Head of Digital Workplace & End User Experience

About the role 

We are looking for an experienced Head of Digital Workplace and End User Experience to join our Infrastructure, Security and Services function within I&T. 

As the Head of Digital Workplace & End User Experience you will own the employee digital experience — from the device in their hands to the collaboration platforms they rely on. This role ensures that DS Smith’s people are empowered with secure, reliable, and intuitive tools that drive productivity, engagement, and satisfaction.  

Success is measured not only through service performance but also through employee sentiment, digital adoption, and overall experience quality.  

Key responsibilities for the Head of Digital Workplace & End User Experience are: 

• Define and lead the Digital Workplace strategy for DS Smith, covering device lifecycle, collaboration tools, and user experience design.  

• Partner with HR, Communications, and Business IT functions to deliver a cohesive, people-centric digital experience.  

• Establish standards for workplace technology, ensuring scalability, security, and cost efficiency.  

• Oversee the full lifecycle of client devices (build, deployment, patching, refresh) across EMEA.  

• Manage collaboration and productivity platforms, including Microsoft 365, Teams, and SharePoint.  

• Drive simplification and standardisation of device and application configurations to enhance user experience and reduce support complexity.  

• Partner with Cybersecurity Operations to safeguard the end-user environment through endpoint protection, MFA, and access controls.  

• Maintain compliance with DS Smith’s IT policies and security standards while ensuring minimal disruption to user productivity.  

• Promote security awareness and good digital hygiene across the workforce.  

• Provide operational ownership of the Service Desk, ensuring responsiveness, resolution quality, and continual improvement of the support experience.  

• Implement proactive support models, knowledge management, and self-service enablement to improve first-contact resolution.  

• Embed experience-based metrics and user feedback loops into service operations.  

• Develop and maintain a digital experience measurement framework that blends SLA/OLA data with user sentiment and satisfaction insights.  

• Use analytics to identify pain points, drive root-cause elimination, and continuously enhance service quality.  

• Partner with HR and Communications to measure employee experience maturity and technology adoption.  

• Lead a distributed team of Digital Workplace, Service Desk, and Collaboration specialists (both internally and external partners).  

• Foster a culture focused on service excellence, innovation, and user empathy.  

• Build strong partnerships with regional IT teams and key service providers to deliver consistent, high-quality support.  

About you 

• Demonstrable leadership of end-user computing and collaboration environments in a large, distributed organisation.  

• Experience managing service desk and end-user support operations at scale, ideally in a hybrid on/offshore model.  

• Proven success delivering modern workplace transformation programmes (e.g., M365 adoption, endpoint modernisation).  

• Strong understanding of user experience measurement and continuous improvement frameworks.  

• Vendor management experience across managed service and software providers.  

• Deep technical understanding of Microsoft 365 ecosystem and endpoint management (Intune, SCCM, autopilot).  

• Familiarity with ITIL, service management frameworks, and experience management (XLA) principles.  

• Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills with a people-first mindset.  

• Strong ability to balance experience quality, security, and operational efficiency.  

About us

We are DS Smith, together with International Paper, we are a global leader in sustainable packaging solutions and other fibre-based products. We believe a better, more sustainable tomorrow is possible with the right people, who challenge and support one another to enact positive change. We employ more than 60,000 colleagues in North America and Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), who are experts in innovation, manufacturing, design, sales, sustainability, supply chain, and much more. Together with our customers, we make the world safer and more productive, one sustainable packaging solution at a time. Become part of a world-leading organisation and do your best work with us!

“To fulfil our purpose of redefining packaging for a changing world, we aim to build a diverse, motivated, and engaged workforce. Our goal is to create a culture of inclusion where everyone is treated fairly, differences are valued, and everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed.

Our people come from diverse backgrounds, bring different perspectives, ideas and experiences to generate unique solutions focused on present and future sustainability challenges. We welcome all candidates to apply, even those not meeting all criteria.”

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