Lead UX / Product Designer in Sheffield

Salary expectations - £45,000 to £55,000 D.O.E

At Quba, we design and build complex digital platforms that solve genuine business problems. Our work spans enterprise websites, digital services and integrated platforms where user experience, technology and commercial outcomes all need to work together.

We’re looking for a Lead UX / Product Designer who can take ownership of the experience from initial discovery and research through to detailed UX and interface design. This is a role for someone who enjoys getting underneath a problem: understanding users, challenging assumptions, making sense of complex requirements and turning that thinking into simple, intuitive digital experiences.

You'll need to be as comfortable facilitating a discovery workshop or presenting a UX recommendation to a client as you are opening Figma and designing the solution yourself. You’ll work closely with clients, developers, project teams and senior stakeholders to create digital experiences that are useful, usable, accessible, visually considered and commercially effective.

The Role

As our Lead UX / Product Designer, you'll lead the UX and design process across a range of client projects.You'll get involved from the very beginning of a project - helping us understand the problem we're trying to solve, who we're solving it for and what success looks like.From there, you'll translate research, requirements and insight into information architecture, user journeys, wireframes, prototypes and ultimately polished interface designs.

You'll be responsible for maintaining the quality and integrity of the user experience throughout delivery, working closely with our development team to make sure what we design translates successfully into the finished product.

This is a senior role, but it is also a hands-on design role. We're looking for someone who enjoys thinking strategically but still wants to design.

What You'll Be Responsible For

You'll help establish the right foundations for our projects by:

• Planning and facilitating discovery workshops with clients and stakeholders
• Understanding business objectives, audiences, user needs and operational constraints
• Asking the right questions and challenging assumptions where appropriate
• Gathering and prioritising user and business requirements
• Reviewing existing websites, products, analytics and user journeys
• Identifying pain points and opportunities within existing experiences
• Translating discovery into a clear UX strategy and set of design principles
• Defining what a successful experience needs to achieve

User Experience Design

You'll turn complex requirements into experiences that feel simple and intuitive. This could include:

• User journeys and task flows
• Sitemap and navigation design
• Wireframing
• Rapid prototyping
• Usability testing
• Accessibility considerations
• Responsive behaviour across different devices and screen sizes

You'll be comfortable exploring different approaches before committing to a solution and able to explain the thinking behind your decisions.

UI & Visual Design

We want UX thinking and strong visual design to work together. You’ll be able to take an experience from early wireframes through to a polished interface in Figma, considering:

• Layout and visual hierarchy
• Typography
• Colour and imagery
• Interaction states and behaviours
• Component-based design
• Design systems
• Accessibility
• Consistency across large websites and digital platforms

You don't need to be an illustrator or brand designer, but you should have a strong eye for digital design and know what makes an interface feel considered, coherent and easy to use.

Where projects involve external creative partners, you'll also be comfortable providing direction, reviewing their work and making sure the final experience remains true to the original UX thinking.

Research & Validation

We don't want design decisions to be based purely on opinion. Depending on the project, you'll help us understand and validate user needs through methods such as:

• Competitor and comparative research
• Existing analytics and behavioural data
• Prototype testing
• Usability testing

You'll know when research is genuinely valuable and how to choose an approach that's proportionate to the project, budget and timescale.

Design Systems & Consistency

Many of the platforms we build are large, CMS-driven websites that need to evolve over a number of years. You’ll help us create scalable design approaches rather than designing individual pages in isolation.

• Work with developers to define reusable components, patterns and behaviours
• Help establish design systems that create consistency while giving content teams the flexibility they need

Working with Developers

Design at Quba isn't something that gets thrown over the wall to development. You'll work closely with our developers throughout projects to:

• Discuss technical possibilities and constraints
• Design solutions that are practical to build and maintain
• Define responsive and interactive behaviour
• Resolve UX questions that emerge during development
• Make sensible decisions when technical, commercial and UX considerations compete

You'll be comfortable having those conversations and pragmatic enough to know when a compromise is the right decision.

Client Partnership

You'll have significant contact with our clients and will be comfortable:

• Running workshops and design sessions
• Presenting concepts and UX recommendations
• Explaining the reasoning behind design decisions
• Listening to and constructively challenging feedback
• Helping stakeholders understand user needs
• Explaining trade-offs between UX, design, technology and commercial priorities

We're looking for someone who can build credibility with clients and become a trusted voice on UX and design.

New Business & Pitches

You'll also bring UX and design thinking into our new business process. That might mean:

• Reviewing a prospective client's existing digital experience
• Identifying UX opportunities
• Helping shape our proposed approach
• Creating early concepts, journeys or prototypes
• Contributing to proposals and pitch responses
• Attending and presenting at pitches
• Helping prospective clients understand what's possible

What We're Looking For

We're looking for an experienced UX, product or digital designer with a portfolio that demonstrates how you think as well as what you design.

You’ll ideally have:

• Strong UX and UI design experience
• Experience designing responsive websites and digital products
• Strong information architecture and interaction design skills
• Experience creating wireframes and interactive prototypes
• Experience working with component libraries and design systems
• A good understanding of accessibility and inclusive design
• Experience conducting or participating in user research and usability testing
• Experience working directly with developers
• Confidence presenting work and explaining design decisions
• Strong stakeholder and workshop facilitation skills
• The ability to balance user needs, business objectives and technical constraints
• Experience managing multiple projects and priorities

Agency experience would be particularly valuable, as you'll be working across different clients, sectors and challenges rather than focusing on a single product.

It Would Be Great If You Also Have Experience With

• Enterprise or large-scale websites
• CMS-driven platforms
• Complex navigation and information architecture
• Content modelling and structured content
• Accessibility standards such as WCAG
• Analytics or behavioural insight tools
• Conversion optimisation
• Designing for multiple audiences or user types

Why This Role Matters

This role sits at the heart of what we do at Quba. We work on digital platforms that often have complex audiences, large amounts of content, multiple integrations and competing business requirements.

Technology alone doesn’t solve those problems. Good UX makes the complexity manageable.

You’ll have a significant influence over the experiences we create and will help us continually improve the way Quba approaches research, UX and digital design.

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