Principal Content Designer

Hippo; Bristol; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

Hippo is seeking principal consultants in content design to lead teams and enhance service delivery through user-centered design. The role requires extensive experience and offers opportunities for leadership and professional growth, with a competitive salary and benefits package. Join a company dedicated to innovation and societal impact.

Benefits

Contributory pension scheme

25 days holiday plus UK public holidays

Perkbox access for discounts

Critical illness cover

Life assurance and death in service cover

Volunteer days

Cycle-to-work scheme

Salary sacrifice electric vehicles scheme

Season ticket loans

Flexible benefits scheme

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in content design and content strategy.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary Agile teams.
• Advanced communication and stakeholder management skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop strong relationships with clients and provide expertise in content design.
• Lead teams to design services that meet user needs.
• Evolve Hippo’s approach to content design.

Skills

Content design

Agile methodologies

Stakeholder management

Communication

Leadership

Tools

Figma

Sketch

Job description

About The Role

Hippo is recruiting principal consultants in content design. Content designers ensure that service users get the information they need, when and where they need it, in a format that’s right for them. They work with user researchers to identify what people need from a service. Then they write content to meet those needs, collaborating with UX designers and other members of multidisciplinary teams to iterate a service in response to user feedback.

Our principal consultants in content design are leaders in their field. They head our content community and solve complex problems using people-centred design and Agile methodologies. In return, we offer them exciting opportunities to support clients at a senior level and to play an important part in the expansion of Hippo business.

Please note, we are looking for candidates who are seeking growth at this level (principal), therefore the advertised salary band is at the lower end of our full banding for this position, allowing for progression.

What You’ll Do

1. Develop strong relationships with clients and provide expertise in content design, people-centred design, and Agile methodologies
2. Lead teams to design services that meet the needs of all users and adhere to GDS standards
3. Evolve Hippo’s approach to content design, promoting the profession internally and externally
4. Lead Hippo’s content design community of practice and provide thought leadership and line management in your profession
5. Recruit, line manage, and mentor other content designers
6. Support Hippo business strategy by leading on recruitment, resourcing, training, bid writing, or other Hippo-related business activities

About The Candidate

• Extensive experience in content design and content strategy across various environments and clients
• Experience leading multidisciplinary Agile teams to design and deliver people-centred services (from Discovery to live)
• Advanced communication and stakeholder management skills
• Experience educating stakeholders and team members in the value of content design and Agile ways of working
• Experience of line-managing or mentoring other content designers
• Working knowledge of the GDS Digital Standard and how to prepare for a GDS assessment
• Experience providing continuous thought leadership within your profession
• An understanding of other design disciplines such as user research, UX design, and service design
• Advanced consultancy and leadership skills, with confidence in exploring problem spaces with clients to determine the most appropriate way forward

It would be great if you had

• Experience with story mapping and creating service blueprints
• The ability to create high fidelity prototypes using tools like Figma, Sketch, and the GOV.UK prototyping kit
• Experience writing bids or costing and resourcing projects

About The Company

We offer a competitive salary, transparent from the outset, along with a range of benefits:

• Contributory pension scheme (Hippo 6% with employee contributions of 2%)
• 25 days holiday plus UK public holidays
• Perkbox access for discounts
• Critical illness cover
• Life assurance and death in service cover
• Volunteer days
• Cycle-to-work scheme for cyclists
• Salary sacrifice electric vehicles scheme
• Season ticket loans
• Financial and wellbeing sessions
• Flexible benefits scheme including private health and dental cover, additional holidays, wellbeing contributions, charity contributions, and tree planting

Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging at Hippo

We’re committed to creating a diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplace. We encourage applications from underrepresented groups and provide accommodations to ensure an accessible recruitment process. We are a Disability Confident Employer, Mindful Employer, Endometriosis Friendly Employer, and a member of the Armed Forces Covenant.

About Hippo

We design with empathy and build for impact, combining data-informed evidence, human-centred design, and software engineering. Our agile methodology supports innovation and continuous improvement to help clients thrive. We believe technology should serve humanity, and our solutions aim to make a positive societal impact.

Hippo locations

Headquartered in Leeds, with offices in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London, and Bristol. We welcome candidates nationwide and offer relocation support up to £8k. Flexibility to work on-site or remotely is available.