Lead UX Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Lead UX Designer

Company: Skin Analytics

Location: London, England, United Kingdom

Job Type: FULL_TIME

Category: UX/Product Design Operations

Date Posted: 2025-08-01T10:29:35.04

Experience Level: 5-10 Years

Remote Status: Hybrid (3 days in office)

🚀 Role Summary

• Establish and scale the User Experience (UX) function within a fast-growing health-tech company, focusing on building robust design systems and setting industry-leading accessibility standards from the ground up.

• Lead and manage a team of UX professionals, including direct reports, fostering a high-performance culture and ensuring the delivery of exceptional UX design outputs across all product lines and business units.

• Drive strategic design initiatives by collaborating closely with senior management to advocate for design resources, measure and communicate the value of UX, and align design efforts with overarching business objectives.

• Champion cross-functional collaboration, working seamlessly with product, engineering, marketing, and research teams to integrate user-centered design principles throughout the entire product development lifecycle.

• Define and implement key performance indicators (KPIs) and metrics for UX performance, establishing a framework for continuous measurement, tracking, and reporting of design impact on user satisfaction and business outcomes.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role requires a strategic leader who can build a UX function from its inception, demonstrating strong capabilities in team management, stakeholder influence, and process establishment within a regulated health-tech environment. The emphasis on "building from scratch" and "leading from the front" highlights the need for a proactive, hands-on approach.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• Build and scale the UX function by establishing foundational elements such as comprehensive design systems, style guides, and rigorous accessibility standards (WCAG compliance) from the ground up.

• Develop and implement a strategic roadmap for UX at Skin Analytics, ensuring alignment with product vision, business goals, and regulatory requirements.

• Manage, mentor, and develop direct reports, including UX Designers and User Researchers, fostering their professional growth and ensuring the delivery of high-quality, impactful design work.

• Collaborate with Product Management and Engineering teams to translate user needs and business requirements into intuitive, user-friendly interfaces and seamless user experiences across web and mobile platforms.

• Conduct user research, usability testing, and competitive analysis to gather insights, validate design decisions, and identify opportunities for product improvement and innovation.

• Lead the design of information architecture, user flows, wireframes, prototypes, and high-fidelity mockups, ensuring consistency and adherence to established design principles.

• Advocate for user-centered design principles and best practices across the organization, influencing product strategy and decision-making at all levels.

• Develop and maintain a content design strategy, ensuring clear, concise, and effective communication through product interfaces and user journeys.

• Oversee localization projects, ensuring that the product experience is culturally relevant and accessible to a global user base.

• Measure and report on the effectiveness of UX initiatives, defining key metrics for user engagement, satisfaction, task completion, and conversion rates, and presenting findings to senior leadership.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibilities emphasize not only design execution but also the strategic build-out of a UX function. This includes defining processes, establishing standards (like accessibility and design systems), and influencing resource allocation, indicating a senior-level responsibility for shaping the company's approach to user experience.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education:

Experience:

• Proven track record of successfully establishing and leading UX functions within dynamic, fast-growing companies, ideally in the tech or health-tech sector.

• Minimum of 5-10 years of progressive experience in UX/UI design, with a significant portion spent in leadership or management roles.

• Demonstrated experience in setting up design systems, accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG 2.1 AA/AAA), and user research methodologies from scratch.

• Experience in managing and mentoring designers and user researchers, with a focus on performance management and professional development.

• Experience working on both B2B and B2C products, across web and mobile applications, demonstrating adaptability to different user contexts and business models.

Required Skills:

• UX Design & Strategy: Deep understanding of user-centered design principles, interaction design, information architecture, and user research methodologies. Ability to translate complex requirements into intuitive user experiences.

• Team Leadership & Management: Proven ability to lead, mentor, and develop a team of UX professionals, fostering a collaborative and high-performing environment. Experience in people management and setting performance standards.

• Design Systems & Accessibility: Expertise in creating and maintaining scalable design systems, style guides, and ensuring adherence to accessibility standards (WCAG).

• Stakeholder Management & Communication: Excellent communication, presentation, and interpersonal skills, with the ability to effectively influence senior management and cross-functional teams, making strong cases for design resources and demonstrating UX value.

Preferred Skills:

• Healthcare Industry Experience: Familiarity with the healthcare technology landscape, regulatory environments (e.g., FDA, CE marking, ISO 13485), and the specific needs of users in a clinical setting.

• Content Design/Copywriting: Strong skills in content strategy, UX writing, and copywriting to ensure clear, effective, and user-friendly product messaging.

• UI Design & Prototyping Tools: Proficiency in industry-standard design and prototyping tools such as Figma, Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite, InVision, or similar.

• Localisation Project Experience: Experience managing and implementing design solutions for global markets.

• User Research Expertise: Experience leading qualitative and quantitative user research initiatives, including usability testing, interviews, surveys, and A/B testing.

📝 Enhancement Note: The experience level is inferred from the "Lead" title and the responsibility for building a function from scratch, suggesting a need for seasoned expertise. The distinction between required and preferred skills highlights areas where candidates can differentiate themselves, particularly healthcare experience and content design skills.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• Design Leadership Case Studies: Showcase examples of leading UX initiatives, including the establishment of UX functions, design systems, or accessibility frameworks. Detail the challenges, your approach, and the measurable impact achieved.

• Process Improvement Examples: Provide evidence of how you have improved design processes, team workflows, or collaboration models to enhance efficiency and design quality.

• Team Management & Development: Include examples of how you have mentored, managed, and grown design teams, highlighting your leadership style and impact on team performance.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Demonstrate successful collaboration with product, engineering, and other stakeholders, illustrating how you integrated UX into broader product development cycles.

• Metrics & ROI Demonstration: Present case studies that clearly articulate the business value and ROI of your UX work, using data to support claims of improved user satisfaction, engagement, or conversion.

Process Documentation:

• Ability to document and standardize UX processes, including user research methodologies, design workflows, accessibility guidelines, and design system governance.

• Experience in creating templates and frameworks for design documentation, user journey maps, personas, and usability test reports.

• Demonstrate a structured approach to measuring and reporting on UX performance, including the definition and tracking of relevant UX metrics.

📝 Enhancement Note: A strong portfolio is critical for this role, as it will be used to assess the candidate's ability to build and lead a UX function. The emphasis is on demonstrating strategic thinking, leadership capabilities, and tangible results, not just visual design skills.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

Benefits:

• Competitive Salary: Reflecting the strategic importance and leadership of the role.

• Share Options Package: All employees have ownership in the company, aligning individual success with company growth.

• Private Healthcare: Comprehensive medical coverage for employees.

• 25 Days Annual Leave: Plus company shutdown days in August and bank holidays, totaling approximately 33 days of paid time off.

• Enhanced Parental Leave: Generous provisions for new parents, including adoption and foster care.

• Bike to Work Scheme: Encouraging sustainable commuting.

• Training Budget: Dedicated funds for professional development, skill enhancement, and industry certifications.

• Weekly Catch-ups & Monthly 1:1s: Regular, structured opportunities for career development discussions, goal setting, and feedback.

• Social Activities: Company-sponsored events and offsites to foster team cohesion and company culture.

Working Hours:

• Standard full-time hours (likely 40 hours per week), with a hybrid work model requiring 3 days per week in the London office. This offers a balance between in-office collaboration and remote flexibility, supporting efficient workflow management and team communication.

📝 Enhancement Note: The salary estimate is based on industry benchmarks for Lead UX Designers in London with similar experience levels and the company's funding stage. The benefits package is comprehensive, indicating a commitment to employee well-being and professional growth, particularly the share options and training budget, which are attractive for senior roles.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Health Technology (HealthTech), specifically AI-powered medical devices for skin cancer diagnosis.

Company Size: While not explicitly stated, the mention of a recent £15M Series B funding round and plans to scale internationally suggests a company that has moved beyond the startup phase and is now in a significant growth trajectory, likely employing between 50-150 people. This size offers a dynamic environment with opportunities for impact, yet still retains a degree of agility.

Founded: Skin Analytics is an award-winning company, implying a history of innovation and market recognition. While the exact founding date isn't provided, its achievement of regulatory milestones (Class III CE mark, NICE recommendation) suggests several years of development and operation.

Team Structure:

• UX Team: The role involves building the UX function, starting with one direct report. This implies the current UX capability is nascent or individual, and the lead will be instrumental in defining the team's structure, roles, and growth path.

• Reporting Structure: The Lead UX Designer will likely report to a senior executive, such as the Head of Product, CTO, or even the CEO, given the strategic importance of establishing the UX function.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Expect close collaboration with Product Managers, Software Engineers, Data Scientists, AI specialists, and potentially clinical or regulatory affairs teams, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of health-tech product development.

Methodology:

• Data-Driven Decision Making: Skin Analytics leverages AI and collects significant data, indicating a strong emphasis on data analysis to inform product development and business strategy.

• Agile Development: Common in tech companies, likely employing agile methodologies for product development, requiring UX to integrate seamlessly into iterative cycles.

• User-Centricity: As a health-tech company focused on patient outcomes, a deep commitment to understanding and serving user needs (patients, clinicians) is paramount.

• Regulatory Compliance: Adherence to strict quality management (ISO 13485) and information security (ISO 27001) standards is a core part of their operational methodology.

Company Website: https://skin-analytics.com/

📝 Enhancement Note: The company's focus on AI in healthcare, regulatory approvals, and its mission to combat skin cancer are key cultural drivers. The growth stage suggests an environment that is both ambitious and focused on tangible impact, with a need for operational rigor due to the medical device nature of its product.

📈 Career & Growth Analysis

Operations Career Level: This is a senior individual contributor and leadership role, essentially acting as the Head of UX for a growing company. It offers the opportunity to build and shape a critical function from the ground up, providing significant autonomy and strategic influence.

Reporting Structure: The Lead UX Designer will report to a senior leadership member (e.g., Head of Product, CTO). They will manage at least one direct report (a UX Designer) and potentially oversee user researchers or other design-related roles as the function scales. The role involves close collaboration with cross-functional teams, including product management and engineering.

Operations Impact: The UX function is central to the success of Skin Analytics' AI medical device, DERM. The Lead UX Designer's impact will be felt directly in:

• Product Adoption and Usability: Ensuring DERM is intuitive and efficient for healthcare professionals, driving adoption and effective use.

• Patient Outcomes: By improving the user experience for clinicians, the design directly contributes to faster, more accurate skin cancer diagnoses, positively impacting patient lives.

• Market Expansion: A strong UX is crucial for international scaling, especially in regulated markets where usability and compliance are paramount.

• Brand Perception: High-quality design and user experience contribute to the company's reputation as an innovative and reliable health-tech provider.

Growth Opportunities:

• Build and Scale a UX Team: Opportunity to grow the UX department from a single team member to a fully functional unit, defining roles, hiring talent, and establishing best practices.

• Strategic Influence: Direct involvement in product strategy and company direction, influencing the product roadmap and business objectives through user-centered insights.

• Domain Expertise: Develop deep expertise in health-tech, AI medical devices, and the specific challenges of scaling regulated products globally.

• Leadership Development: Transition from a lead individual contributor role to a more comprehensive Head of UX or Director of Product Design, potentially overseeing multiple disciplines as the company matures.

• Industry Recognition: Contribute to a product that has significant societal impact, potentially leading to industry awards and recognition for design contributions.

📝 Enhancement Note: This role offers a compelling opportunity for a UX leader looking to make a significant impact by building a function and influencing the direction of an innovative health-tech company. The growth potential is substantial, moving from establishing a team to potentially leading a larger design organization.

🌐 Work Environment

Office Type: Hybrid model, requiring 3 days per week in their London office. This suggests a modern office space designed to foster collaboration, innovation, and team connection.

Office Location(s): London, England, United Kingdom. Specific details about the office location within London would be beneficial for candidates considering commute.

Workspace Context:

• Collaborative Atmosphere: Expect a dynamic and collaborative environment where close interaction with product, engineering, and leadership teams is encouraged. The hybrid model facilitates both focused work and team-based problem-solving.

• Technology & Tools: Access to industry-standard design and collaboration tools will be provided, supporting efficient workflow and creative output. The company's health-tech focus implies a need for robust data security and compliance-aware tools.

• Team Interaction: Opportunities for regular team meetings, design critiques, brainstorming sessions, and cross-functional project discussions will be integral to the work.

Work Schedule: Standard full-time hours, with the flexibility offered by the hybrid model. The emphasis on weekly catch-ups and monthly meetings suggests structured communication and feedback loops designed to support efficient operations and personal development.

📝 Enhancement Note: The hybrid nature of the role balances the need for in-person collaboration and team building with the flexibility desired by many professionals. The London office setting places the role within a major tech hub, offering access to talent and industry events.

📄 Application & Portfolio Review Process

Interview Process:

• Initial Screening: HR or Talent Acquisition will review applications, focusing on portfolio relevance and alignment with core requirements.

• Hiring Manager Interview: A discussion with the hiring manager (likely Head of Product or CTO) to assess experience, leadership style, strategic thinking, and cultural fit. Expect questions about building UX functions, team management, and stakeholder influence.

• Portfolio Review & Design Challenge: A key stage where candidates present their portfolio, walking through case studies that demonstrate their experience in leadership, process building, and impactful design solutions. A practical design challenge or a deep dive into a specific portfolio project may be included to assess problem-solving skills and design process.

• Cross-functional Interviews: Meetings with key stakeholders from Product, Engineering, and potentially other departments to evaluate collaboration skills and understanding of the broader product development lifecycle.

• Final Interview: Potentially with the CEO or a senior executive for final evaluation of strategic alignment and cultural fit.

Portfolio Review Tips:

• Curate Strategically: Select 3-5 projects that best showcase your leadership, ability to build processes, and impact on business outcomes. Prioritize projects demonstrating the establishment of design systems, accessibility initiatives, or significant process improvements.

• Focus on the "Why" and "How": For each project, clearly articulate the problem, your role, the strategic decisions made, the processes you implemented or improved, and the measurable results achieved. Use the STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, Result).

• Highlight Leadership & Process Building: Specifically address how you managed teams, influenced stakeholders, built design systems, set accessibility standards, or established new UX processes.

• Quantify Impact: Use data and metrics to demonstrate the success of your work. Show how your design decisions led to improvements in user satisfaction, engagement, conversion rates, or efficiency.

• Tell a Story: Present your portfolio with a clear narrative that connects your experience to the requirements of the Lead UX Designer role at Skin Analytics.

Challenge Preparation:

• Understand the Business: Research Skin Analytics, their product DERM, their mission, and their market position. Understand the unique challenges of designing for a regulated AI medical device.

• Prepare for Process-Oriented Questions: Be ready to discuss how you would build a UX function from scratch, establish design systems, implement accessibility standards, and measure UX success.

• Practice Presenting Your Portfolio: Rehearse your portfolio walkthrough to ensure it is concise, compelling, and covers all key aspects within the allotted time. Be prepared to answer deep-dive questions about your projects.

• Demonstrate Cultural Alignment: Reflect on the company's values (Building a Strong Foundation, Always Learning, Lead from the Front, Tough and Resilient) and prepare examples of how you embody these values in your work.

📝 Enhancement Note: The interview process will heavily weigh the candidate's ability to demonstrate leadership in building a function and their strategic thinking. The portfolio is paramount, and candidates should prepare to articulate their process, impact, and leadership experience in detail.

🛠 Tools & Technology Stack

Primary Tools:

• Design & Prototyping: Figma (highly probable given industry trends and collaborative features), Sketch, Adobe Creative Suite (Illustrator, Photoshop, After Effects for potential animation/motion design).

• User Research & Testing: UserTesting.com, Lookback, Maze, Google Forms/SurveyMonkey for surveys.

• Collaboration & Project Management: Jira, Confluence, Asana, Trello, Slack, Miro for whiteboarding.

• Design System Management: Figma's capabilities, Storybook, or dedicated platform tools.

Analytics & Reporting:

• Product Analytics: Mixpanel, Amplitude, Google Analytics for tracking user behavior and product performance.

• Reporting & Dashboarding: Tableau, Power BI, Looker, or custom dashboards built with BI tools to visualize UX metrics and report on impact.

CRM & Automation:

• CRM: Salesforce (common in B2B tech).

• Integration Tools: Zapier, Workato, or custom API integrations to connect various systems.

📝 Enhancement Note: Proficiency in modern design tools like Figma is expected. The company's health-tech focus implies a need for tools that support collaboration, data analysis, and adherence to security and compliance standards. The lead will be instrumental in selecting and implementing new tools for the UX function.

👥 Team Culture & Values

Operations Values:

• Building a Strong Foundation: This translates to establishing robust processes, reliable systems, and a scalable UX function that can support company growth. For UX, it means creating well-documented design systems, clear research methodologies, and accessible design standards.

• Always Learning: Embracing continuous improvement, staying updated with UX trends, user research techniques, and design technologies. For UX, this means actively seeking feedback, experimenting with new approaches, and fostering a learning environment within the team.

• Lead from the Front: Taking initiative, demonstrating proactive problem-solving, and setting high standards for oneself and the team. For UX, this means championing user needs, driving design innovation, and influencing product direction with confidence.

• Tough and Resilient: Navigating challenges, adapting to change, and persevering through difficult situations. In a health-tech environment with regulatory hurdles and fast-paced growth, this means maintaining focus, handling feedback constructively, and driving forward despite obstacles.

Collaboration Style:

• Cross-functional Integration: A highly collaborative approach is essential, working closely with product management, engineering, data science, and potentially clinical teams to ensure a holistic product development process.

• Feedback-Driven: An open culture for giving and receiving constructive feedback on designs, processes, and strategic decisions.

• Knowledge Sharing: Encouraging the sharing of insights, best practices, and learnings across teams to foster collective growth and efficiency.

📝 Enhancement Note: The company values are directly applicable to a UX leadership role, emphasizing the need for a proactive, learning-oriented, and resilient leader who can build a strong foundation for the UX function.

⚡ Challenges & Growth Opportunities

Challenges:

• Building from Scratch: Establishing a UX function, including defining processes, creating design systems, and hiring talent, presents a significant challenge requiring strong organizational and strategic skills.

• Balancing Innovation and Regulation: Designing for a regulated medical device requires a careful balance between creative user experience solutions and strict adherence to compliance and safety standards.

• Cross-functional Influence: Gaining buy-in and resources from senior leadership and aligning with diverse stakeholder needs across product, engineering, and business units can be challenging.

• Scaling User Research: As the company grows, scaling user research capabilities to support a growing product portfolio and user base will be critical.

• Measuring UX Impact: Clearly defining and demonstrating the quantitative impact of UX on business metrics in a health-tech context can be complex.

Learning & Development Opportunities:

• Develop Health-Tech UX Expertise: Gain deep knowledge in designing for regulated medical devices, AI applications, and the healthcare ecosystem.

• Build a UX Team: Hone leadership and team-building skills by recruiting, mentoring, and developing a high-performing UX team.

• Strategic Product Input: Contribute significantly to product strategy and company direction, influencing the trajectory of an impactful health-tech product.

• Industry Exposure: Potential to attend industry conferences, participate in workshops, and engage with the broader health-tech and AI communities.

📝 Enhancement Note: The primary challenge is the foundational nature of the role, requiring the candidate to build the UX function. Growth opportunities are substantial, offering significant leadership development and domain expertise acquisition.

💡 Interview Preparation

Strategy Questions:

• "How would you approach building a UX function from the ground up at Skin Analytics? What would be your priorities in the first 90 days?" (Demonstrate strategic planning, process definition, and team building.)

• "Describe your experience in establishing design systems and accessibility standards. What key components would you include in our design system?" (Assess technical knowledge and systematic thinking.)

• "How do you measure the impact of UX on business outcomes? Can you provide an example of how you've driven significant ROI through design?" (Focus on data-driven approaches and business acumen.)

• "How would you advocate for design resources and demonstrate the value of UX to senior leadership and cross-functional teams?" (Assess stakeholder management and influencing skills.)

Company & Culture Questions:

• "What interests you most about Skin Analytics' mission and our work in skin cancer detection?" (Show genuine interest and alignment with the company's purpose.)

• "How do you embody our company values of 'Always Learning' and 'Lead from the Front' in your work?" (Prepare specific examples that illustrate your alignment with their core values.)

Portfolio Presentation Strategy:

• Structure for Impact: Begin with a high-level overview of your leadership philosophy and approach to building UX functions. Then, dive into 2-3 key case studies that best represent your experience in leadership, process building, and measurable results.

• Focus on Process and Impact: For each case study, clearly articulate the problem, your specific role and actions, the design process and tools used, how you collaborated with others, and the quantifiable outcomes and learnings.

• Highlight "Building from Scratch" Experience: If you have experience establishing design systems, research processes, or entire UX teams, make this a central theme of your presentation.

• Be Prepared for Deep Dives: Anticipate detailed questions about your design decisions, research methodologies, and stakeholder interactions.

• Showcase Leadership: Emphasize your role in mentoring, managing, and influencing teams and stakeholders throughout your presented projects.

📝 Enhancement Note: Candidates should prepare to articulate their vision for UX at Skin Analytics, demonstrate their ability to build and lead a team, and quantify the impact of their work. Understanding the company's mission and values is crucial for cultural fit.

📌 Application Steps

To apply for this Lead UX Designer position:

• Submit your application through the Workable portal, ensuring all required fields are completed accurately.

• Portfolio Customization: Tailor your portfolio to highlight projects demonstrating leadership, process creation (design systems, accessibility), team management, and quantifiable business impact. Prioritize examples of building UX functions from the ground up.

• Resume Optimization: Update your resume to clearly showcase your years of experience, leadership roles, and specific achievements relevant to building and scaling UX functions in fast-growing tech environments. Use keywords from the job description.

• Interview Preparation: Practice articulating your UX strategy, leadership approach, and problem-solving methodologies. Prepare specific examples that align with Skin Analytics' company values and mission. Rehearse your portfolio presentation for clarity and impact.

• Company Research: Thoroughly research Skin Analytics, their product DERM, their mission to combat skin cancer, and their position in the health-tech market. Understand the regulatory landscape they operate within.

⚠️ Important Notice: This enhanced job description includes AI-generated insights and operations industry-standard assumptions. All details should be verified directly with the hiring organization before making application decisions.