At Sainsburys, we believe that our customers and colleagues should be at the heart of everything we do, which is why we’ve put them at the centre of our vision, to help our customers eat better, and to make Sainsburys a place colleagues love to work.

As an Experience Design team, were responsible for driving that vision, working seamlessly with a variety of talented experts to create brilliant experiences across all our brands. Were extremely agile, working seamlessly with other teams and using data to empower every decision we make, following a test and learn approach to problem solving to ensure we deliver fantastic experiences for our customers that add real value, at pace. 

Not only that, but were on a mission to change the way customers shop with us, both digitally and physically, by creating relevant and inspiring experiences that keep customers coming back again and again. 

We work on a wide range of services, products, touchpoints and tools to deliver distinctive, integrated, and consistent experiences for our customers and colleagues across Sainsbury’s (which includes Sainsbury’s Food, Argos, TU, Habitat, Nectar and Sainsbury’s Bank).

About this role 

You’ll be accountable for evolving and scaling our guidelines and design systems which underpin products and services right across our ecosystem to create brilliant, consistent and accessible experiences that are used by thousands of colleagues and millions of customers a day.  

Working seamlessly with service design and product teams, designers, engineers, copywriters and accessibility experts in an agile environment, you’ll be defining and designing best in class, guidelines, styles, components and patterns to delight our customers and drive best practice across our digital and physical experiences. 

You’ll also work on products, services and propositions across all our brands to ensure we’re showing up consistently to customers, whether that’s transactional and non-transactional websites, apps, self-service tills, loyalty propositions – or new concepts, services and experience areas that need to be explored, defined and developed. 

You’ll work in an agile, collaborative environment with cross-functional teams and stakeholders and will need to feel comfortable working in and out of scrum at a tactical or strategic level. You’ll approach design inclusively and use insights, user testing and evidence to validate your work. 

As a Senior Experience Designer, you’ll also be part of the wider Customer Experience Design (CXD) team and you’ll get the chance to work with other designers, researchers and writers on projects that bring experiences to life across our different brands. You can find out more about our work, our colleagues and our culture on our Medium blog.

We’re committed to working with you to drive your development, and we offer a collaborative culture, a flexible approach to working and a lots of colleague benefits.

Application good to knows

• To be considered we’ll need to see your previous work. We’re interested in your whole process; how you approach problems, generate ideas, test with customers, push around pixels and iterate on what you’ve put out into the world. Here’s some tips on what we’re looking for in your portfolio.
• You don’t need to worry about having a fancy website that you’ve built yourself – although if you do that’s great. You can use Google Slides or put together a PDF – it’s totally ok. What’s most important is that you’re showing your work clearly and thoughtfully. 
• Worried your experience doesn’t quite match? We’d encourage you to drop us a message or go ahead and apply anyway – we like to keep an open mind. 

What you need to do

• Identify, define and deliver guidance, components, patterns, resources and assets that deliver value to customers and colleagues and are directly aligned with Sainsbury’s Group digital vision and KPIs 
• Work alongside designers, UX copy and accessibility specialists to ensure the guidelines and design systems are constantly iterated based on collaboration, user testing and feedback from across the CXD team 
• Lead all phases of user-centred design through a data-informed, test-and-learn approach
• Champion the voice of the user through your work, organising and conducting user research and user testing to inform concepts and validate designs, and bringing stakeholders on the same journey
• Consider the wider Sainsbury’s Group digital ecosystem when designing concepts and solutions to ensure we’re showing up consistently to customers across channels and platforms 
• Use a range of inputs, including interaction, brand principles, analytics, customer feedback, usability testing, technology and business requirements to develop informed and logical solutions
• Collaborate with design, product and engineering colleagues to ensure our guidelines are understood and followed, reviewing designs and providing feedback as required 
• Champion the adoption of the guidelines and design systems across Sainsbury’s Group 
• Consistently embed inclusive design principles in your work and encourage throughout the team
• Work comfortably in or out of scrum, but consistently proactively collaborate with cross-functional teams, championing best-practice for design thinking in an agile environment
• Inspire, coach and motivate junior members of the design community

What you need to know

• Proven experience working on or with guidelines and design systems – ideally for a big brand and across digital and physical channels 
• Be comfortable with creating guidelines, components and patterns for multiple channels and platforms including websites, apps, kiosks and other digital and non- digital touchpoints
• High level of creativity and problem-solving skills
• Adept at collaborating with and influencing stakeholders through a range of agile methods, including workshops – championing the voice of the customer whilst balancing business objectives
• Utilise a broad range of UX tools and techniques with portfolio evidence of these deliverables
• A thorough technical understanding of inclusive design frameworks
• Expert skills with Figma, Adobe and rapid prototyping tools
• Knowledge of best practices and emerging digital technologies and trends
• Experience in user-centred design and usability best practices
• Methods and practices of usability research and confidence in conducting research and interpreting results

What you need to show

• A portfolio showcasing your experience in guidelines or design systems – ideally for a big brand 
• A passion for user-centred experience design, and how to design inclusively 
• Ability to demonstrate initiative, flexibility, influencing, negotiating, strong communication skills and ability to deal with ambiguity
• Excitement for the opportunity to influence the customer experience across multiple channels
• Proactive collaboration with the Principal Experience Design Manager on design strategy
• Proactive collaboration with project teams, the design community and senior stakeholders alike
• Ability to manage multiple, changing priorities, and work with diverse personalities and complex dynamics

What decisions I can make

• Design decisions that improve the colleagues’ and customer’s user experience

Resources available to me

• The wider Customer Experience Design team, Principal Experience Design Manager, Designers, Accessibility, Research and Copywriting experts
• Engineers, Product Managers, Agile coaches 
• All resources within Sainsbury’s, including subject matter experts