Head of User Experience, Research and Design

Employer: University of the Arts London
Location: UAL - High Holborn, London UK
Salary: Circa £75,000 per annum
Contract: Full time/Part time
Hours: Full time/Part time

Job description

The opportunity

Digital & Technology at UAL is on an exciting journey towards product management and user-centric design. Over the last two years we have been scaling our capabilities, shifting focus from a technology and project-centric approach to the design of intuitive, positive user experiences, and optimized digital services that can scale to support our ambitious growth.

As part of that journey, we are creating a new Head of UX, Research & Design role, a key leadership position where you lead and grow a team of UX, Service and UI Designers and User Researchers to create seamless user-centric digital experiences for our students and staff, driving the design of intuitive, engaging and effective digital products that cut across teaching and learning, web platforms and student support.

Your role will be key in establishing practices for user experience and research and design to place the user at the heart of what we do, defining a user experience vision and strategy that can be applied across products and services, enabling us to deliver value at pace, as well as setting and owning UX and UI functional design, research, and accessibility standards.

You’ll get the opportunity to drive data led working, using quant and qual data to really understand our users and their behaviours, and to determine if a feature, product or service is successful.

About you

A track record of establishing, integrating and improving user-centred design standards and processes within an agile, product environment

Excellent leadership skills, managing teams (direct and matrix), coaching, and mentoring team members, and creating a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement

Experience of utilising a diverse range of qualitative and quantitative user research methods to translate insights into improvements

Extensive senior level stakeholder management, cross-functional collaboration, and experience of working with external partners/suppliers
UAL is a world-class university, shaping the creative industries worldwide, and staff have access to a range of benefits, training and personal development to recognise and reward the contributions they make, and to encourage excellence, creativity and diversity, including:

Competitive salary package of circa £75,000 per annum depending on experience.

An initial 3 Year fixed-term contract

34 days annual leave plus public holidays

Generous, defined benefit pension schemeFamily-friendly policies, including 26 weeks of full maternity or paternity pay

HAYS Technology have been retained by University of the Arts London to manage the search and recruitment of this role. For all enquiries, please contact Joel Mundy or Breanna Mahan at Hays Technology.

We are UAL

University of the Arts London (UAL) offers an extensive range of courses in art, design, fashion, communication and performing arts. We are a collegiate University spread across London with six Colleges, four Institutes and five Research Centres. UAL also has two subsidiary companies, delivering specialist activities – UAL Short Courses Ltd, and UAL Arts Temps Ltd.

We’re made up of all types of people, coming together in London, the world’s creative capital. We are designers, artists, performers, thinkers, researchers and makers. Our students, staff and graduates form a global network of creatives, entrepreneurs and leaders. Together, our ideas change the world. Because the world needs creativity.

We are ranked highly across the board. We are ranked first for specialist art and design, second in the world for Art and Design in the 2024 QS World University Rankings (for the sixth year in a row), ranked fifth in sustainability and two of our colleges were rated in the top three fashion schools in the world.

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