UCD Lead

Zaizi is looking for a User Centered Design Lead to work in a delivery-focused, agile environment, working with government clients. You’ll be managing and mentoring other User Experience Designers and Researchers. You’ll be getting hands-on to deliver on projects as well as to define and oversee user research and design being delivered by the UCD team.

At Zaizi you will work across a number of multidisciplinary teams and you will work closely with business analysts, delivery managers, product managers, developers and testers to make sure their user-centred design outcomes are understood and inform continuing activities.

At Zaizi our culture is inclusive, modern, friendly and innovative. We seek bright, positive thinking individuals with a can-do attitude. Our people enjoy challenging themselves to be the best at what they do – if that sounds like you, you'll fit right in!

These are the expected objectives for this role and we would be eager to discuss this further during the interview process and jointly agree it with the successful candidate.

• Line management and mentoring of other UCD professionals, whilst being hands-on in a project.
• Expert knowledge and experience of user-centred design methods needed in Central Government to gain a deep understanding of users and their needs and motivations.
• Communicate and evangelise user needs and user centered approach to the team and wider stakeholders
• Work with team members to oversee the creation of UCD artefacts and deliverables including prototypes, workshops, research findings, personas, user journeys maps, reports, show and tell presentations, etc.
• You will contribute to the selection of user centred design and research approaches for projects and initiatives and the planning of user research activities throughout the process from bid, SOW creation and project delivery.
• Work closely with Zaizi leadership, including leads in delivery, product, business analysis, engineering and sales/bid process to deliver high quality work to clients.
• Manage the recruitment of permanent and contract UCD staff as and when required.
• Ensure a high quality of user centered design and research work is delivered to clients in a timely manner across the Club.

Essential Skills:

• Being able to work in an agile and flexible way across a number of agile projects
• Mentoring less experienced UCD professionals to develop their skills and knowledge
• Stakeholder management - comfortable engaging and building relationships, from senior stakeholders to developers to researchers 
• Leadership - evidence that they can direct colleagues (design, technical, product) and clients, and lead them all to good outcomes 
• Macro and micro - evidence that they can think on a macro and micro level, and are comfortable working broad (i.e. strategic workshops) and honed in (i.e. deciding the UI for a button) 
• Business skills - evidence that they can translate their ideas and findings about design into business acumen. That they can convince stakeholders of the value. That they also understand and have experience of how businesses operate, and can demonstrate work showing how they have improved this through service design. 
• Design workshop skills - evidence that they can create and deliver engaging design workshops, that lead to good outcomes 

Desirable:

• Experience with a range of user-centred design and service design techniques and practices.
• Whilst you may have a specialism you need to be able to have a T shaped approach to the role. 
• Excellent knowledge and experience of prototyping and interaction design.
• Setting design objectives and choosing appropriate tools and techniques.
• The ability to plan user-centred design activities and define protocols.

Security Clearance

Certain projects demand that our staff be British and cleared to SC level (or eligible for clearance). 

You don’t meet all the requirements?

Studies show that women and black, Asian and minority ethnic people are less likely to apply for a job unless they meet every qualification. So if you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align perfectly with the job description, we’d love you to still apply. You might just be the perfect person for this role, or another role here at Zaizi.

We actively welcome applications from people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, individuals with disabilities, neurodivergent individuals, parents, carers, and those from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

If you need any accommodations to support your specific situation, please feel free to let us know. For candidates who are neurodiverse or have disabilities, we are happy to make any adjustments needed throughout the interview process—just ask!

Interview Process:

1st stage:

Initial phone screening done by a member of the recruitment team

2nd stage:

Technical interview, this stage evaluates your technical expertise and problem-solving abilities, especially if you're applying for a technical role.

Final Stage:

10-15 min presentation and a panel interview where multiple people from different departments ask you questions.

25 days paid holiday, plus bank holidays

Vitality medical insurance
Workplace Pension 5% employer contribution
Group Life Assurance
Cycle scheme
5 days a year for approved Training
WFH equipment allowance
Buy / Sell Holiday
2 days paid volunteering days

Other benefits:
Flexible working
Work on exciting projects - make a difference
Empowered to make decisions
Encouraged to fail fast and learn quickly
1-2-1 and team coaching / training available to all our staff

For further information contact- [email protected]

Nat Hinds-Head of Talent

Kayla Kirby-Talent Acquisition Specialist