Lead Product Designer

Be Applied Ltd; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 74,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Work from home option

Life Insurance

Employee Assistance Programme

Additional parental leave

Enhanced maternity and paternity leave

Paid emergency leave

Mentoring/coaching

Payroll giving

Team social events

Job summary

Oak is a fully remote, mission‑driven organisation offering high levels of flexibility, autonomy and purpose. We’re a national not-for-profit working in partnership with teachers to create the highest‑quality, sequenced curriculum and lesson resources for pupils across all subjects and age groups.

We’re seeking a Lead Product Designer to lead our team of product designers, set design standards across squads and ensure what we build is accessible and useful for every teacher and pupil.

Qualifications

• 5+ years leading product design in digital products and services.
• Experience recruiting, developing and managing a high-performing team of product designers.
• Proven success leading a design discipline and setting standards across multiple teams.
• Proven success building and maintaining an accessible design system at scale.
• Extensive knowledge of UX/UI best practices across mobile and desktop.

Responsibilities

• Develop and manage a high-performing product design team.
• Improve design quality across all product squads.
• Own design standards, principles, and workflows across Oak’s product development.
• Guide feature design across squads based on user and business needs.
• Champion the use of data and user research to ensure accessible UX/UI.
• Maintain specialist expertise in product design systems and methodologies.
• Contribute to strategy, planning and culture of the organisation.
• Work in cross-functional squads with colleagues from across the organisation.

Skills

Team leadership

UX design

Design systems

Figma

User research

Tools

Figma Make

Prototyping tools

Job description

Salary £81,998 (GBP) £81,998 + benefits including 4.5-day week and 11% employer pension

Team Product

Seniority Mid-level

Perks and benefits

Work from home option

Life Insurance

Employee Assistance Programme

Additional parental leave

Enhanced maternity and paternity leave

Paid emergency leave

Mentoring/coaching

Payroll giving

Team social events

Candidate happiness

8.56 (8063)

Job Description

Lead Product Designer

Remote (UK-based) | Full-time | Salary: £81,998 + benefits including 4.5-day week and 11% employer pension

Do your best work, for the right reasons.

Teachers across England use Oak to plan and teach, and every lesson reaches them through products our team designs. We’re looking for a Lead Product Designer to lead our team of product designers, set the standard for design across our product squads and make sure what we build works for every teacher and pupil.

Oak is a fully remote, mission-driven organisation offering high levels of flexibility, autonomy, and purpose. We’re a national not‑for‑profit working in partnership with teachers to create the highest‑quality, sequenced curriculum and lesson resources for pupils across all subjects and age groups.

Our culture has been independently recognised through:

Flexa verified (93% overall score, including 95% for working hours and 97% for role modelling)

Escape the City's Top 1% Employers – based on anonymous colleague reviews of culture, development, and impact

Investors in People Gold - through external accreditation and colleague feedback

About the Role

This is a hands‑on lead role. You’ll spend around 70% of your time designing, from user journeys and flows to high‑fidelity prototypes and production. The other 30% is leading, mentoring and shaping how the team works.

You’ll be part of the product design team and embedded in cross‑functional squads, working day‑to‑day with product managers, engineers, and user researchers. You’ll own our design standards and design system, and set design direction across squads.

We’re a fully remote team. You’ll be comfortable working asynchronously and building relationships online, and you’ll keep a team aligned without becoming a bottleneck. As part of the wider Oak team, you’ll help shape our strategy, planning and culture.

What you'll be doing:

Develop and manage a high-performing team of product designers.

Responsible for the continuous improvement of product and feature design quality across all product squads.

Own design standards, principles, and ways of working across Oak’s product development, championing quality, accessibility and user experience.

Guide feature design across squads, setting design direction based on user and business needs.

Champion the use of data and user research to ensure Oak’s products deliver industry leading and highly accessible UX and UI.

Maintain specialist expertise in product design systems and methodologies and be an authority across Oak and more widely across the sector.

As a member of the Oak Team, you will contribute to the strategy, planning and model the culture of the organisation.

Work in cross-functional and product‑oriented squads with colleagues from across the organisation, as required.

Deputise for the Head of Product (Schools & Teachers) and take on other general responsibilities as required.

Lead the design and development of specific features, working closely with others to set design requirements based on user & business needs.

Support the development and continuous improvement of product design, systems and methodologies.

Support the design and development of key elements of the product design lifecycle including user journeys, user flows, creating prototypes, testing, developing high‑fidelity prototypes, and seeing designs through to production.

What we're looking for

5+ years holding responsibility for the continuous improvement of product and feature design in digital products and services.

Experience in recruiting, developing and managing a high-performing team of product designers.

Proven success leading a design discipline and setting standards and direction across multiple teams.

Proven success in building and maintaining a highly accessible design system at scale.

Extensive knowledge of user experience and user interface best practices across mobile and desktop devices.

Demonstrated experience working with highly accessible design systems that support a large user base

Experience working in product teams to understand and solve user needs, and implement new features

Desirable: extensive experience using the latest product design tools, including Figma and Figma Make and/or other AI-powered design software.

The successful candidate will have a desire to contribute across all areas to ensure Oak's success. You will be comfortable moving quickly and with agility, and be confident working with a range of digital systems (including proprietary ones, as required). You will continually look for ways that the team can keep getting better. You will be excellent at working as part of a remote team, building relationships and managing your time effectively

See how we work

Want to know more about how we build our products? Our Engineering Substack shares how we build AI and data tools for education, including the decisions, trade‑offs and lessons we've learned along the way. Read Oak's Engineering Substack - https://engineering.thenational.academy/

25 days annual leave, plus one extra day for each year of service (up to 28)

Additional Oak closure days over Christmas/New Year

11% employer pension contribution (with no minimum employee contribution)

A 36‑hour working week, with half‑days on Fridays or every other Friday off

Fully remote working - we’ll support your home set‑up and offer coworking options if preferred

Twice‑yearly in‑person offsites to collaborate, connect, and have fun

A culture that genuinely supports flexibility, autonomy, and trust

Inclusion and Belonging

We believe diverse teams build better products. We warmly welcome applicants from all backgrounds, particularly those who are underrepresented in the tech and education sectors.

We use the Applied platform to help reduce bias in our hiring process. Answers are anonymised and reviewed by a panel of humans.

Location: Remote, but you must be based in the UK with the legal right to work here

Sponsorship: Unfortunately, we’re unable to offer visa sponsorship at this time

Closing date: Sunday, 8 November 2026. We’ll be reviewing applications as they come in and may close the role early

We are an equal opportunity employer.

We are committed to a policy of Equal Employment Opportunity and are determined to ensure that no applicant or employee receives less favourable treatment on the grounds of age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation, or is disadvantaged by conditions or requirements which cannot be shown to be justifiable.