Lead UX Designer

The team you will be working with: NTT DATA is a trusted global innovator with over 100,000 professionals in 50+ countries. Headquartered in Tokyo, we bring elements of our Japanese heritage—precision, long-term thinking, and social responsibility—into our UK work. In the UK, we work across telecoms, financial services, manufacturing, and the public sector, delivering end-to-end services from strategy to implementation. Tangity, part of the NTT DATA Design Network, is a global design studio dedicated to humanising complexity. We combine Strategy, Technology, and Design to create meaningful, inclusive, and impactful services that improve lives and systems. Our studios work closely with delivery teams to embed design deeply into every project and across every touchpoint.

The Role: As a Lead UX Designer, you will play a pivotal role in shaping public-facing services across the UK government. You will lead end-to-end UX delivery in agile, multidisciplinary teams, ensuring that the services we design are inclusive, accessible, and aligned with user and business needs. You will work across Discovery, Alpha, Beta, and Live phases, leading the development of digital experiences that meet GDS service standards. From mapping user journeys to producing high-fidelity prototypes, you will guide clients and teams toward evidence-based decisions. You will also help define and maintain a consistent UX strategy across products and ensure design intent is preserved through development.

What you will be doing:

• Lead UX design from discovery through to delivery, championing user needs and shaping intuitive, accessible public services.
• Plan and conduct user-centred design activities such as contextual research, usability testing, journey mapping, and service blueprinting.
• Collaborate with service designers during discovery and design phases to align UX with broader service goals and end-to-end journeys.
• Create wireframes, flows, and high-fidelity prototypes to support stakeholder alignment and enable early design sign-off.
• Work closely with Business Analysts and Tech Leads to translate requirements into usable and scalable design solutions.
• Facilitate co-design workshops, ideation sessions, playback reviews, and internal critiques.
• Define and maintain a consistent design approach across the product or service, ensuring alignment with the overarching UX and service strategy.
• Collaborate closely with developers during build, clarifying interaction patterns and design intent to support smooth implementation.
• Ensure all solutions adhere to accessibility (WCAG 2.2) and usability best practices.
• Contribute to or help establish design systems and standards that support consistent delivery at scale.
• Support GDS service assessments and advocate for users in governance and decision-making.
• Mentor and guide junior designers, providing feedback and support for their growth.
• Represent UX in client meetings, agile ceremonies, and internal leadership forums.

What experience you will bring:

• 8+ years of experience in UX, digital product design, or interaction design.
• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in UX Design, Interaction Design, HCI, or a related field.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating UX leadership across large-scale digital services.
• Proven experience delivering to GDS service standards in central or local government.
• Ability to design intuitive experiences through wireframes, flow diagrams, IA, and high-fidelity prototypes.
• Proficient in tools such as Figma, Adobe CC, Miro, etc.
• Strong understanding of accessibility (WCAG 2.2) and inclusive design.
• Practical knowledge of HTML/CSS to support collaborative handoff with developers.
• Experience working in agile environments with multidisciplinary teams.
• Eligible for SC clearance (British citizen or equivalent, with 5 years of continuous UK residency).
• Experience contributing to or maintaining design systems in a public sector context.
• Familiarity with design governance and GDS service assessments.
• Experience working with policy, legal, or content teams to shape service journeys.
• Exposure to prototyping tools or low-code platforms used in government delivery.
• Understanding of public service KPIs (e.g. cost per transaction, conversion, channel shift).
• Comfortable with AI-enhanced design tools or auto-layout systems for rapid prototyping.
• Experience designing services for vulnerable or underrepresented user groups.
• Knowledge of mobile-first design and platform-specific guidance (e.g., iOS HIG, GOV.UK Design System).

Who we are: We are a business with a global reach that empowers local teams, and we undertake hugely exciting work that is genuinely changing the world. Our advanced portfolio of consulting, applications, business process, cloud, and infrastructure services will allow you to achieve great things by working with brilliant colleagues and clients on exciting projects. Our inclusive work environment prioritises mutual respect, accountability, and continuous learning for all our people. This approach fosters collaboration, well-being, growth, and agility, leading to a more diverse, innovative, and competitive organisation. We are also proud to share that we have a range of Inclusion Networks such as: the Women’s Business Network, Cultural and Ethnicity Network, LGBTQ+ & Allies Network, Neurodiversity Network and the Parent Network.

What we will offer you: We offer a range of tailored benefits that support your physical, emotional, and financial wellbeing. Our Learning and Development team ensure that there are continuous growth and development opportunities for our people. We also offer the opportunity to have flexible work options. We are an equal opportunities employer. We believe in the fair treatment of all our employees and commit to promoting equity and diversity in our employment practices. We are also a proud Disability Confident Committed Employer - we are committed to creating a diverse and inclusive workforce. We actively collaborate with individuals who have disabilities and long-term health conditions which have an effect on their ability to do normal daily activities, ensuring that barriers are eliminated when it comes to employment opportunities. In line with our commitment, we guarantee an interview to applicants who declare to us, during the application process, that they have a disability and meet the minimum requirements for the role. If you require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know. Join us in building a truly diverse and empowered team.