Senior Designer (UX)

Manchester Digital; Manchester; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000

Job description

Purpose of the role

Working collaboratively with designers, developers, data and conversion specialists within an experimentation-focused product team, you’ll create world-class products and services that meet the needs of real people, and equally, provide commercially successful solutions for our clients.

Working in partnership with clients and peers, you will lead and facilitate the full product experimentation lifecycle by employing a range of design and experimentation methods, qualitative data, and quantitative insight to inform your thinking. You will be proficient in explaining why your chosen program of work is suitable in each individual context.

From problem through to solution, you will continue to lead the design through production, experimentation, and build ensuring the final product experience is delivered in line with the original vision to the highest standards of craft and utility.

We need you to roll your sleeves up, but also be a natural leader and mentor. Your position in the team means juniors, peers, and clients will be looking to you for guidance and design leadership.

Role Band: 3

Band Guide: 1: Foundation. 2: Professional. 3: Senior. 4: Lead/Principal. 5: Director

Salary: Band 3: Up to £50k The salary banding for this role is dependent on your experience.

We are an equal opportunities employer and are committed to promoting inclusivity and diversity at Code. We are actively encouraging applications from black and ethnic minority groups and women in engineering.

Key Responsibilities

• Collaborative - working with other disciplines and clients in your product team to define innovative and effective product experiences.
• Empathy – always forming and testing ideas, designs, and solutions with the needs of real people in mind.
• Leadership and mentoring – helping develop other team members by sharing knowledge and passion with the wider agency and the world.
• Client-centric – creating and maintaining good relationships with clients, as well as taking a role in new business development and pitches.
• Commercial experience design – balance user goals and business objectives with brand, time, budget, and technology.
• See the big picture – Ensure your design activity is contributing to the wider product strategy and adds customer and commercial value.
• Make effective decisions – use sound judgment, data, evidence, and insight to arrive at accurate, expert, and professional decisions and advice.

Your skills and experience

As a senior designer in UX, you will be able to call upon a variety of experiences working across multiple clients and design problems to help you own, adapt or pivot your design programs.

Essential

• Select, plan and perform appropriate user research and testing activities.
• Propose and test IA, taxonomies, navigation, and key product journeys.
• Create design artifacts as appropriate; for example, personas, user journeys, sitemaps, process flow diagrams, wireframes, and high-fidelity prototypes.
• Working with specialists to shape the brand, content, and interaction layers.
• Utilise experimentation to help inform product decisions and guidance.
• Establish and maintain productive working relationships with front-end developers.
• Peer review and critique projects throughout design and development for experience quality, usability, and business value.
• Attend client meetings to present work and make recommendations.
• Work with Product Owners to plan project activities and estimate costs.
• Knowledge of modern product management and development practices.

Desirable

• Plan and conduct stakeholder interviews.
• Leading and facilitating design sprints.
• Facilitate and work with other disciplines to make strategic product decisions and recommendations.
• Proficient at creating, planning, and facilitating collaborative workshops with peers and clients to progress the product forward.

Leadership

Essential

• Self-leadership – be responsible and accountable for your own actions and growth. Ensure you are always seeking to improve your work and the world.
• Design activity – be responsible for delegating or conducting appropriate design activity to drive the product forward.
• Programs of work – Select design methods and lead the definition of appropriate programs of work needed to meet any specific design challenge.

Desirable

• Design culture in teams – Ensure design has an equal voice to other disciplines.
• Product direction – Collaborate and lead routines to help the team make strategic recommendations to drive the product forward in accordance with the product vision.

A bit about EM Code...

We are EM Code, formerly Code Computerlove. We are a Customer Experience, AI, and Innovation Agency in Manchester.

Since our inception in 1999, we have navigated substantial industry transformations and consistently adapted our attitudes, beliefs, and approaches to stay ahead.

For over 25 years, EM Code has helped shape some of the UK’s leading brands and businesses. We are renowned for our human-centred thinking, digital design excellence, and modern engineering practices. Our eclectic client base includes big organisations like the BBC, fast-moving start-ups like LightSpeed Broadband, and local heroes like Manchester Pride. We even launched a global number-one app, The Higher Lower Game.

Recognising the need for constant evolution, our agency is structured always to help our clients and partners adapt to rapidly changing customer and market needs. Our approach is agile, collaborative, and flexible. We start where we can deliver the biggest results, then test, learn, and improve before moving on to the next goal.

We are officially recognised as a Great Place to Work, with 98% of our team saying the working environment is welcoming, friendly, and fun, and 98% agreeing that people are treated fairly regardless of race, age, or sexual orientation. EM Code is full of talented, passionate individuals who love collaborating and helping each other out, and our client partners trust us to do world-class work.

As an equal-opportunity employer, we are committed to promoting inclusivity and diversity at EM Code. We actively encourage applications from black and ethnic minority groups.

We're part of something bigger...

Since 2017, we have been part of EssenceMediacom North. Together, we reside at the vibrant WPP Manchester Campus, located in the heart of Spinningfields. Here, we collaborate with over 500 talented creatives and marketers, all contributing to WPP's esteemed global advertising and media network.

Being part of EssenceMediacom North provides us with access to world-leading enterprise tools and resources. This enhances our extensive capabilities in communications, media, insights, customer experience, AI, and cutting-edge technology, allowing us to craft truly integrated solutions.

What we value...

• We value people who are brilliant in their capability and the things that they make together.
• We value people who improve; continually improve themselves and the world around them to make a difference.
• We value people who collaborate, who are a joy to work with and who get more from themselves and those around them, by working together effectively.

The package

We offer a competitive salary, negotiable depending on qualifications and experience. On top of this, we have a generous benefits package, including pension scheme, medical insurance, flexi-start, 25 days holiday growing to 30 days over time, paid social events, bike schemes, child care schemes, etc.

It's not all about work

• Make-Change Friday afternoon – dedicated self-improvement time.
• An annual training budget of at least £500 so you can develop your skills.
• Medical insurance with eyecare and dental included.
• Generous maternity and shared parental leave package.
• £25 per month wellbeing budget.
• Corporate discounts with the likes of John Lewis and Made.com.

• Flexible hours and flexible bank-holidays.
• Bike and rail pass scheme.
• Your birthday off.