UX/Service Designer in Abingdon

Would you like to help enrich the lives of learners around the world? At RM, we’ve been pioneers of education technology since. We provide technology and resources to the education sector, supporting over 10 million students worldwide. We work with over 28, schools, nurseries, and education trusts in countries to deliver customer-centric solutions that improve education outcomes.

What we do helps learners at all stages of their lives, from preschool to higher education and professional qualification; we partner with schools, examination boards, central governments and other professional institutions to enrich the lives of learners. RM Group operates through three businesses: Technology (Managed Services, Software and Infrastructure for Schools), Assessment (Software and Services), and TTS (Educational Resources).

Within the assessment market we are experts in providing solutions for online exam testing and marking and the management and analysis of educational data. We work with government ministries, exam boards and professional awarding bodies for high stakes assessment such as GCSEs, A Levels, and professional qualifications. Each year, our software is used globally to conduct hundreds of thousands of on-screen tests and to mark millions of paper-based scripts. For over a decade we have been partnering with the world’s leading awarding bodies to deliver intuitive, secure, and reliable e-marking solutions.

We have an award-winning portfolio of products and services that deliver digital assessment solutions for organisations globally in the general qualification, professional qualification, and higher education sectors.

We are looking for a seasoned UX Designer who has end-to-end UX skills in the product development lifecycle, and the versatility and adaptability to meet the needs of different business areas. You understand the principles of continuous discovery and product iteration, are comfortable with ambiguity, and have a strong bias for action. You actively seek out opportunities to conduct user research and gather data at all stages of the design process. You are known for your initiative, pragmatic approach to design, and expertise in balancing user needs with business objectives. You think strategically about driving business impact, and have a track record of delivering successful products that delight users and move key metrics.

You will execute hands-on design for one of our large, core products that is used by global leaders in the education sector. You will advocate for and work to the design strategy, and design customer journeys that link across our digital assessment portfolio. You will collaborate with product managers, engineers, support teams, account teams, etc. to support them across all stages of the design process.

You will report directly to the Head of Design and work closely with them to implement the design strategy. This is an exciting opportunity for someone looking to be part of an ambitious, purpose-led company looking to transform learning and assessment.

Responsibilities

• Conduct user research, shape the product vision and roadmap, design intuitive interfaces, and validate solutions with users.
• Build strong relationships with product management, engineering, and other stakeholders to ensure the successful delivery of impactful features as well as larger, end-to-end assessment propositions.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills are a must, as you will be working closely with diverse partners, including offshore engineering and delivery teams, to ensure successful implementation.
• Have a strong grasp of interaction design principles, be proficient with industry tools like Figma, and have some familiarity with content design.
• Bring a user-centric mindset, creativity, analytical thinking, and a bias for action.
• Wear multiple hats and collaborate with other disciplines like marketing and customer success.
• Be comfortable working autonomously and taking initiative to drive projects forward.
• Gain deep expertise in how your product is affected by other products and the interactions between them on a technical, UX, and operational level.
• Service design skills and experience in large enterprises with matrix environments would be highly advantageous.

Main responsibilities:

• Lead the UX strategy and roadmap for a core product in our Assessment portfolio.
• Define and map the end-to-end user experience across the platform for 1-2 core user groups.
• Explore and document the current-state experience.
• Conduct user research and work with internal SMEs to understand, define, and blueprint a future-state experience.
• Lead the design and prototyping of ideas and solutions, always focusing on user needs.
• Regularly sync with offshore development teams to get early feedback, align on feasibility, conduct design reviews, and ensure the user-centricity of final implementations.
• Plan and conduct user research and evaluation activities, turning raw research data into insights.
• Work directly with customers and users to understand their needs and translate them into tangible solutions.
• Collaborate with development and product teams to turn prototypes into working products.
• Facilitate and lead workshops.
• Produce design assets such as user journeys, workflows, personas, wireframes, and prototypes.
• Engage with senior leaders to understand the business value of your product, inform your design, and advocate for the value of great user experience.
• Be an active member of the design community, sharing best practices and tools with the team and wider business.

Experience

• Proven experience working as a UX designer or product designer within cross-functional teams.
• Laser focus on user centricity.
• Generalist end-to-end UX skills.
• UI skills are a given but must have experience in converting a business need into research objectives.
• Strategic design skills are a must.
• Proven ability to apply design frameworks in your work.
• Proficient in Figma or similar tools.
• Champion for accessibility.

Ownership of design

• Comfortable leading on design activities across a range of different projects.
• Must be able to advocate for the value and inclusion of design in product roadmaps.
• Proven experience adapting design approach to different project contexts.
• Apply UX metrics and interpret data to gauge if product goals and objectives are being met.

Communication skills

• Able to communicate the rationale, value, and next steps of designs.
• Can negotiate trade-offs and priorities within cross-functional product teams.
• Excellent in written and verbal communication skills.
• Experience in presenting work at various stages of the design process.
• Produce quality designs to communicate ideas, concepts, and solutions.
• Can solicit, receive, and action feedback.

Collaborative, strategic approach

• Proactively engage with internal stakeholders, teams and customers.
• Attend monthly workshops for in-person collaboration.
• Advantageous if you’re T-shaped and have expertise in service design, content design, visual design, or creating design systems.

This Is The Role For You If:

• You have previous experience as the sole designer or lead designer in a product team.
• You have significant experience executing on design work in a matrixed, in-house environment.
• You’re looking for a broad remit and know how to navigate ambiguity.
• You are a proactive communicator and problem solver.
• You are pragmatic and willing to compromise on or adapt your designs to meet business needs.
• You want to understand the broader system context and design experiences to seamlessly connect with upstream and downstream products.
• You excel at both UI and UX.
• You prefer working on longer-term projects with cumulative impact.
• You view design as a collaborative, cross-functional effort.
• You advocate for discovery activities to ensure product design and development is informed by data and user insights.
• You’re excited about continuous learning and adapting your skills to new challenges.

What’s in it for you?

At RM we have My Work Blend @RM which provides office-based colleagues with multi location and hybrid working options. As well as your office base, you can spend a proportion of your time working at other locations that suit your role and your life.

As well as a competitive salary and our core benefits package which includes private medical healthcare, life assurance and a Group Personal Pension Plan with higher contribution levels available, some roles are also eligible for a performance-related bonus. There are lots of voluntary benefits too.

To better reflect the society that we serve, we’re committed to building a diverse workforce and creating an inclusive and welcoming environment for all.