Lead Service Designer

VML South Africa; London; Hybrid; GBP 50,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job description

At VML, we are a beacon of innovation and growth in an ever-evolving world. Our heritage is built upon a century of combined expertise, where creativity meets technology, and diverse perspectives ignite inspiration. With the merger of VMLY&R and Wunderman Thompson, we have forged a new path as a growth partner that is part creative agency, part consultancy, and part technology powerhouse.

Our global family now encompasses over 30,000 employees across 150+ offices in 64 markets, each contributing to a culture that values connection, belonging, and the power of differences. Our expertise spans the entire customer journey, offering deep insights in communications, commerce, consultancy, CRM, CX, data, production, and technology. We deliver end-to-end solutions that result in revolutionary work.

We dream big - We are seeking innovators who have a knack for designing immersive, creative and engaging digital ecosystems, products, and services – and we execute small – sweating the details to create consistent, performant customer experiences.

Our Experience team delivers for brands including Lego, Samsung, Yves-Saint Laurent Beauty, Ford, HSBC, Duracell, Microsoft, Diageo and Specsavers.

What we need from you

As a passionate and experienced Lead Service Designer, you will be dedicated to elevating our work and leading service designers to create meaningful, beautifully crafted products and services.

You’ll lead projects and teams in creating and implementing human-centered design strategies that enhance our clients’ services and customer/employee experiences.

This role requires an empathetic, strategic, and creative Lead with a deep background in service design, exceptional strategic thinking, and the ability to collaborate across multidisciplinary teams to drive innovative solutions.

This position requires a balance of hands-on work across multiple projects and line management time as part of the role. You’re able to thrive under pressure, keeping your cool when deadlines and budgets shift – mitigating risks, and adapting accordingly to ensure successful outcomes.

You can confidently make the case for what you believe in, always advocating for the people we’re designing for in front of internal teams and senior stakeholders. At the same time, you will be seen by the client project team and senior client stakeholders as a trusted expert practitioner and you will build strong trusted relationships with these groups, listening to their needs and effectively managing their expectations.

You’re likely to have knowledge and expertise in these areas

Leadership and Management:

• As a Lead you will perform the project lead or lead practitioner role for your practice, depending on the size, complexity and needs of the project.
• Provide input into or own project planning and set up to ensure that you and the team can do your best work.
• Stay up to date with industry trends, best practices, and emerging technologies to continuously improve service design practices and set the bar higher for more junior members.
• Foster a collaborative, curious and creative environment where people can do great work.
• Provide guidance and feedback being a positive role model to ensure the team's work meets high standards of quality.
• Communicates and presents with authority, professionalism and credibility, building rapport with the audience while driving an agenda.
• Works across medium and large-scale engagements with multiple project tracks.
• Manage a small team of service designers – around project work and professional development.
• Leading the delivery of the end-to-end service design process, including research, ideation, prototyping, testing, delivery, and implementation.
• Experienced in leading service design within digital & business transformations as well as customer experience – and understand how to bridge the two.
• Comfortable navigating complex enterprise environments, translating business challenges into human-centered design opportunities for meaningful change while balancing stakeholder priorities, legacy systems, and commercial goals.
• You are comfortable collaborating with UX and UI practitioners to support product development.
• Promote the use of human-centered design principles to solve complex experience challenges and act as an ambassador for the experience design team; able to explain the value of user centred experience design to clients and colleagues.
• Ensure the delivery of high-quality service design outputs, including experience maps, service blueprints and experience prototypes.
• Collaborate with clients and users to gather insights, define the strategy, validate concepts and ensure alignment with business objectives.
• Ensure projects are delivered on time and within scope.

Tools you’re likely to be confident in:

• Keynote & PowerPoint
• Figma or equivalent

About you

Joining VML represents a chance to create world-class experiences for some of the best brands out there. This role is all about driving the direction and development of customer experiences that matter.

This is a role for someone continually growing their development, service design practice and leadership skills. Highly collaborative, you enjoy working in closely knit teams – pushing things just a little bit further. Not afraid to make the case for what you believe in, you work well under pressure, keeping your cool when the deadlines change. A natural with clients, you speak convincingly – and know how to get people excited about the work we do.

We don’t settle for people who can just do the job, we look for people that go beyond that and always push our thinking to be better than yesterday.

We believe the best work happens when we're together, fostering creativity, collaboration, and connection. That's why we’ve adopted a hybrid approach, with teams in the office an average of four days a week. If you require accommodations or flexibility, please discuss this with the hiring team during the interview process.

WPP (VML) is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without discrimination or regard to characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.