Head of Service Design

As Head of Service Design, you will be responsible for developing and implementing a forward-thinking service design strategy that aligns with Barclays’ Transformation agenda and our evolving Scaled Agile framework. You will drive journey innovation at scale, ensuring that the creativity, quality and consistency of the Service Design team supports the company’s broader objectives, upholding customer experience standards and aspirations across all channels.

To be successful as Head of Service Design, you should have:

• Have previous experience in leading and managing design teams.

• Have experience of working in Scaled Agile delivery teams to develop an operating model that balances CX (customer experience) value with technical feasibility and commercial goals.

• Experience in leading the development of best-in-class Service Design practice, with a deep understanding of user-centred design principles, a keen eye for aesthetics, and the ability to balance business goals with user needs.

• Experience in overseeing budgets and defining the team’s learning and development strategy.

• Building a culture of innovation and community of practice across Service Design team.

• Ability to network with a wide network of senior journey, product and technology stakeholders.

• Have experience in managing and influencing stakeholders across a wide portfolio of work.

• Proficient in using Figma and Jira tools.

Some other highly valued skills may include:

• Experience in collaborating with journey, brand and marketing teams, with a focus on how design drives value.

• Have previous experience in portfolio management and quarterly planning.

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

This role can be based in London (1CP), Knutsford, Manchester (4PP) or Northampton.

Purpose of the role

To design the end to end journey of a service to enable a user to complete their goals. The work may involve the creation of, or change to, transactions, products and content across both digital and offline channels provided by different parts of Barclays. 

Accountabilities

• Creation of design assets to drive business outcomes, including service blueprinting, customer journey mapping and service prototyping.
• Creation of intuitive and user-friendly interfaces for digital banking platforms and applications for a seamless and engaging user experience.
• Design and maintenance of visually appealing and consistent user interfaces that align with the bank's brand identity and design guidelines across digital products.
• Creation of wireframes and interactive prototypes for visualisation and testing of product concepts and features before development.
• Compliance to accessibility standards and guidelines to provide an inclusive experience for all users.
• Monitoring of industry trends, design best practices, and emerging technologies to continuously improve the design quality and innovation of banking products.
• Gathering and analysis of data from a wide range of sources to create in-depth insights into customer’s needs or pain-points to aid business understanding of the customer experience.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.