Are you ready tochart your own career path? With our refreshed strategy, we’re building on our rich heritage and transforming our business to be more scalable and efficient, unlocking the capabilities needed for future success. This includes significantly investing in technology, streamlining the way we work and creating an environment where colleagues feel engaged, empowered and accountable; where they can show up, speak up and perform - because we believe in the difference our work makes.
At a glance:
Location: Cirencester Office
Workplace Type: Hybrid
Employment Type: Permanent
Seniority: Mid-Senior Level
The Head of Design & improvement will oversee the development of a series of approaches and tactics to support service changes, set the direction for the User Experience team and establishment of the User Centred Design vision and approach and tackle identified issues through SJP’s customer-centric business transformation approach and champion, determine and deliver on identified process improvements within the organisation.
The role holder will lead the provision of innovative design solutions across the organisation, complementing the other skillsets in the design centre of excellence and will provide a flexible response to business need, deploying a wide range of skills and techniques to explore issues, find answers and support implementation of solutions
The role holder will also champion and embed digital experience and user experience through leadership and cultivation of our User Experience and testing team, supporting and enhancing the delivery of SJP’s corporate strategy across research, ideation, conception, design, prototypes and testing of our digital product portfolio.
The role will require strategic leadership that articulates the vision for business optimisation, working closely with standardisation and simplification initiative leads and other elements of the design community, such as architecture and analysis.
By researching, reimagining and measuring SJP’s services, systems and processes, you’ll ensure that they are more efficient, effective and easy to use, so they better deliver to the needs of our service users, better customer experiences and successful business outcomes.
Key Responsibilities of the Job:
The Head of Design & Improvement will provide strategic leadership to deliver an approach, aligned to corporate objectives which drives forward customer-centric service optimisation, improving efficiency and reducing costs, supported by key metrics
The role holder will drive a proactive and iterative approach to service design, user experience and business improvement, based on insight and evidence of the needs of our service users, leading to implementable change and service and business improvement for SJP, with user experience at the heart of what they do.
Develop and operate of a modern Service Design, Business Improvement and Insight function that provides professional expertise and strategic advice and guidance to the business areas to help shape and support the overall SJP corporate strategy.
Lead and manage SJP’s digital insight and performance activity, including user research and digital analytics (Qualitative and Quantitative) with the aim of effectively supporting decision making, and a providing a broader understanding of the needs of the SJP business, partnership and client end users.
The role holder will ideally have digital experience with a strong grasp of User Centred Design, user research and testing and industry leading digital design delivery methodologies. They will have a strong desire to create world class products.
There is a requirement to shape and then implement a comprehensive UX strategy aligned with SJP’s objectives and customer needs, lead and manage a team of UX professionals, fostering their growth and ensuring collaboration and productivity and collaborate closely with product managers, architects, developers, and stakeholders to integrate UX principles and design solutions seamlessly.
Essential criteria
1. Have experience of working with service design, user experience and business improvement (it is accepted the role holder will have a strong adherence to one or two of the above, with the other preferable but not essential) methodologies and understand how these can help our organisation achieve its strategic goals.
2. A working knowledge of architecture would be beneficial in the role, given the need to collaborate effectively with those other stakeholders within the design centre of excellence.
3. Ability to encourage best practice and innovation by benchmarking and understanding current trends and new developments in service design, business improvement, insight and service performance.
4. Act as the subject matter expert to advise on the adoption and development of new and emerging Service Design, User Experience and Business Improvement and Insight technologies.
5. Exploit technology and the digital agenda to progress the efficiency and value of what the team delivers
What's in it for you?
We reward you for the work you do, whether that’s through our discretionary annual bonus scheme that reflects both personal and company performance, competitive annual leave allowance (28 days plus bank holidays, with the option to purchase an additional 5 days), or online rewards platform with a variety of discounts.
We also have benefits to support whatever stage of life you are in, including:
6. Competitive parental leave (26 weeks full pay)
7. Private medical insurance (optional taxable benefit)
8. 10% non-contributory pension (increasing with length of service)
Reasonable Adjustments
We're an equal opportunities employer and want to ensure our recruitment process is accessible and inclusive for all, if you require reasonable adjustment(s) at any stage please let us know by emailing us at
Research tells us that applicants (especially those from underrepresented groups) can be put off from applying for a role if they do not meet all the criteria or have been on an extended career-break. If you think you would be a good match for this role and can demonstrate some transferable experience please apply, regardless of whether you tick every box.