Lead Designer - Zebra People

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Lead / Head of Design required for growing design & build agency, opportunity to shape design whilst managing a small team and getting hands on with the craft.

The client

My client is a 20-person independent digital agency working with some of the world’s best brands. They’re moving further into product, design and build, and away from pure brand design — making this an exciting time to join.

They’re looking for a Lead Product Designer — someone hands-on, ambitious, and ready to head up design. The role is an UX-leaning Product Design position but ideally suited to someone who also has brand design exposure. You’ll steer the vision for design, manage and mentor a team of 5, while still staying close to the craft.

The role

What you’ll be doing

Own and lead the design function, setting direction across UX, UI and brand.
Manage, mentor and inspire a team of 5 designers, balancing oversight with hands-on delivery.
Take projects from discovery and research through to design systems and delivery.
Work across varied projects, often in B2B and SaaS, where clarity, usability and polish matter most.
Get involved in client pitches and workshops, shaping ideas and selling design thinking.
Collaborate closely with strategy and engineering teams to deliver high-quality product builds.

The candidate

A proven Product Design Lead / Senior Designer with a strong UX foundation and brand design background/exposure.
Experience in an agency environment and comfortable with the pace, variety and client-facing side of work.
Confident across research, UX strategy, prototyping, UI design and brand — end-to-end product design.
Able to balance leadership with craft — mentoring juniors while still rolling up your sleeves.
Strong communicator who’s happy leading pitches, presenting to clients and defending design decisions.

Why join?

Opportunity to head up design and shape the future of the studio.
Work with world-class brands across sectors, with a current focus on B2B / SaaS.
Collaborative, supportive culture — small enough to have real impact, big enough to do exciting work.
Salary around £80–85k with clear growth potential.
Hybrid setup with 3 days a week in London office.

Apply below!

We welcome diversity

We welcome those with alternative identities, backgrounds, and experiences. Our team includes parents, the self-taught, the university-educated, and people of a wide variety of nationalities, ages, and socio-economic backgrounds.

Obviously, we’re looking to ensure it’s a solid fit from both sides: we want you to step into a role you love, and we want to offer you a place you’re proud to come to every day for work.

We know that diverse teams are strong teams, and welcome those with alternative identities, backgrounds, and experiences to apply to be part of life at Zebra People. We are committed to a fair and accessible recruitment process for all candidates. We would be happy to meet any accommodation requests during the application or interview process, please just let us know.