Research & Service Design Lead

Job Description

As Research & Service Design Lead, you are responsible for developing, positioning, and professionalising product research and service design across all our countries. You lead an international team of approximately six researchers and service designers and act as the key content-driven and strategic force behind the discipline
You work closely with the Heads of Product in all countries and with other disciplines within the Product Center of Excellence to ensure that research structurally contributes to enhanced customer journeys, product strategy, prioritisation, and decision-making. In addition to your leadership role, you remain actively involved in research yourself (approximately 30% hands-on). And every day at work, you’ll be doing your part for all the charities we support.

As a Research & Service Design Lead, you will:

• Lead, coach, and develop a team of researchers and service designers while building discipline maturity through standards, methodologies, and best practices.
• Shape and champion the organisation’s vision for research and service design, embedding user‑ and customer‑centric ways of working in product development.
• Translate insights into product and service improvements, collaborating closely with Product Owners, Design, and Analytics.
• Co‑define priorities and roadmaps with Product Managers and Heads of Product, advising stakeholders at both strategic and tactical levels.
• Conduct or oversee complex, strategic research initiatives, remaining roughly 30% hands‑on.
• Establish and scale service design capabilities—including blueprinting, tools, and governance—within the organisation.
• Define and position service design within the wider transformation programme, partnering with Product, Technology, Transformation Centres of Excellence, and Business teams to design coherent, scalable services.