Lead, UX Designer

Reports to:  Product Officer, English Language Learning

Part of:  Product Leadership Team

Scope:  Global UX organisation, 3-4 teams 

Location:  Hybrid , 2 days per week in the Madrid office

The Lead, UX Designer is a senior leadership role accountable for the user experience of Pearson's English Language Learning (ELL) products globally. The role leads the ELL UX organisation, setting design direction across the portfolio of digital learner and teacher experiences and ensuring that customer insight, design craft, and operational excellence translate into measurable outcomes for the ELL business.

The role sits within the ELL Product organisation, reports to the Product Officer, English Language Learning, and is a member of the ELL Product Leadership Team. It partners closely with Product Management, Engineering, Content, Marketing, Sales, and Pearson's central design community to ensure design strategy and execution are aligned to ELL priorities and the wider Pearson design system.

The role leads a global UX organisation of approximately 15–20 colleagues, including design managers and individual contributors, across Product UX for assessment, learner and teacher digital experiences; service and content design; user research; and design systems and UX operations.

Design Leadership & Direction

• Set the UX direction for ELL, translating product strategy into design strategy and clear team-level execution priorities.

• Drive customer experience outcomes across multiple squads, journeys, and surfaces so that learners and teachers experience ELL as one connected system.

• Own product-area UX quality, consistency, and cohesion; raise UX maturity across teams so quality is stable and not dependent on individuals.

• Role-model holistic ecosystem mapping and service-design thinking when shaping multi-product, multi-touchpoint experiences.

Customer Insight & Design Strategy

• Lead user research and customer-discovery practice across ELL, ensuring deep, repeatable insight into learner and teacher needs informs product decisions.

• Define design strategies and value propositions grounded in research, behavioural data, and pedagogy.

• Partner with regional and segment leaders to localise experiences for institutional, enterprise, and consumer learners while protecting global coherence.

Design Systems, Craft & Operations

• Own ELL's design system and UX operations, scaling frictionless delivery of interaction, usability, and accessibility patterns across teams.

• Create and maintain a UX playbook covering best-in-class workflows, UX/AI design, and content strategy.

• Operationalise scalable, rule-based product design systems that raise the floor of craft and accelerate delivery.

Cross-Functional Partnership & Operating Model

• Operate as a peer to Product, Engineering, and Program leaders; act as a strategic product and thought partner to the ELL Product Leadership Team.

• Build product-area roadmap alignment with cross-functional leadership and use clear RACI, escalation, and decision-making frameworks so teams align without constant escalation.

• Coach cross-functional teams on prioritisation, tradeoffs, and decisions, balancing time-boxed delivery pressure with long-term experience quality.

Leadership & Team Development

• Lead, coach, and develop a high-performing global team of design managers and senior ICs; scale impact through leaders rather than direct execution.

• Own team hiring, calibration, learning and development, and succession planning for the ELL UX organisation.

• Foster collaboration, inclusion, and accountability across geographies and disciplines, and contribute actively to Pearson's design and leadership communities.

• Consistent, measurable UX quality across ELL's product area, with clear evidence of cross-team design coherence.

• Customer outcomes — engagement, satisfaction, learning effectiveness, accessibility — improving as a result of design strategy and craft, not isolated effort.

• Predictable design delivery: managers and senior ICs make strong decisions without escalation, and tradeoffs are clear and intentional.

• A mature, well-adopted ELL design system and research practice that reduce duplication and accelerate teams.

• Team capability growth, engagement, and retention; a strong leadership bench across managers and senior ICs.

• 12+ years' experience in UX, product design, or design leadership, including 5+ years leading multi-team design organisations or managing managers.

• Proven success setting design direction across complex, multi-product portfolios and shipping experiences at scale.

• Track record of building and operating mature design systems, research practices, and UX operating models.

• Experience partnering with senior Product and Engineering leaders in matrixed, global organisations.

• Familiarity with English language learning, EdTech, or adjacent education markets strongly preferred.

• Essential — Bachelor's degree in Design, Human-Computer Interaction, Cognitive Science, or a related discipline (or equivalent professional experience).

• Preferred — Master's degree in Design, HCI, UX, or a related discipline.

Pearson Power Skills

• Adaptability (Effective); Artificial Intelligence (Intermediate); Learning to Learn (Effective).

Core Job Family Skills

• Customer Discovery (Experienced); Data Analysis (Effective); Design Thinking (Intermediate); Product Development (Intermediate); Storytelling (Effective); Strategic Thinking (Experienced); Technology Roadmap (Experienced).

Role-Based Skills — Today

• Design Leadership (Experienced); Design Strategies (Experienced); Product Design (Experienced); User Experience Design (UX) (Experienced); Wireframing (Experienced).

Role-Based Skills — Future / Emerging

• Applications of Artificial Intelligence (Intermediate); Artificial Intelligence (Intermediate); Business Acumen (Intermediate); Prompt Engineering (Capable).

• Customer-obsessed and insight-driven; keeps learners and teachers at the centre of design decisions.

• Strategic thinker who connects portfolio vision to team-level execution.

• Player-coach and leader of leaders; scales impact through people, systems, and craft.

• Inclusive, empowering communicator who creates clarity in ambiguity.

• Committed to delivering measurable impact for learners, customers, and Pearson.

• Puts customer needs at the centre of all design decisions, removing obstacles and championing experiences that exceed expectations.

• Works across Product, Engineering, Content, and Marketing to align around shared outcomes, breaking down silos to maximise value for customers and Pearson.

• Sets and upholds high standards of craft, quality, and pace, encouraging continuous learning and measurable improvement across the UX organisation.

• Leads with clarity, energy, and integrity. Motivates teams through purpose and accountability, and role-models the behaviours expected across Pearson.

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