Head of Design

Progressive IT Resourcing; Cape Town; On-site; ZAR 700,000 - 900,000; Full time

Job summary

Progressive IT Resourcing in Cape Town is looking for a Design Lead to shape intermediary experiences across digital platforms. This role requires 8-12 years of Product Design experience, preferably in Financial Services, and involves leading a design team to improve efficiency and effectiveness. The Design Lead will be responsible for user research, design governance, and applying best practices in design methodologies. This position offers an opportunity to drive significant impact in a digitally enabled environment through innovative design solutions.

Qualifications

• 8-12 years’ experience in Product Design across varied users and business problems.
• Experience leading design teams in Financial Services.
• Strong understanding of user research and usability testing.

Responsibilities

• Lead design capability for intermediary experiences.
• Conduct user research and usability testing.
• Define and drive design governance and processes.

Skills

User-centered design processes

Design leadership

Rapid prototyping methods

Analytical thinking

Agile methodologies

Education

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification in a related field

Tools

Design software and prototyping tools

Job description

What will you do?

The Design Lead is accountable for intermediary experience across the SRS and the company, with specific ownership of experience on the intermediary digital platform.

The role leads the design capability responsible for shaping coherent, end-to-end intermediary experiences across journeys delivered by multiple teams. Working closely with product, technology, data, marketing and business stakeholders, the Design Lead ensures that design translates strategic intent into practical, usable solutions that materially improve intermediary efficiency, effectiveness and experience.

What will make you successful in this role?

The key responsibilities of the role include the following:

Craft & execution

• Use, apply and disseminate best practice design methodologies, tools and frameworks amongst design practitioners and teams to solve for, and design, effective intermediary experiences.
• Lead and contribute to the definition of interactions, journeys and services, taking into account intermediary needs, business objectives, technical considerations and design best practice.
• Drive and guide user research and usability testing activity to ensure validated design solutions, capturing insights and testing outcomes and packaging these for broader sharing and feedback.
• Interpret research and data to inform design direction and prioritisation, ensuring solutions are grounded in the real contexts in which intermediaries support their clients.
• Own and contribute to the delivery of UX, UI and interaction design outputs as agreed during performance contracting, ensuring quality, consistency and fitness for purpose.

Project and Team

• Collaborate across the company, Company Risk and Savings (SRS) and Company to identify strategic objectives and contribute to the definition of intermediary experience initiatives and focus areas, representing the role of design in achieving these objectives.
• Support leadership to articulate and evangelise a clear intermediary experience vision and design approach.
• Build and lead a design capability able to deliver consistent, high quality intermediary experiences across journeys, channels and digital platforms
• Nurture design talent and skills, instilling strong design practices and creating a compelling employee proposition for designers.
• Create a productive, inclusive and vibrant design culture and community in the division.
• Define, drive and act as custodian of design governance, processes, tools and templates to support everyday design activities.
• Manage the ongoing evolution of the intermediary design system and shared design assets.
• Create unified standards for delivering consistent and high quality intermediary experiences across multiple teams and initiatives.
• Stay informed of the competitive landscape and emerging best practices to continuously bring new and differentiated thinking into experience, service and product design.

Organisation

• Contribute to the broader transformation of the company into a digitally enabled, experience-led organisation.
• Apply human-centred design practices to understand intermediary needs, inform strategic planning and uncover opportunities to improve intermediary efficiency, effectiveness and experience. Represent Company in the market as a custodian of experience and design quality, contributing to Company’s reputation and stature as an innovator.
• Act as an agent for collaboration across design, experience, product, channels, marketing and brand, and technology, bringing cross-functional and holistic thinking to problem-solving.
• Support the CIO and broader leadership team to shape creative and strategic thinking that frames strong end-to-end intermediary journeys, services and solutions.

Qualification and Experience

• Bachelor’s degree or equivalent qualification in a related field.
• 8-12 years’ experience in the discipline of Product Design across varied users, business problems, and devices.
• Experience in leading design teams in, and senior participation in designing products and services for Financial Services institutions.

Knowledge and Skills

• Knowledge in management of design teams, and related operational efficiencies in ensuring optimal design quality and throughout, within agile environments
• Knowledge in defining, disseminating and driving the application of user-centered design processes and practices to develop new products and services.
• Knowledge of interaction models, flows and wireframes.
• Knowledge of rapid prototyping methods, ranging from paper sketching to digital prototypes.
• Understanding of contextual uses for experience maps, user journeys and service blueprints.
• Understanding of areas of specialization within the greater design landscape, including but not limited to Design Research, Visual Design, and Content Design.
• High dexterity in speed and quality with the tools of your trade.
• Knowledge of and curiosity about technology and its impact on design solution
• Knowledge of the process in conducting user research and capturing user insights using qualitative and quantitative methods.

Core Competencies

• Communicates effectively
• Decision quality
• Analytical thinking
• Cultivates innovation
• Optimize work processes
• Plans and aligns
• Concern for accuracy
• Customer focus
• Balances stakeholders
• Collaborates
• Drives engagement
• Drives results
• Nimble learning
• Being resilient