Principal UX Designer

Parallax; Leeds; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private medical insurance

Private Dental Care

Pension with Salary Sacrifice

Hybrid working

Flexible working

25 days annual leave + bank holidays +

Enhanced maternity & paternity leave

Enhanced company sick pay

Lunch in the office

Job summary

Parallax is seeking a Principal UX Designer to lead the Experience Design team. You will shape the direction across multiple digital services, mentor designers and influence roadmaps while staying hands-on in IA, flows and interactive prototypes.

You’ll drive discovery, research and service design, connecting customer experiences with people, processes and technology to improve outcomes and business results. This senior role blends strategy with execution in a hybrid working environment.

Qualifications

• Substantial UX or digital product design experience leading complex engagements.
• Experience shaping strategy, discovery workshops and aligning stakeholders.
• Proven ability to map journeys, service blueprints and future-state experiences.
• Advanced user research skills with synthesis into actionable outcomes.
• Excellence in IA, flows, interfaces and interactive prototypes.
• Advanced Figma skills; experience building reusable design systems.
• Understanding of accessibility and inclusive design in delivery.
• Experience applying brand guidelines to digital experiences.
• Experience collaborating with engineers and using AI tools to improve workflows.
• Experience mentoring designers and raising design standards.

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery and research, align stakeholders on user needs and business goals.
• Use journey mapping and service blueprinting to connect experiences to operational steps.
• Define and communicate a clear experience vision across projects.
• Balance strategic leadership with hands-on design and prototyping.
• Raise design quality through standards, critiques and design systems.
• Collaborate with engineers during iteration and delivery.
• Mentor designers across strategy, research and stakeholder management.
• Shape proposals, scopes and estimates for client work.
• Represent the design practice through case studies and industry events.

Skills

UX design leadership

Discovery research

Service design

Stakeholder management

Prototyping

Figma advanced

Accessibility

Design systems

Mentoring

AI tooling

Tools

Figma

Storybook

Webflow

Git

Job description

About The Role

We’re looking for an experienced Principal UX Designer to join our Experience Design team. This is a senior, hands‑on role combining deep UX expertise, service design thinking and strong visual craft across websites, mobile apps and digital services.

You’ll work from the earliest stages of client engagements, uncovering the real problems, shaping the approach and guiding teams through discovery, design, delivery and optimisation. You’ll connect digital and non‑digital touchpoints with the people, processes and technology behind them, improving both customer experiences and how businesses operate.

Equally comfortable in the detail and leading client workshops, you’ll set the experience direction across multiple projects while staying actively involved in the work. Our clients span sectors and markets, so you’ll need to adapt quickly, influence roadmaps and help shape new opportunities. You’ll also mentor designers and raise standards across the practice.

Your portfolio should showcase polished digital products and experiences, with clear evidence of how your research, strategic thinking and design leadership have improved user outcomes and delivered business results.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead discovery and research, unpicking complex briefs and aligning stakeholders on user needs, business objectives and success measures. Combine research, analytics, audits and market insight into actionable recommendations.
• Use journey mapping and service blueprinting to connect customer‑facing experiences with the people, processes, systems and operational dependencies behind them. Identify opportunities to improve digital and non‑digital touchpoints, simplify business processes and reduce friction.
• Map current-state (“as‑is”) and future-state (“to‑be”) experiences, establish performance baselines and evaluate the delivered service against intended outcomes to measure success and demonstrate return on investment.
• Set and communicate a clear experience vision across projects, translating insight and technical constraints into coherent UX direction, prioritised opportunities and actionable roadmaps.
• Balance strategic leadership with hands‑on design, creating IA, flows, wireframes, polished interfaces and interactive prototypes. Test and refine solutions throughout delivery.
• Raise design quality through clear standards, constructive critiques and reusable design systems. Champion accessibility, inclusive design and effective content, working with engineers to maintain quality through implementation.
• Act as a trusted advisor to clients and senior stakeholders, bringing together technical and non‑technical teams, presenting recommendations persuasively and navigating competing priorities with confidence and empathy.
• Lead design collaboration across squads, anticipating risks and supporting feasibility, documentation and quality through to launch. Work with clients and delivery teams to plan optimisation, further development or handover.
• Mentor designers, including senior colleagues, across strategy, research, craft and stakeholder management. Improve our processes, tools and workflows, including practical uses of AI and advanced prototyping.
• Shape design approaches, scopes and estimates for proposals and Statements of Work. Balance ambition, feasibility and budget with commercial and delivery colleagues, support pitches and identify further client opportunities.
• Represent the design practice through case studies, articles, workshops and industry events, sharing expertise and building relationships.

About You

• You bring clarity to ambiguity, combining strategic thinking with hands‑on craft and attention to detail.
• You look beyond the interface, considering how people, processes and technology work together to deliver a service.
• You’re a credible, empathetic communicator who can influence senior stakeholders, challenge constructively and build lasting client relationships.
• You balance user needs, commercial goals and technical constraints, making pragmatic decisions that support immediate and longer‑term value.
• You take initiative, manage competing priorities calmly and exercise sound judgement, recognising when to involve others or ask for support.
• You’re collaborative, open to feedback and invested in growing the capability and confidence of others.

Key Skills

What you need to have:

• Substantial experience in UX or digital product design, leading complex engagements, guiding designers and delivering measurable user and business outcomes.
• Strong experience shaping experience strategy, facilitating discovery workshops and aligning technical and non‑technical stakeholders around clear priorities.
• Practical service design experience, including journey mapping, service blueprinting and mapping current and future states to identify improvements across digital experiences and business operations.
• Advanced user research skills, including selecting methods, running studies and synthesising qualitative and quantitative evidence into recommendations and measurable outcomes.
• Excellent interaction and visual design skills, translating complex requirements into clear IA, flows, interfaces and prototypes.
• Advanced Figma skills and experience building and evolving reusable design systems.
• Strong understanding of content design, accessibility and inclusive design, with experience embedding these into team practices.
• Experience applying brand guidelines to digital experiences, alongside a deep understanding of front‑end principles and technical constraints.
• Experience collaborating with engineers throughout iterative delivery and using AI tools to improve workflows and create working prototypes.
• Experience mentoring designers, improving design standards and presenting recommendations, scopes or proposals to senior stakeholders.

Nice to have

• Experience within a digital or technology consultancy, working across sectors and client organisations.
• Familiarity with Government Digital Service (GDS) approaches and the Service Standard, with the ability to adapt relevant practices pragmatically to shorter consultancy engagements.
• Experience with Webflow or other low‑code tools, or connecting design systems with code through Git or Storybook.
• Experience with experimentation and data‑driven optimisation.
• Experience designing IoT, AI‑native or AI‑assisted products.
• Experience using agentic workflows to bridge design and development, including contributing small UI/UX improvements directly to a codebase.
• Experience on branding projects or establishing new visual directions.
• A track record of sharing expertise through writing, speaking or community involvement.

Benefits

• Private medical insurance with Bupa
• Private Dental Care
• Pension with Salary Sacrifice
• Hybrid working (flexible, office time not mandated but required for workshops/team events)
• Flexible working
• 25 days annual leave + bank holidays + enhanced annual leave (For every year that you’re employed, we give you an extra day’s holiday up to a maximum of 5 days)
• Enhanced maternity & paternity leave
• Enhanced company sick pay
• 2 subscriptions packages up to the value of £30 in total, on us
• Quarterly company Hackathons
• Professional Development (PD) days and training
• Free lunch in the office every Thursday
• Regular team socials