Principal Designer

Hippo; Leeds; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Contributory Pension Scheme

25 Days Holiday

Perkbox access

Life assurance

Volunteer days

Cycle-to-work scheme

Salary sacrifice EV scheme

Season ticket loans

Wellbeing contribution

Private health cover

Additional holidays

Tree planting

Job summary

Hippo is a rapidly growing AI-enabled digital consultancy, seeking a Principal Design Consultant to shape user strategy at scale across public and private sectors. You will lead design in complex environments, align teams around outcomes, mentor designers, and contribute to business growth.

Experience with AI-driven design workflows is highly valued. You will work with executive stakeholders, drive design standards, and ensure accessibility and user-centred delivery across engagements.

Qualifications

• Proven track record leading design at principal level in complex programmes.
• Experience guiding user strategy across organisations and services.
• Ability to translate client needs into scalable design directions.

Responsibilities

• Lead and shape design direction across programs and client engagements.
• Mentor Senior and Lead designers and grow the design capability.
• Drive pre-sales activity by articulating the value of user-centred design and delivery.

Skills

Design leadership

User-centred design

AI in practice

Stakeholder influence

Mentoring & coaching

Tools

GDS standards

Job description

Hippo is a rapidly growing AI enabled digital consultancy passionate about building and delivering transformative digital solutions for a diverse range of Public and Private sector clients. We are recruiting for a Principal Design Consultant to support our mission. We work at the intersection of strategy, design, and technology to solve complex problems and create lasting value. Our collaborative and agile culture empowers our teams to make a genuine Impact.

As a Principal Consultant, you will be a strategic design leader and an experienced practitioner. Your scope extends beyond individual products, services or delivery teams; you will be responsible for shaping user strategy across programmes or organisations, defining design standards, and helping to drive the successful delivery of valuable, user-centred outcomes at scale. You will lead design in complex environments, influence organisational strategy, and ensure user‑centred thinking is embedded across disciplines. You will bring clarity to systemic problems, align teams around outcomes for users, and drive design direction in challenging client environments.

You will mentor and guide Senior and Lead design practitioners, contribute to the development and evolution of our design capability, and act as a visible leader within both Hippo and our client organisations.

At this level, you will play a key role in strengthening and evolving our design proposition, supporting business growth, and influencing senior stakeholders at executive level.

We are in particular encouraging candidates with extensive experience of using AI within their practice, and/or working on products or services that embed AI in how they operate.

What you’ll do

• Be part of the leadership of our most complex and strategically important client engagements, driving a user centred approach across all projects and adding design value across a programme or account
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior client stakeholders - including executive leadership - using data, insight and design methodologies to influence decision‑making and shape long‑term service strategy to support better outcomes for service users.
• Lead teams to design services that meet the needs of all users and adhere to GDS (where appropriate, accessibility and other relevant standards
• Be part of the leadership team of Hippo’s design profession, leading substantive internal workstreams to us to grow the profession to support a period of rapid business growth
• Work with other design leaders to evolve our practices to ensure we retain our strong reputation for high quality user centred design and delivery as the market evolves with AI
• Recruit, lead and mentor Senior and Lead design practitioners, strengthening capability and fostering a culture of continuous learning and improvement
• Support business growth through pre‑sales activity, shaping our propositions, contributing to bids, and helping clients understand the value of user‑centred design and delivery
• Represent Hippo’s design capability internally and externally, contributing to thought leadership, industry engagement, and promotion of our design practice and user centred delivery approach

• Extensive experience in design at a Principal level across a range of complex delivery environments, and with a range of clients
• Experience working effectively within and leading multidisciplinary teams using user‑centred design approaches throughout the product or service lifecycle
• Confidence operating in technical environments, translating complex concepts into clear design direction that delivers measurable outcomes.
• Expert consultancy and leadership skills, and confidence in exploring problem spaces with clients to determine most appropriate way forward
• Confidence operating within complex organisations and adapting quickly to new environments and ambiguous asks
• Ability to manage multiple workstreams and dependencies while maintaining clarity of design direction
• Proven ability to lead and mentor designers, building team capability and supporting long‑term growth
• Working knowledge of the GDS Digital Standard and how to prepare for a GDS assessment, or extensive experience of delivering design projects in the private sector
• Practical experience of implementing AI tools and workflows, producing stronger outcomes for users, clients and Hippo
• Experience providing continuous thought leadership within your profession

Alongside working with some of the most talented people out there and on‑top of a competitive salary, which we’re transparent about from the outset, you can also expect a range of benefits:

• Contributory Pension Scheme (Hippo 6% & Employee 2%)
• 25 Days Holiday plus UK Public Holidays
• Perkbox access for a wide range of discounts
• Critical illness cover
• Life assurance and death in service cover
• Volunteer days
• Cycle‑to‑work scheme for the avid cyclists
• Salary sacrifice electric vehicles scheme
• Season ticket loans
• Financial and general wellbeing sessions
• Flexible benefits scheme with options of:
• Private health cover
• Private dental cover
• Additional company pension contributions
• Additional holidays (up to an extra 2 days)
• Wellbeing contribution
• Charity contributions
• Tree planting

Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging at Hippo

At Hippo, we’re dedicated to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace that works for everyone. We understand that having a diverse team unlocks our capacity for innovation, creativity and problem solving. Only by building a community of diverse perspectives, cultures and socio‑economic backgrounds can we create an environment where all can contribute and thrive.

We actively encourage applications from under‑represented groups including women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent and people with disabilities. We are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment process that reflects our workplace culture. We are a registered Disability Confident Employer, Mindful Employer, Endometriosis Friendly Employer and a member of the Armed Forces Covenant. Hippo continually strives to remove barriers, provide accommodations and offer reasonable adjustments to ensure equity throughout our practices.

Hi, we’re Hippo

At Hippo, we design with empathy and build for impact. We do this by combining data‑informed evidence, human‑centred design and software engineering. We're a digital services partner who is genuinely invested in helping our clients thrive as modern organisations. Our delivery methodology is truly agile, from concept to reality, supporting innovation and continuous improvement to achieve your desired outcomes.

We firmly believe that technology should serve humanity, not the other way around. We take a human‑centred approach to everything we do because we understand that complex problems require a service design approach. This means understanding how users behave and ensuring our solutions work for them in the real world.

Our combination of data, design, and engineering delivers bespoke digital services that make a positive and meaningful impact on organisations and society.

Have a look through our Website at Our Story & Purpose, Our Culture & Values, Case Studies and Our Solutions & Services to find out some more!

Hippo Locations

We are headquartered in Leeds and have offices across the UK in Glasgow, Manchester, Birmingham, London and Bristol. We're on the lookout for top talent nationwide but you need to be located within reasonable travelling distance from one of our offices. Given the dynamic nature of a consulting business, you may be required to work on‑site at a Hippo office or at a in/out of town client location for a number of days per week (client dependent) and therefore candidates will need to be open/flexible to travel and working on one of those sites at least 2 days per week. We offer a generous relocation support package of up to £8,000 (please ask for terms and conditions) to help make your move a smooth one.