Lead UI Designer

Lead UI Designer

Bristol / Birmingham / Manchester

Hybrid - 3 days onsite, 2 WFH

£competitive

This global design consultancy are looking for a Lead UI Designer to play a key role within their 85 strong global in-house creative agency. Working across a diverse range of digital, immersive and experiential projects, you will be an experienced UI Designer who combines exceptional visual design skills with a strong understanding of UX, interaction and storytelling.

This is an exciting opportunity to work on digital experiences that go beyond the screen, creating interfaces and digital touchpoints for immersive experiences, live events, exhibitions, installations and experiential campaigns. You will help shape how audiences interact with digital content across both physical and virtual environments, working alongside UX/UI designers, graphic designers, animators, visualisers, developers and production teams.

Based from either their Bristol, Birmingham or Manchester offices on a hybrid basis, you will work collaboratively with their multidisciplinary teams and have the opportunity to work on innovative projects for high-profile organisations across the UK and globally.

About the Company

Our client is a global design consultancy, offering creative design and innovation services to internal and external clients on a national and global level. They work with high profile organisations across the transport, defence, energy and engineering sectors and work collaboratively in helping their clients achieve their ambitions, leading world class creative projects.

At the heart of the business sits their thriving in-house creative agency team, a highly talented and multidisciplinary team of over 80 people across the UK and globally, providing expertise across UX/UI design, graphic design, animation, visualisation, real-time and web development.

They bring together creative, design, technology and engineering expertise to create innovative experiences that help their clients communicate, connect and engage with their audiences.

They offer a great path for progression with bespoke personal development plans – they like to reward their staff for excellence and innovation and create a culture that is truly progressive and collaborative.

About the role

As Lead UI Designer, you will create engaging interfaces and digital touchpoints for immersive experiences, live events, exhibitions, installations and experiential campaigns.

You will be responsible for shaping how audiences interact with digital content, thinking beyond traditional websites and applications and considering how people experience digital content within physical and virtual environments.

You will bring a strong visual eye and an exceptional level of craft to your work, with expertise across interface design, typography, colour, layout, grid systems and responsive design. You will be able to take complex narratives, brand stories and event objectives and translate them into engaging digital experiences that are intuitive, visually compelling and capture an audience.

Working closely with UX designers, developers, visualisation specialists and production teams, you will take projects from initial concept through design development, prototyping, testing and implementation, ensuring that the creative vision is maintained through to delivery.

Your work could include designing interfaces for immersive displays, touchscreen experiences, wayfinding solutions, experiential websites, interactive installations, event technology or branded environments. You will have an appreciation of how people interact with digital content within physical spaces, including large-scale and 360-degree immersive environments.

You will also bring strong UX thinking to the role, facilitating workshops and discovery sessions, mapping user journeys and flows and translating complex processes, data and business requirements into intuitive, accessible and user-centred experiences.

This role is very much about combining creativity with problem solving. You will be expected to challenge thinking, explore different possibilities and find solutions that deliver against the needs of both the audience and the client.

You will be confident presenting your ideas and design rationale to clients, senior stakeholders and multidisciplinary teams, taking people on the journey from the initial concept through to the final experience.

They are also looking for someone who is genuinely curious about what is coming next. You will have the opportunity to explore emerging technologies, including immersive media, AI-enabled workflows, real-time engines and new interaction techniques, identifying where these technologies could enhance the creative solution.

AI is already becoming an important part of the creative workflow, and you will be encouraged to identify opportunities to use AI-assisted design, rapid prototyping and emerging 'vibe coding' approaches to increase speed, creativity and experimentation, whilst ensuring that the final solution remains user-centred and production-ready.

You will be working across multiple projects, so you will need to be comfortable in a fast-paced environment, managing priorities and maintaining a high level of creative quality and attention to detail.

About you

You have experience working as a senior UI Designer within a creative, experiential, events, exhibition, immersive, gaming, digital experience or similar environment.

You will have a portfolio that demonstrates exceptional UI design across various mediums such as interactive experiences, immersive installations, event technology, touchscreen applications, experiential websites, digital products or branded environments.

You have a strong visual design skillset, with an excellent eye for detail and craft and a deep understanding of interface design, typography, colour, layout, grids and responsive design.

You understand that designing for an immersive or physical environment can be very different to designing for a traditional digital product and have experience thinking about how audiences interact with digital content within physical spaces.

You are able to take complex information, narratives and business requirements and turn them into simple, intuitive and engaging user experiences.

You have strong UX expertise and are comfortable facilitating user workshops and discovery sessions, mapping end-to-end user journeys and flows and designing experiences around the needs of diverse audiences.

You are confident using Figma, Adobe Creative Cloud and modern prototyping tools and can effectively communicate interaction, motion and experience flow to clients and development teams.

You have experience working collaboratively with developers, visualisation specialists, production teams and other creative disciplines and understand the importance of designing with implementation and delivery in mind.

You are a confident presenter and storyteller, comfortable explaining your design rationale and bringing clients and stakeholders with you.

You are commercially and strategically minded, able to understand both user needs and business objectives and translate these into thoughtful, scalable creative solutions.

You are curious about emerging technology and excited by the possibilities offered by immersive media, AI, real-time technology and new interaction techniques. You are someone who enjoys experimenting with new tools and approaches and can identify where technology can genuinely improve the creative experience.

You are solutions-focused, calm under pressure and comfortable working across multiple projects in a fast-paced creative environment.

Most importantly, you care about producing brilliant experiences. You have high standards, take pride in your craft and are passionate about creating digital experiences that genuinely engage audiences.

Being a globally led company, their benefits list is extensive with 25 days holidays plus the option to buy or sell additional leave and a contributory pension scheme where the company will pay up to 10% employer contribution if you contribute 5% - along with many other benefits.