Experience Design Lead

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Contract Type: Permanent

Location: Edinburgh

Working style: Hybrid 50% home/office based

Royal London is seeking a Lead Experience Designer to shape our long-term vision and elevate the standards of our Experience Design team. You will play a pivotal role in shaping how we grow and ensuring excellence in our day-to-day operations.

Our experience design team oversees the process of creating and optimising the end-to-end customer experiences across Royal London. This collaborative process integrates internal business perspectives and customer insight to design experience that better meet the needs of customers and the goals of the business.

You will guide the team in creating human-centered solutions for customers, advisers, and employers, while navigating various business requirements and constraints. By partnering across the business, you will support the team in user research, journey mapping, workshop facilitation and prototyping to driver measurable end-to- end journey improvements.

In this leadership role, you will act as a champion for design excellence throughout Royal London. You will be responsible for setting the team’s strategic direction, establishing efficient workflows, and fostering a culture of continuous learning and inclusion. Above all, you will ensure the team’s success by supporting their professional development and maintaining high standards of delivery across our customer and adviser platforms.

About the role

• Shape and steer the long‑term vision for the Experience Design team, ensuring it grows in line with Royal London’s wider strategy and ambitions.


• Champion the design discipline at senior and executive levels, influencing direction and decisions across the organisation.


• Work closely with the Heads of Proposition, Design Operations, CX and product teams to align design priorities with business needs and help guide how we deliver.


• Continually strengthen and simplify how design gets done, evolving our processes, governance, tools, and quality standards so they scale effectively.


• Foster a culture built on open feedback, strong collaboration and ongoing learning.


• Support and coach Senior Experience Designers as they grow into confident and capable leaders.


• Raise the profile and impact of the Experience Design function both within the organisation and across the wider industry.

About you

• Significant and proven experience in service design, with time spent leading teams or functions in large organisations.


• Demonstrate success in building, scaling, or transforming design teams and capabilities.


• Strong track record of defining and embedding design operations, governance frameworks, and quality standards.


• Proven ability to mentor senior practitioners and develop emerging talent.


• You excel at building trusted relationships across the organisation, using your influence to advocate for the value of design at every level.


• Deep understanding of design thinking and human-centred design, combined with strong commercial and strategic acumen.


• Passionate about creating inclusive cultures, enabling talent to thrive, and raising the bar for design excellence.

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About Royal London

We’re the UK’s largest mutual life, pensions and investment company, offering protection, long-term savings and asset management products and services.   

Our People Promise to our colleagues is that we will all work somewhere inclusive, responsible, enjoyable and fulfilling. This is underpinned by our Spirit of Royal London values; Empowered, Trustworthy, Collaborate, Achieve. 

We've always been proud to reward employees by offering great workplace benefits such as 28 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays, an up to 14% employer matching pension scheme and private medical insurance.

Inclusion, diversity and belonging

We’re an inclusive employer. We celebrate and value different backgrounds and cultures across Royal London. Our diverse people and perspectives give us a range of skills which are recognised and respected – whatever their background.