User Experience Lead

Gear4music Ltd.; York and North Yorkshire; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 90,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Staff discount

Choice of Mac or Linux laptop

Health Assured EAP & trained mental健康?

Job summary

Gear4music Ltd. is seeking a UX Lead to identify high-value customer improvements and drive end-to-end journey design from concept to tested prototypes. You will shape the design language with Marketing and work closely with Engineering to deliver fast, user-centered solutions.

The role emphasizes hands-on craft, stakeholder collaboration, and a research-led approach, with flexibility for working from home part of the week and a strong focus on customer impact.

Qualifications

• Proven UX leadership in online retail with measurable impact on customer journeys.
• Ability to present design decisions to senior stakeholders and build consensus across teams.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end customer journey design from concept to validated prototypes.
• Work with Marketing to shape the design language across customer touchpoints.
• Collaborate closely with Engineering to ensure feasible, timely implementation.
• Iterate on ideas with a research-led approach and embrace AI-assisted tools.

Skills

UX leadership

Online retail UX

Design systems

Prototyping (Figma)

User research

AI in design

Engineering collaboration

Stakeholder management

Tools

Figma

Job description

Gear4music is a leading UK & European musical retailer. Since launching in 2003, our mission has been to make music accessible for all. We now offer over 67,000 products, serve customers in 190 countries, and operate in 15 languages and 9 currencies. In 2022, we also launched AV.com, retailing HiFi, Home Cinema, and accessories.

Behind the scenes, we're powered by a growing technical team who make all of this possible. We recently turned over £190m and continue to grow, evolve, and innovate.

The Role

Our websites are seen, used and loved by millions of customers, but in the fast paced world of musical instrument retail, we can’t afford to stand still.

We're looking for a UX Lead who can identify the highest-value, most customer-impacting changes and get the business behind making them.

This is a hands-on role: you'll own end-to-end customer journey design and take ideas from concept to validated, testable prototypes, and out into the hands of our customers.

You’ll also have the opportunity to contribute to the future of the Gear4Music as a Brand, working with Marketing teams to shape the design language of every customer touchpoint across the business.

This isn't a role where good ideas sit in a deck. We need someone who is equally capable of working with the most senior people in our business as well as the technical teams who will bring them to life.

What You'll Bring

We're looking for a confident, customer-focused UX Lead who enjoys building from the ground up, and iterating on ideas over time. We want someone who will invest time in understanding how our business operates, what our customers need, and how we can make improvements across their whole shopping journey.

You'll be comfortable giving and receiving direct feedback to stakeholders of all levels, and consider a range of opinions, as well as leaning on your own experiences.

Some of the skills and experience we're looking for:

• A strong track record of UX leadership in online retail or e-commerce, with a portfolio showing real, measurable impact on customer journeys.
• Comfort operating at a senior level — able to present and defend design decisions confidently to non-designers, including senior stakeholders, and to build consensus across teams that don't report to you.
• Hands-on fluency in modern design and prototyping tools (e.g. Figma or equivalent).
• A research-led approach: comfortable running and interpreting user research and usability testing, and using that insight to prioritise what actually moves the needle.
• Genuine enthusiasm for using AI tools to accelerate your own workflow - research synthesis, prototyping, iteration - without it coming at the cost of craft.
• Experience of working closely with engineering teams, to ensure designs are technically grounded and can be shipped at pace.
• A pragmatic, improvement-driven mindset: someone who treats every release as a starting point, not a finish line.

How We Work

• This role will work closely with key stakeholders in our York UK (Holgate) Head Office, so that’s where you’ll be spending most of your time.
• However, we appreciate there will be times when you just need to get in the zone, and work without distraction, so WFH flexibility is available. We’ll discuss this openly, and find an approach that works for you.
• Core hours are 10am–4pm, when we ask you to be available (except for that all-important lunch break!) Outside of that, your contracted hours can be worked however suits you. When your hours are done, we mean it: close the laptop.
• Flexible hours, no dress code, and a genuinely flat structure. Our Senior Leadership Team will say hello early-on in your journey, and are reachable when you need them. We believe open, honest feedback goes both ways, including upward.

Working With AI

We see AI as central to our future as a Technical Team, and a business overall - not as a replacement for experience and skill, but as a tool that makes good people more effective. In practice, this means we expect you to be comfortable using AI-assisted tooling (e.g. Copilot, Claude) as part of your day-to-day workflow, while the judgement, design thinking, and craft remain firmly in your hands.

Our Interview Process

• An initial conversation with our recruitment team, to get to know you and talk through the role.
• A formal interview to understand more about your experience, review your portfolio, and understand how you go about your work.
• A final-stage interview with a member of our Management Team, where you’ll have the opportunity to learn more about the broader context of the business, and how the role contributes to our success.

If you'd benefit from any adjustments to this process such as more time, questions in advance, or a different format for any part of it, please just let us know. We're happy to work with you on that.

Why Us?

Music is what we do, and for a lot of us here, it's also what we love.

You don't need to be a musician to thrive in this role - plenty of brilliant people on our team aren't - but if you are, you'll find no shortage of people to talk gear, gigs, or your latest project with.

We pride ourselves on our culture over gimmicks. You are the most important part of our business, and we want to grow and support you in an environment where you can share ideas and make honest mistakes without fear. After all, mistakes are how we grow.

We encourage people to bring their authentic selves to work. Individual quirks are something we actively celebrate, not tolerate…we think they're part of what makes a team good at solving hard problems! We welcome applicants of any gender, background, or neurotype, and we're glad to talk through any adjustments - in the interview process or in how the role is worked day to day - that would help you do your best work here.

We've got the fundamentals covered too: trained mental health first aiders, tailored personal progression plans, regular 1:1s, and a Slack culture that actually holds the team together day to day.

What We Offer

• A generous staff discount scheme for friends, family and bandmates alike.
• Your choice of Mac or Linux laptop.
• Health Assured Employee Assistance Programme & Trained mental health first aiders.
• No dress code.
• A strong learning culture, with support available for external training.