About the role
Principal Designers at Tesco operate at a system level. Your primary output is the quality, coherence, and scalability of the customer experience across all digital surfaces — achieved through the platform that teams build on. You own the CX layer: the shared foundations that make experiences feel consistent, usable, and recognisable regardless of which team built them. You work across teams rather than within one — in joint ownership with Engineering and in close partnership with Lead and Principal Designers across propositions.
Responsibilities
* Defining the vision and roadmap for the CX platform, balancing immediate delivery needs with long-term system integrity. Owning platform standards components, patterns, interaction principles, and accessibility and evolving them as the product ecosystem grows.
* Co‑owning the platform with Engineering, aligning on quality, feasibility, and what “done” looks like for shared components.
* Establishing and enforcing the design engineering contract specifications, tooling, and workflows that reduce ambiguity and increase build fidelity.
* Driving adoption of the platform across teams making it the default way of building, not an optional layer.
* Creating clear contribution models enabling teams to extend the system while maintaining quality and consistency.
* Partnering with Lead and Principal Designers supporting them in applying the platform and shaping it through real delivery needs.
* Running cross‑cutting critique connecting platform standards to shipped work and closing the loop between system and reality.
* Identifying patterns emerging across teams and codifying them into reusable components and standards.
* Maintaining a high bar for craft ensuring components, documentation, and system usability are clear, usable and reliable.
Requirements
* Experience defining and leading a design system at scale across multiple teams and products.
* A strong systems mindset able to think in abstractions, relationships, and long-term structures.
* A track record of driving adoption and influencing behaviour across teams without formal authority.
* Strong partnership with Engineering, grounded in shared ownership and mutual respect.
* Experience working across multiple product areas, balancing competing needs while maintaining coherence.
* Deep understanding of accessibility as a practice embedded into systems.
* Ability to articulate the value of platform work in terms of delivery speed, quality, and risk reduction.
* Clear, structured communication across designers, engineers, and senior stakeholders.
Benefits
* Annual bonus scheme of up to 45% of base salary.
* Car allowance of £7,320 per annum.
* Holiday starting at 25 days plus a personal day (plus Bank holidays).
* Private medical insurance.
* Retirement savings plan – save between 6% - 10% and Tesco will contribute 1.5 times this amount.
* 26 weeks maternity and adoption leave (after 1 year’s service) at full pay, followed by 13 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Statutory Adoption Pay. We also offer 6 weeks fully paid paternity leave.
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