Lead UX/UI Designer

📍 Job Overview

Job Title: Lead UX/UI Designer

Company: Delta Capita

Location: London, England, United Kingdom

Job Type: Full-time

Category: User Experience & Interface Design (UX/UI)

Date Posted: 2026-09-16

Experience Level: 5-10 Years

Remote Status: Hybrid

🚀 Role Summary

• This is a critical, hands-on Lead UX/UI Designer role responsible for the end-to-end design of complex, multi-stakeholder digital products within the financial services sector.

• The position requires a blend of strategic design thinking, advanced technical proficiency in design tools, and strong leadership capabilities to mentor junior designers and drive high-quality output.

• The role operates within an agile development environment, emphasizing rapid iteration, collaboration with product and engineering teams, and a commitment to accessibility standards (WCAG 2.2 AA).

• This is a fixed-term contract position covering maternity leave for 12 months, offering a unique opportunity to contribute significantly to product development in a dynamic industry.

📝 Enhancement Note: The role is specifically for a 12-month maternity cover, which is a crucial detail for candidates to understand the duration of the contract. The hybrid work model implies a need for on-site presence, necessitating local candidates or those willing to relocate.

📈 Primary Responsibilities

• End-to-End Product Design Ownership: Take full accountability for the design lifecycle of complex product workstreams, from initial discovery and problem-solving through wireframing, interactive prototyping, and final UI specification for production.

• Prototyping and Concept Validation: Develop interactive prototypes using Sketch to effectively test user flows, validate design concepts with target users, and secure alignment among diverse stakeholders before development commences.

• Workshop Facilitation: Lead and facilitate design thinking, problem-solving, and strategic alignment workshops across multiple teams and features to drive consensus and shared understanding.

• Design System Evolution: Actively maintain and extend the existing design system, including the component library and design standards, to ensure consistency, reusability, accessibility, and adherence to internal quality benchmarks across all projects.

• Junior Designer Mentorship and Leadership: Provide direction, conduct design critiques, review work, and support the day-to-day professional development and output quality of junior designers within the team.

• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Foster close working relationships with Product Managers to refine requirements and with Engineering teams to ensure accurate and technically feasible implementation of designs.

• Agile Delivery and Pace Management: Prioritize design tasks, break down large initiatives into manageable, shippable increments, and maintain project momentum within a fast-paced, agile development cycle.

• Quality and Accessibility Assurance: Ensure all designs meet stringent accessibility standards (WCAG 2.2 AA) and internal quality benchmarks prior to handover to development teams.

📝 Enhancement Note: The responsibility for "delivering at pace" and "shipping in short cycles" indicates a need for a designer comfortable with rapid iteration and agile methodologies, common in fast-moving tech environments. The emphasis on "owning complex projects end to end" suggests a need for a self-starter with strong project management and prioritization skills.

🎓 Skills & Qualifications

Education: While not explicitly stated, a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Graphic Design, or a related field is typically expected for a Lead-level position in this domain.

Experience: 5-10 years of progressive experience in UX/UI design, with a significant portion in lead or senior roles, demonstrating ownership of complex digital product design.

Required Skills:

• Proven Lead UX/UI Design Track Record: Demonstrated experience leading complex, large-scale digital product design initiatives, supported by a strong portfolio.

• Advanced Sketch Proficiency: Deep working knowledge of Sketch, including expertise in symbols, libraries, shared styles, and efficient workflow management within the tool.

• Strong Prototyping Skills: Ability to quickly translate rough concepts into testable, interactive prototypes to validate user flows and gather feedback.

• Mentorship and Leadership Experience: Demonstrable experience in mentoring, line-managing, or guiding junior designers, including providing constructive feedback and direction.

• Effective Collaboration: Confident and proven ability to collaborate effectively with product managers, engineers, business stakeholders, and potentially clients.

• Agile Environment Delivery: Evidence of delivering high-quality design work at pace within an agile development framework.

• Excellent Communication Skills: Ability to clearly articulate, explain, and defend design decisions to both technical and non-technical audiences.

• Right to Work in the UK: Legal authorization to work in the UK without requiring visa sponsorship for the duration of the fixed-term contract.

Preferred Skills:

• Fintech/Financial Services Design Experience: Previous experience designing for fintech, banking, or other regulated financial services environments, understanding industry-specific constraints and user needs.

• Familiarity with Sketch Ecosystem: Deeper integration with Sketch plugins, workflows, and best practices for collaborative design.

• Enterprise/B2B Product Design: Exposure to designing complex, dense interfaces and workflows for enterprise or B2B applications.

• User Research & Usability Testing: Direct experience conducting user research, usability testing, and translating findings into actionable design improvements.

📝 Enhancement Note: The emphasis on "advanced working knowledge of Sketch" and "strong prototyping ability" suggests that proficiency in these specific tools and skills is non-negotiable. The requirement for "right to work in the UK" without sponsorship is a critical filter for international candidates.

📊 Process & Systems Portfolio Requirements

Portfolio Essentials:

• End-to-End Project Ownership: Showcase a minimum of 2-3 complex digital product projects where you held lead design responsibility from discovery through to final UI specifications, demonstrating full lifecycle ownership.

• Problem-Solving & User-Centricity: Clearly articulate the user problems addressed, the design process undertaken, and how user feedback (research, testing) informed iterative design decisions.

• Prototyping & Interaction Design: Include examples of interactive prototypes (ideally with links or video demonstrations) that illustrate complex user flows, micro-interactions, and the rationale behind interaction patterns.

• Design System Contributions: Present examples of how you have contributed to, maintained, or evolved a design system, including component examples, style guides, and their impact on consistency and efficiency.

• Leadership & Mentorship Examples: Briefly describe your approach to mentoring junior designers, perhaps with anonymized examples of feedback provided or critique sessions led.

Process Documentation:

• Workflow Design & Optimization: Demonstrate how you map out user journeys, define information architecture, and optimize workflows for efficiency and user satisfaction.

• Agile Design Implementation: Show how your design process integrates seamlessly with agile sprints, including deliverables for sprints, collaboration with developers, and handling of design changes.

• Measurement & Performance Analysis: While not explicitly a "designer" responsibility, show how you consider the impact of your designs on user engagement, task completion rates, or other relevant metrics, and how you would approach gathering this data post-launch.

📝 Enhancement Note: For a Lead UX/UI Designer role, the portfolio is paramount. It should not only showcase visual design skills but also the ability to think strategically about user problems, design complex systems, and lead design initiatives. Specific emphasis on Sketch proficiency and prototyping is key.

💵 Compensation & Benefits

Salary Range:

• Based on industry benchmarks for Lead UX/UI Designers in London with 5-10 years of experience, and considering the specialist nature of financial services design, the estimated salary range for this 12-month fixed-term contract would be approximately £70,000 - £90,000 per annum. This range is dependent on the candidate's specific experience, demonstrated skills, and the exact scope of responsibilities.

• Research Methodology: This estimate is derived from analyzing salary data for similar roles in London from sources like Glassdoor, LinkedIn Salary, and industry-specific recruitment agencies, adjusted for a lead-level position and the fixed-term contract nature.

Benefits:

• Competitive Contract Rate: A fixed-term contract offering a competitive salary commensurate with lead-level experience.

• Hybrid Working Model: Flexibility to balance remote work with regular, collaborative presence in the London office.

• Professional Development: Opportunity to work on complex, high-impact projects within the financial services sector, offering significant learning and career advancement potential.

• Team Collaboration: Exposure to experienced product and engineering teams, fostering a collaborative and innovative work environment.

• Company Culture: Access to Delta Capita's inclusive and supportive work environment, with a commitment to equal opportunities.

• Potential for Future Opportunities: While a fixed-term contract, strong performance could lead to consideration for future roles within Delta Capita.

Working Hours:

• Standard full-time hours are expected, likely around 40 hours per week. While the role is hybrid, the expectation is for consistent engagement and availability during core UK business hours, with flexibility as is common in agile environments.

📝 Enhancement Note: As this is a fixed-term contract, the benefits package might differ from permanent roles. The primary benefit is the salary and the opportunity to gain experience in a specialized sector. The salary estimate is crucial for a contract role.

🎯 Team & Company Context

🏢 Company Culture

Industry: Financial Services (Fintech, Banking, Managed Services, Consulting). Delta Capita operates at the intersection of technology and finance, providing innovative solutions to financial institutions. This means a