Senior User Centred Design Consultant

Version 1 is a consultancy that has celebrated over 27 years in the IT industry. We focus on our core values to drive our growth and are trusted by global brands to deliver digital-first IT solutions to accelerate their success. 

Version 1 is a Microsoft Partner, AWS Premier Consulting Partner, Snowflake Partner, OutSystems Partner and Oracle Partner. We’re also an award-winning employer and employees are at the heart of Version 1. 

A few of our awards are Top 10 in Glassdoor’s Employees’ Choice Awards 2023, Innovation Partner of the Year at the 2023 Oracle EMEA Partner Awards, Top 5 UK Best Workplace in Tech 2023 by Great Place To Work UK and Best Workplace™ for Women UK 2022 By Great Place to Work®.

We are looking to recruit an adaptable Senior User Centred Design Consultant who can work effectively in multidisciplinary, agile teams to deliver excellent results for Version 1’s customers in the public and private sector.

You will be experienced in working with users and stakeholders to determine the best way to design products and services, considering both the end-to-end journey and individual design elements. Your portfolio will demonstrate your ability to understand users and design to meet their needs, work to relevant design standards and communicate your design decisions effectively across a range of complex projects.

You will bring up-to-date and comprehensive knowledge of design practice and use this to influence the direction of projects, securing buy-in from customers and steering the work of more junior consultants to deliver excellent results for Version 1’s customers.

Design thinking and evidence-based design.

• You have a comprehensive understanding of design thinking. You can apply and adapt frameworks and approaches flexibly and influence teams to align their work to deliver positive outcomes for customers.
• You take an evidence-based approach to design. You ensure that design decisions are driven by evidence to ensure they represent the simplest feasible approach to solving problems for users.

Focus on users and their needs.

• You can independently undertake basic user research activity as appropriate to your design work. You can collaborate effectively with user researchers and influence teams to prioritise and test the usability and accessibility of products and services.
• You can support team members and stakeholders to make decisions based on comprehensive understanding of the range of user needs, identifying trade-offs and constraints, to ensure that produces and services are designed for everyone who needs to use them.

Concepts and prototyping.

• You can collaborate with others to create and iterate a variety of different prototypes, selecting the appropriate level of fidelity and tools for the task.
• You can work with a range of disciplines and stakeholders to evaluate and test concepts and prototypes, and can use effective user-centred storytelling to explain  them to stakeholders.
• You can create, document and iterate design patterns to support and communicate your design work and use design systems to enhance the consistency and quality of design work. You actively participate in wider design community discussion and activities.

Experience of accessible/ inclusive design.

• You have a comprehensive understanding of the principles and considerations for accessible/inclusive design. You can apply these appropriately in your designs and influence team members and stakeholders to promote accessible and inclusive design.
• You can test designs to meet accessibility standards and conduct accessibility audits of a product or service.

Knowledge and experience of design standards.

• You have a thorough understanding of relevant design standards and can influence teams and customer to ensure that designs comply with the appropriate standards for the sector or project.
• You understand the standards that apply to public sector projects in the UK and can lead a design team through GDS assessment processes.

Consultancy skills.

• You have experience of communicating your design process and decisions effectively to gain the confidence of internal colleagues, customers and their external stakeholders.
• You can sensitively and appropriately manage stakeholders of all kinds whether they are our customers’ most senior decision-makers, technical team members, or service users with a range of complex needs.

Agile working in multidisciplinary teams.

• You understand user-centred design practices and cam influence teams to embed them into an agile workflow across all stages of the development lifecycle.
• You can work in an open, iterative and collaborative way in a multidisciplinary team.

Strategic thinking.

• You can understand and work within complex organisational contexts, aligning your activities to strategic goals. You can evaluate current strategies and demonstrate how your designs meet – or even exceed – business requirements and policy intentions.
• You can facilitate design decision-making by creating content, design and accessibility strategies and support multi-disciplinary teams to align their work to them.

Business development

• You can contribute to writing bids and other sales activity to develop the project pipeline for the design practice.
• You influence the work of others by taking responsibility for aspects of design-ops activities to develop Version 1’s design practice.

People development

• You can influence and mentor more junior consultants to support their career development.
• You can line manage colleagues within the design practice.

At Version 1, we believe in providing our employees with a comprehensive benefits package that prioritizes their well-being, professional growth, and financial stability.

One of our standout advantages is the ability to work remote or with a hybrid schedule along with business travel, allowing our employees to strike a balance between work and life. We also offer a range of tech-related benefits, including an innovative Tech Scheme, Octopus Car Lease, and MyGym Discounts to help keep our team members up-to-date with the latest technology.

We prioritize the health and safety of our employees, providing private medical and life insurance coverage, as well as free eye tests and contributions towards glasses. Our team members can also stay ahead of the curve with incentivized certifications and accreditations, including AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, and Red Hat.

Our employee-designed Profit Share scheme divides a portion of our company's profits each quarter among all full-time employees. We are dedicated to helping our employees reach their full potential, offering Pathways Career Development Quarterly, a program designed to support professional growth.