Lead UX Designer

At VML, we are a beacon of innovation and growth in an ever-evolving world. Our heritage is built upon a century of combined expertise, where creativity meets technology, and diverse perspectives ignite inspiration. With the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson, we have forged a new path as a growth partner that is part creative agency, part consultancy, and part technology powerhouse. Our global family now encompasses over 30,000 employees across 150+ offices in 64 markets, each contributing to a culture that values connection, belonging, and the power of differences.

Our expertise spans the entire customer journey, offering deep insights in communications, commerce, consultancy, CRM, CX, data, production, and technology. We deliver end-to-end solutions that result in revolutionary work. We dream big – creating connected ecosystems, products and services – and we execute small – sweating the details to create consistent, performant customer experiences.

Our Experience team delivers for a wide range of industries and brands, including Lego, Yves-Saint Laurent, Ford, GE Healthcare, HSBC, Duracell, Microsoft, Diageo and Specsavers.

What we need from you:

• Able to work with multidisciplinary teams on a range of products, designing experiences people want, need and love.
• Passion for people, with a proven ability to work across large-scale engagements with several project tracks and teams from multiple organisations.
• Able to juggle multiple projects with a great attitude, prioritising work and resources – even when timelines, budgets and availabilities change.
• Make the case for what you believe in, always advocating for the people who use our products in front of clients and internal teams.
• Unflappable under pressure, keeping your cool when the deadlines change, mitigate risks and adjust accordingly.
• Get involved in workshops and presentations by leading and facilitating, developing relationships and working towards good outcomes.
• Be an expert, continually learning about people, design and technology, helping colleagues improve their design practice.
• Role model positive, progressive ways of working with all areas of the business – facilitating an environment to deliver quality at pace.
• Act as an ambassador for the experience design team; sell and evangelise the value of user-centred experience design both internally and to clients in order to win more engagements.
• Stay stubbornly curious, constructive and open-minded.

You’re likely to have knowledge and expertise in these areas:

• You’ve provided leadership in the creation of digital products and services for projects more than £300k, including a heuristic, expert assessment of strategic value, usability, design and content.
• Effectively managed UX design resource within a project to facilitate the delivery of a digital product on budget and on time.
• Lead research and user testing; creating, planning and facilitating research and user testing activities; from in-person ethnographic studies to one-on-one user testing.
• Can act as an ambassador for the experience design team.
• Sell and evangelise the value of UX and design both internally and to clients in order to win more meaningful engagements.
• Translated strategic design principles into stories and processes that meet user goals.
• Created user journeys, information hierarchies and experience design approaches at different levels of fidelity to suit your audience, in support of new products and destination launches, digital transformation initiatives and ongoing product improvement programmes.
• Briefed teams and been the product owner responsible for ensuring quality in all outputs and deliverables.
• Able to craft and deliver engaging presentations that inspire audiences and drive results.
• Used analytics and other evaluation tools to help measure the impact of your strategies.

Tools you’re likely to be confident in:

• Figma
• Keynote & PowerPoint
• Atlassian project management tools e.g. Confluence and Jira
• Analytics tools such as Google Analytics

At VML, we are committed to fostering an all-inclusive work environment that is both rewarding and career-forward. Our Inclusion, Equity & Belonging initiatives, alongside the VML Foundation, reflect our dedication to giving back and making a positive impact in our communities and beyond. Our people are the heartbeat of our organization—creators, doers, innovators, makers, and thinkers—who drive not just marketing, but meaningful experiences that resonate in every action and interaction.