Head of Design and Research

• Own the end-to-end design strategy for T&F's products and services, championing user-centred thinking at every level, from executive strategy to tactical execution
• Build and evolve a comprehensive design system that enables consistency, speed, and quality across all product surfaces, platforms, and content types (desktop, mobile, offline, emerging formats)
• Establish design principles and standards that scale across a multi-region, multi-product organization while allowing for contextual flexibility
• Drive innovation in design practice, exploring emerging paradigms including AI-assisted design, personalization at scale, accessibility-first thinking, and inclusive design
• Define and track design success metrics, establishing how design impact is measured and communicated across the organization
• Anticipate future user needs, positioning design as a strategic function that shapes not just responds to product roadmaps

• Hire, develop, and inspire a high-performing team of UX Designers, UI Designers, and Researchers, placing product design and a customer mindset at the heart
• Create a culture of critique, collaboration, and continuous learning within the design function, where challenge is welcomed and excellence is the standard
• Advocate for the role of research and evidence in shaping product direction, ensuring user insight is a first-class input to decision-making
• Mentor and grow design talent, creating clear career pathways and development opportunities that attract and retain exceptional people
• Build design capability across the organization, coaching non-designers in design thinking and user-centred approaches

• Work closely with the Head of Product Management and Head of Data & Intelligence to align design with product strategy, data insights, and business outcomes
• Collaborate deeply with Engineering to ensure design intent is realized in the final product, balancing ambition with technical reality
• Partner with Content, Editorial, and Commercial teams to ensure design serves both user needs and business goals
• Contribute to the VP Product leadership team, representing the design perspective in strategic decisions and helping shape organizational direction
• Present and defend design decisions at executive level, translating design rationale into business impact and strategic value
• Build design advocacy across the organization, elevating the visibility and influence of design as a strategic discipline

• Establish scalable design processes and rituals that balance speed with quality, enabling the team to deliver consistently excellent work
• Manage design operations, including tooling, workflows, critique processes, and cross-functional handoffs
• Balance strategic vision with tactical delivery, knowing when to lead from the front and when to empower the team
• Navigate ambiguity and complexity, making sound decisions with incomplete information and adapting as context evolves

Experience

• Significant experience in product design, with a demonstrated success in a design leadership role managing managers and/or leading design functions
• Strong portfolio demonstrating design quality, systems thinking, and strategic impact, showing not just what you designed, but how you thought, influenced, and delivered outcomes
• Deep knowledge of user research methodologies and how to integrate insight into design practice, including qualitative and quantitative approaches
• Experience building and evolving design systems that serve multiple products, platforms, and teams
• Confident communicator and storyteller, able to present and defend design decisions at executive level, translating design value into business language

• Strategic thinker who can connect design decisions to business outcomes, user needs, and organizational goals
• Exceptional people leader with a track record of hiring, developing, and retaining top design talent
• Collaborative influencer who builds trust and credibility across functions, levels, and geographies
• Systems thinker who sees connections, patterns, and opportunities others miss
• Comfortable with ambiguity, able to provide clarity and direction when the path forward isn't obvious
• High agency and ownership mindset: you see problems and solve them, rather than waiting for permission

• Expertise in modern design tools and practices (Figma, prototyping, design ops, accessibility standards, responsive/adaptive design)
• Familiarity with data-driven design, personalization, and AI-driven experiences, understanding how to design for algorithmic systems and emerging technologies
• Understanding of mobile-first and offline-capable design patterns, particularly for content-heavy applications
• Knowledge of accessibility standards (WCAG) and inclusive design principles, with a commitment to designing for all users
• Experience working across hybrid, multi-region teams, navigating cultural and time-zone complexity

• This role is based in the UK and you must have the right to work and live in the UK.
• We believe that great things happen when people connect face-to-face. That's why we work in-person with each other, or with customers and partners, three days a week or more. When you’re not spending time together in one of our offices or other workplaces – like at conference – you get the flexibility and support to work from home or remotely. The successful candidate will be able to utilise our balanced working model.
• We ask that candidates live within a commutable distance to our Milton Park office or our London office to ensure that as a balanced worker they can make it to our office location 3 days per week.
• Please note that our Milton Park office will be relocating to Oxford city centre in late 2027 / early 2028, offering an exciting new workplace in the heart of the city.

• Applications will close on the 29th of July 2026