Head of Design and Research in Milton

Informa is a leading academic publishing, business intelligence, knowledge, and events business, creating unique content and connectivity for customers all over the world. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a member of the FTSE 100. Taylor & Francis is one of the world’s largest publishers of high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarly journals, books, e-books and reference works. We empower learners, thinkers and doers with trusted knowledge that advances research and enriches lives.

Design is at the heart of how Taylor & Francis delivers value to its users. As Head of Product Design, you will lead the design function to create intuitive, accessible, and delightful experiences at scale across our digital ecosystem. This high-impact strategic role involves setting the design vision, building a world-class team, and embedding design thinking throughout product development. Partnering with Product and Data & Intelligence leaders, you'll lead a function that both informs and executes decisions. Reporting to the VP of Product, you're joining at a pivotal moment as we evolve our portfolio for researchers, educators, and institutions in a digital, mobile-first, AI-augmented world. Your work will directly shape how millions of users discover, consume, and engage with trusted content.

Design Leadership & Strategy

• Own the end-to-end design strategy for T&F's products and services, championing user-centred thinking at every level, from executive strategy to tactical execution.
• Build and evolve a comprehensive design system that enables consistency, speed, and quality across all product surfaces, platforms, and content types (desktop, mobile, offline, emerging formats).
• Establish design principles and standards that scale across a multi-region, multi-product organization while allowing for contextual flexibility.
• Drive innovation in design practice, exploring emerging paradigms including AI-assisted design, personalization at scale, accessibility-first thinking, and inclusive design.
• Define and track design success metrics, establishing how design impact is measured and communicated across the organization.
• Anticipate future user needs, positioning design as a strategic function that shapes not just responds to product roadmaps.

Team & Culture

• Hire, develop, and inspire a high-performing team of UX Designers, UI Designers, and Researchers placing product design and a customer mindset at the heart.
• Create a culture of critique, collaboration, and continuous learning within the design function, where challenge is welcomed and excellence is the standard.
• Advocate for the role of research and evidence in shaping product direction, ensuring user insight is a first-class input to decision-making.
• Mentor and grow design talent, creating clear career pathways and development opportunities that attract and retain exceptional people.
• Build design capability across the organization, coaching non-designers in design thinking and user-centred approaches.

Cross-Functional Partnership & Influence

• Work closely with the Head of Product Management and Head of Data & Intelligence to align design with product strategy, data insights, and business outcomes.
• Collaborate deeply with Engineering to ensure design intent is realized in the final product, balancing ambition with technical reality.
• Partner with Content, Editorial, and Commercial teams to ensure design serves both user needs and business goals.
• Contribute to the VP Product leadership team, representing the design perspective in strategic decisions and helping shape organizational direction.
• Present and defend design decisions at executive level, translating design rationale into business impact and strategic value.
• Build design advocacy across the organization, elevating the visibility and influence of design as a strategic discipline.

Operational Excellence

• Establish scalable design processes and rituals that balance speed with quality, enabling the team to deliver consistently excellent work.
• Manage design operations, including tooling, workflows, critique processes, and cross-functional handoffs.
• Balance strategic vision with tactical delivery, knowing when to lead from the front and when to empower the team.
• Navigate ambiguity and complexity, making sound decisions with incomplete information and adapting as context evolves.

Qualifications

Essential Experience

• Significant experience in product design, with a demonstrated success in a design leadership role managing managers and/or leading design functions.
• Strong portfolio demonstrating design quality, systems thinking, and strategic impact showing not just what you designed, but how you thought, influenced, and delivered outcomes.
• Deep knowledge of user research methodologies and how to integrate insight into design practice, including qualitative and quantitative approaches.
• Experience building and evolving design systems that serve multiple products, platforms, and teams.
• Confident communicator and storyteller, able to present and defend design decisions at executive level, translating design value into business language.

Strategic & Leadership Capabilities

• Strategic thinker who can connect design decisions to business outcomes, user needs, and organizational goals.
• Exceptional people leader with a track record of hiring, developing, and retaining top design talent.
• Collaborative influencer who builds trust and credibility across functions, levels, and geographies.
• Systems thinker who sees connections, patterns, and opportunities others miss.
• Comfortable with ambiguity, able to provide clarity and direction when the path forward isn't obvious.
• High agency and ownership mindset you see problems and solve them, rather than waiting for permission.

Technical & Domain Knowledge

• Expertise in modern design tools and practices (Figma, prototyping, design ops, accessibility standards, responsive/adaptive design).
• Familiarity with data-driven design, personalization, and AI-driven experiences understanding how to design for algorithmic systems and emerging technologies.
• Understanding of mobile-first and offline-capable design patterns, particularly for content-heavy applications.
• Knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and inclusive design principles, with a commitment to designing for all users.
• Experience working across hybrid, multi-region teams, navigating cultural and time-zone complexity.

At Taylor & Francis we care about our colleagues, promoting work-life balance, wellbeing, and flexible working. You will be joining a thriving business, working alongside an exceptional group of people. We believe that the skills and experience you bring to Taylor & Francis are invaluable. We want you to have the opportunity to develop your abilities, and to innovate and develop in areas which you are passionate about.

This role is based in the UK and you must have the right to work and live in the UK. We believe that great things happen when people connect face-to-face. That's why we work in-person with each other, or with customers and partners, three days a week or more. When you’re not spending time together in one of our offices or other workplaces – like at conference – you get the flexibility and support to work from home or remotely.

The successful candidate will be able to utilise our balanced working model. We ask that candidates live within a commutable distance to our Milton Park office or our London office to ensure that as a balanced worker they can make it to our office location 3 days per week. Please note that our Milton Park office will be relocating to Oxford city centre in late 2027 / early 2028, offering an exciting new workplace in the heart of the city.

Closing Date: Applications will close on the 29th of July 2026.

If you’re excited about working with Taylor & Francis to foster human progress through knowledge, we invite you to apply even if your existing skills and experience don’t fit every item listed above. At Taylor & Francis, we are at our best and most successful when colleagues can be themselves and contribute regardless of their identity or background. Our goal is to empower you with the resources, incentives, and flexibility you need to enjoy success at work and to live a healthy, balanced life. Taylor & Francis is proud to be an Equal Opportunity Employer. We believe in and value diversity of people and thought, fostering a supportive and inclusive environment where all colleagues can learn and succeed as their true selves.