Lead Service Designer

Bupa; Salford; Hybrid; GBP 65,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading health insurer is hiring a Lead Service Designer in Salford. This full-time role involves leading design projects, mentoring a design team, and improving customer experiences using a user-centered approach. The position offers hybrid working and a salary up to £65,000, alongside various health and wellness benefits. Candidates should have extensive experience in service design and a collaborative mindset. Applications from diverse backgrounds are encouraged to foster inclusivity.

Benefits

25 days holiday

Bupa health insurance

Enhanced pension plan

Performance-based bonus

Onsite gym access or local discounts

Qualifications

• 5+ years in service and product design.
• Experience leading design projects in an agile environment.
• Ability to manage and mentor designers.

Responsibilities

• Lead projects and establish service design at Bupa.
• Work collaboratively with the design team and stakeholders.
• Generate concepts for new service propositions.

Skills

Strong service design skills

User-centered design mindset

Facilitation abilities

Experience with Figma

Analytical thinking

Education

Relevant design qualifications

Tools

UserTesting.com

Figma

Job description

* Before submitting your application, you should read our to understand how Bupa will use, store and share your information.* For Australia or New Zealand candidates - Before submitting your application, you should read our to understand how Bupa will use, store and share your information.Lead Service Designer page is loaded## Lead Service Designerlocations: Salford Quaystime type: Full timeposted on: Posted Todaytime left to apply: End Date: January 17, 2026 (30+ days left to apply)job requisition id: R1210135Job Description:**Lead Service Designer** **Hybrid working - Bupa Place/ Angel Court Up to £65k depending on experience****Permanent Full time, 37.5 hours per week****About the role.**You’ll sit alongside a passionate and talented multi-disciplinary experience design team, made up of user researchers, product designers, content designers and design operations, who are focused on creating the best digital experiences for Bupa’s customers in the UK.As an experienced design lead you will have deep domain expertise across service and product design. You will lead projects, establish service design at Bupa and mentor other team members. You will work collaboratively in an agile environment to create positive experiences that are easy to use and balance the needs of Bupa’s customers with its business goals. You will also build strong relationships with senior stakeholders, collaborators and other design team members.You will line manage a group of designers and provide mentorship and support to facilitate development, encourage growth and foster a culture of care and candour.* You will have strong service design skills, paired with product design skills/background. You will identify and solve customer and business problems, using service design, design thinking and product design approaches and methods.* You’ll provide direction and set the standard for service design across products and services at Bupa to improve the customer experience.* Support and inspire others in the team, up-skilling and training them in service design thinking and methods.* Generate concepts, proposals and plans for new service propositions, or to evolve and improve existing services.* As an experienced voice of the customer you’ll build advocacy amongst key stakeholders - evangelising the principles and processes of service design.* You will be confident leading large projects or programmes of work and task managing people within those projects.* You will lead playbacks, support in design crits and other communities of practice sessions to highlight your discipline’s work, enable constructive feedback and elevate the quality of the craft.* Helping to maintain and improve the inherent pillars of our team’s culture; psychological safety, celebrating success, and learning from each other.* Confident mediation across the demands of a business, the needs of the customer and the feasibility of the tech stack to design the right thing and design the thing right.* Service design mindset – when approaching a problem you take a wide view, looking front and backstage, and end to end by default. You are then able to identify specific areas of opportunity for more detailed analysis, both strategic (supporting commercial goals, balancing feasibility with desirability) and user-focussed, ensuring a human-centred approach.* Experience creating customer journey maps, service blueprints, flows and more - paired with an understanding of when to use each method to understand and improve a specific situation.* You are very comfortable working alongside researchers analysing and synthesising research work, uncovering insights from both qualitative and quantitative research.* You can navigate a complex business and its journeys across multiple channels. You are then able to communicate what matters most to our customers, colleagues, internal teams and business.* A strong facilitator who can bring together and engage others in your service design work in workshops and collaborative sessions. Adept at planning, structuring and facilitating cross-discipline workshops with attendees of varying levels of seniority.* A champion of the customer throughout whilst staying in touch with the business requirements.* You set the standard for your peers and the organisation.* Established ‘design thinker’ with empathy for user needs, a willingness to explore ideas and implement a ‘test and learn’ approach before launch.* A great storyteller capable of influencing and encouraging stakeholders and peers to adopt and buy into something that was previously unfamiliar.* Accustomed to working in an FCA regulated business is a bonus.* Adept in managing complexity across multiple streams of work.* Knowledgeable across our toolkit that includes Figma and UserTesting.com* A champion for accessibility who acknowledges the needs of users with different backgrounds, abilities, cultures, and environments.* A motivator of peers and the ongoing progression of their craft, while identifying new ways to develop skills to keep up with marketplace, industry and technology trends.**Benefits** Our benefits are designed to make health happen for our people. Viva is our global wellbeing programme and includes all aspects of our health – from mental and physical, to financial, social and environmental wellbeing. We support flexible working and have a range of family friendly benefits. **You’ll Receive the following benefits and more:*** 25 days holiday, increasing through length of service, with option to buy or sell* Bupa health insurance as a benefit in kind* An enhanced pension plan and life insurance* Annual performance-based bonus* Onsite gyms or local discounts where no onsite gym available* Various other benefits and online discounts**Why Bupa**We’re a health insurer and provider. With no shareholders, our customers are our focus. Our people are all driven by the same purpose – helping people live longer, healthier, happier lives and making a better world. We make health happen by being brave, caring and responsible in everything we do.We encourage all of our people to “Be you at Bupa”, we champion diversity, and we understand the importance of our people representing the communities and customers we serve. That’s why we especially encourage applications from people with diverse backgrounds and experiences.Bupa is a Level 2 Disability Confident Employer. This means we aim to offer an interview/assessment to every disabled applicant who meets the minimum criteria for the role. We’ll make sure you are treated fairly and offer reasonable adjustments as part of our recruitment process to anyone that needs them.Time Type:Full timeJob Area:ITLocations:Angel Court, London, Bupa Place