Digital Product Lead Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Digital Product Lead Designer

Company: Virgin Atlantic

Location: Crawley, England, United Kingdom

Job Type: Full time

Category: Product Design / User Experience

Date Posted: 2026-09-23T13:16:38

Experience Level: Mid-Senior Level (5-10 years)

Remote Status: Hybrid (3 days in office)

🚀 Role Summary

• Lead the end-to-end design of a significant digital customer journey, from initial discovery through to delivery and ongoing optimization.

• Champion the strategic integration of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance both customer experiences and internal design workflows.

• Collaborate closely with Product Managers, Engineers, and Analysts to translate customer insights and business objectives into intuitive, accessible digital solutions.

• Drive the evolution and adherence of the company's design system, ensuring consistency, accessibility, and inclusivity across all digital products and platforms.

• Utilize customer research, behavioral data, and experimentation to validate design concepts, measure impact, and foster a culture of continuous improvement.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role is positioned as a senior individual contributor, emphasizing leadership through expertise and influence rather than direct line management. The focus on AI integration suggests a forward-thinking approach to design practice within the travel industry.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Spearhead the complete design lifecycle for a key digital customer journey, encompassing user research, ideation, wireframing, prototyping, user testing, and final delivery.

• Partner effectively with Product Management, Engineering, and Analytics teams to ensure alignment between customer needs, business goals, and technical feasibility.

• Explore and implement AI-driven design solutions, assessing their value for customer experience enhancement and operational efficiency while maintaining ethical considerations.

• Maintain and advance the company's design system, ensuring it supports scalability, accessibility standards (WCAG), and a cohesive brand experience.

• Leverage quantitative data (e.g., analytics, A/B test results) and qualitative insights (e.g., user interviews, feedback) to inform design decisions and iterate on existing features.

• Actively mentor and coach junior designers, fostering a collaborative environment, sharing best practices, and contributing to the overall growth of the design team's capabilities.

• Advocate for human-centered design principles, ensuring all digital products are user-friendly, accessible, and emotionally engaging.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibility to "shape the future of our design practice by exploring how AI can improve...the way we work" indicates a strategic, forward-looking element to the role, requiring proactive exploration and proposal of new methodologies.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While no specific degree is listed, a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Computer Science, or a related field is typically expected for this level of role. Equivalent practical experience will also be strongly considered.

Experience: 5-10 years of progressive experience in digital product design, with a significant portion focused on leading complex projects and customer journeys.

Required Skills:

• Proven track record in leading end-to-end digital product design for complex web and mobile applications.

• Deep expertise in User Experience (UX) design principles and methodologies.

• Strong User Interface (UI) design skills, with a keen eye for visual aesthetics and usability.

• Proficient in Interaction Design, creating intuitive and efficient user flows.

• Experience developing, maintaining, and evolving scalable Design Systems.

• Demonstrated ability to create compelling Prototypes for user testing and stakeholder communication.

• Foundational understanding and practical application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in product design contexts.

• Excellent Stakeholder Management skills, capable of influencing decisions at various levels.

• Experience conducting Customer Research and synthesizing insights into actionable design strategies.

• Strong knowledge of Accessibility (e.g., WCAG) and Inclusive Design principles.

• Familiarity with Design Thinking methodologies and their application in problem-solving.

• Experience in mentoring and coaching other designers.

• Ability to analyze Behavioural Data and leverage Experimentation (e.g., A/B testing) for design optimization. Preferred Skills:

• Experience within the travel or aviation industry.

• Familiarity with specific AI tools and platforms relevant to design or user experience.

• Experience designing AI-enabled features or experiences.

• Proficiency in data analysis tools and techniques to support design decisions.

• Understanding of Product Strategy and how design contributes to business objectives.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "leading through expertise, influence and collaboration" suggests that strong communication, presentation, and persuasion skills are as critical as technical design skills for this senior individual contributor role.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• A comprehensive portfolio showcasing a minimum of 3-5 significant digital product design projects.

• Projects should demonstrate leadership in end-to-end design, covering discovery, ideation, prototyping, user testing, and delivery.

• Emphasis on complex customer journeys within web and app environments.

• Clear articulation of the problem statement, design process, your specific contributions, and the measurable outcomes achieved.

• Examples of how you've applied UX, UI, and Interaction Design principles.

• Inclusion of at least one project demonstrating experience with Design Systems.

• Evidence of applying accessible and inclusive design practices.

• Demonstration of how data, research, or experimentation informed design decisions. Process Documentation:

• Case studies should detail your approach to user research and customer insight gathering.

• Showcase your methods for ideation, wireframing, and prototyping.

• Illust