to guide a team from evidence to design decisions and measurable outcomes.
• Ability to scope, brief and delegate design work, manage timelines and resources, and empower a small to medium team to take ownership of different parts of a project.
• Keen eye for visual hierarchy, responsive interfaces, motion and micro-interactions, and ability to critique work with actionable feedback.
• Strong prototyping skills in Figma or comparable tools, plus comfort with AI-assisted ideation while maintaining design judgement.
• Commitment to accessibility and inclusive design, with thoughtful privacy considerations when designing with AI.
• Ability to connect interaction details to wider service and system needs, and work with engineers to realize designs.
• Excellent storytelling, presentation and facilitation skills; capable of building trusted client relationships and aligning stakeholders with empathy.
• An Interaction Design qualification or equivalent work experience, alongside curiosity and feedback mindset.

Responsibilities

• Lead and co-lead multidisciplinary project teams from research and framing through design, prototyping and delivery, balancing people’s needs, client goals and technical possibilities.
• Set a clear design direction and stay hands-on with journeys, flows, interfaces and interaction details, connecting individual touchpoints to a coherent product or service experience.
• Build and guide prototypes at the right fidelity to answer the team’s questions, using Figma, code and AI-assisted tools to make ideas tangible early and test them with people.
• Partner with researchers and technologists to plan experiments, test usability and accessibility, and use qualitative feedback and product data to refine designs and assess impact.
• Explore conversational and agentic UX: design how people express intent, approve actions, understand AI, and recover when things go wrong.
• Own project plans, resource needs and delivery milestones; brief and delegate work clearly, spotting obstacles early and navigating ambiguity while maintaining quality.
• Be a main client point of contact, facilitate working sessions and present compelling design narratives; align stakeholders on decisions, trade-offs and next steps.
• Help scope client challenges and shape proposals with senior colleagues, drawing on learnings across Europe and beyond; travel as projects require.
• Mentor designers, give actionable craft feedback and build an inclusive team culture; share methods and learnings across our London community, including responsible use of AI.

Skills

Interaction design

Project leadership

Human-centered design

Figma prototyping

AI-assisted ideation

Accessibility design

Visual hierarchy & micro-interactions

Storytelling & facilitation

Education

Interaction Design qualification or equivalent

Job description

IDEO London is seeking an Interaction Design Lead with a passion for creating human-centred experiences and helping teams do their best work. You’ll lead and co-lead multidisciplinary teams, stay close to the craft, and guide clients from complex questions to tangible products and services. Your work will span digital and physical experiences, including new ways for people to interact with AI.

About IDEO London

We're a global design consultancy where curiosity, empathy, and solving complex challenges drive us. For over 40 years, we've partnered with clients to innovate in healthcare, mobility, education, retail, and beyond. Here, every challenge is a chance to grow, connect, and create impact.

Why is this role important for IDEO's work?

Interaction Design is at the heart of creating meaningful human-centred experiences that meet people’s needs and help businesses move forward. As an Interaction Design Lead, you’ll bring together craft, creative direction and project leadership to help teams turn strategy into experiences people can use. As AI becomes part of everyday products and services, you’ll help us explore how people understand, trust and stay in control of systems that can act on their behalf.

Once Here You Will

• Lead and co-lead multidisciplinary project teams from research and framing through design, prototyping and delivery, balancing people’s needs, client goals and technical possibilities
• Set a clear design direction and stay hands‑on with journeys, flows, interfaces and interaction details, connecting individual touchpoints to a coherent product or service experience
• Build and guide prototypes at the right fidelity to answer the team’s questions, using Figma, code and AI‑assisted tools to make ideas tangible early and test them with people
• Partner with researchers and technologists to plan experiments, test usability and accessibility, and use qualitative feedback and product data to refine designs and assess their impact
• Explore conversational and agentic UX: design how people express intent, approve actions, understand what an AI system is doing, redirect it and recover when things go wrong
• Own project plans, resource needs and delivery milestones; brief and delegate work clearly, spot obstacles early, and help the team navigate ambiguity while maintaining creative quality
• Be a main client point of contact, facilitate working sessions and present compelling design narratives; align stakeholders on decisions, trade‑offs and next steps
• Help scope client challenges and shape proposals and follow‑on opportunities with senior colleagues, drawing on project learnings and collaboration across Europe and beyond; travel as projects require
• Mentor designers, give actionable craft feedback and build an inclusive team culture; share methods and learnings across our London community, including thoughtful use of AI that protects client and participant information

We're looking for someone with

• 6–8 years of professional experience in interaction design, digital product design, UX/UI or a related discipline, including 1–2+ years leading projects or multidisciplinary teams
• Strong interaction design craft and a portfolio showing how you turn complex requirements into clear experiences; advanced expertise in one or more areas of digital, visual, service or systems design, with fluency across others
• A strong grounding in human-centred design, research and usability testing, with the ability to guide a team from evidence to design decisions and measurable outcomes
• The ability to scope, brief and delegate design work, manage timelines and resources, and empower a small to medium team to take ownership of different parts of a project
• A keen eye for visual hierarchy, responsive interfaces, motion and micro‑interactions, and the ability to critique work and offer clear, actionable feedback
• Strong prototyping skills in Figma or comparable tools, and confidence experimenting with AI‑assisted ideation and prototyping while checking outputs and making your own design judgements
• A commitment to accessibility and inclusive design, and thoughtful judgement about privacy, bias and people’s agency when designing with AI
• The ability to connect interaction details to wider service and system needs, and work with engineers to understand technical constraints and bring designs to life
• Excellent storytelling, presentation and facilitation skills; confidence building trusted client relationships, aligning stakeholders and helping others succeed with empathy and openness
• An Interaction Design qualification or equivalent work experience, alongside curiosity, self‑awareness and a willingness to give and seek feedback

It's a bonus if you

• Have worked closely with product managers and engineers to take digital products or services from concept to launch and learn from their use
• Have used product analytics and experimentation to evaluate design decisions and improve outcomes
• Have designed conversational or agentic experiences, including human approval, transparent system behaviour, error recovery and hand‑offs between people and AI
• Have built functional prototypes with code or AI coding tools, and can explain where these tools improved your process and where your judgement changed the outcome
• Have helped shape proposals, scope engagements or develop repeat client work
• Have contributed to design systems or reusable interaction patterns, or explored emerging technologies through creative experimentation

What does IDEO offer you?

Innovation and creativity: Dive into a variety of projects from creating breakthrough digital products and experiences, to designing new customer interactions, to building innovation capabilities – working alongside talented individuals across disciplines.

Learning and growth: Whether it’s strengthening your project leadership, deepening your interaction design craft or exploring new technologies, we’re here to support your journey.

Community and well-being: Collaboration and community are central to what we do. We foster moments for creativity, connection, and reflection, respecting the need for work‑life balance.

Projects with purpose: We partner with clients to use design as a means of realising their purpose and making a positive impact. We work 'upstream,' from defining the problem, designing possible solutions, and exploring what, why and how they might be brought to life.

Location

This position is based out of our London studio.

Some Previous Projects To Check Out

To get a flavour of the work we do in London, take a look at these case studies:

Redefining retail with FEMSA – Designing Spin Premia, a digital loyalty experience connecting everyday shopping at OXXO with rewards and services.

Sustainable packaging system – Helping H&M increase their sustainability and growth, by designing and scaling a universal packaging system for all of their brands.

Commitment to Diversity

At IDEO, we are committed to the work of advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within our organisation and in the world. Our purpose of having disproportionate, world‑changing impact through design is directly connected to our ability to bring many different perspectives to the table. This applies to our candidates, the people we hire, the clients and customers we serve, and the communities we learn from in our research.

As a human‑centred organisation, we are committed to working with and designing for people of every race, ethnicity, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, socio‑economic status, physical ability or attribute, religion, national origin, or political belief. We recognize that this commitment requires ongoing work and sustained attention, as well as adaptation to new insights and best practices