Senior Design Researcher (Community of Practice Lead)

JOB TITLE: Senior Design Researcher (Community of Practice Lead)

SALARY: The salary banding is £76,194 - £89,640

LOCATION: Manchester, Bristol, Leeds, Halifax or Edinburgh

HOURS: 35 hours, full time

WORKING PATTERN: Our work style is hybrid, which involves spending at least two days per week, or 40% of our time, at one of our office sites.

About this opportunity

Step into a career-defining opportunity as a Community of Practice Lead, where you’ll be at the forefront of shaping the future of design at LBG. In partnership with Design Leadership, you’ll be a catalyst for transformation—reimagining how we collaborate, innovate, and deliver impact at scale.

Embedded within the Design Delivery Practice, you’ll ignite and nurture a vibrant community of designers across your craft. You’ll set new standards for excellence, ensuring our teams are not just ready for the future, but actively creating it. You’ll champion the integration of Experience Design with Product, Engineering, and the wider Brands, Marketing & Experience (BMX) team, as well as forging connections with leading external design and tech communities.

This is a visionary, future focussed role — your chance to leave a lasting legacy on the evolution of design at LBG. You’ll have the autonomy and support to build, grow, and define what world-class design looks like, inspiring and empowering designers to reach new heights of creativity and impact.

Our Community of Practice Lead roles are rotational, designed to ensure fresh leadership and expertise for the community on an ongoing basis. We’ll support you to continue your journey in the business as a permanent Senior Design Researcher after 1-2 years.

What will I be doing?

Building Capability

• Setting the pace for the industry by sourcing, piloting, and embedding groundbreaking Design Research trends, tools, and frameworks.

• Acting as a inspiring leader and mentor, you’ll energise and elevate Design Researchers—cultivating a culture of continuous learning, experimentation, and bold thinking.

• Orchestrating events and showcases that spark creativity, foster collaboration, and unite Design Researchers behind a shared mission.

• Designing and delivering learning experiences that accelerate both technical mastery and leadership growth, opening new pathways for career progression.

Driving Impact & Shaping the Future

• Partnering with the Head of Design Delivery Practice and Senior Leadership to map our maturity journey and unlock new opportunities for growth across capability, culture, and craft.

• Representing your field at the highest levels, influencing strategy and championing the voice of design at the Experience Design Leadership Team (DLT) and beyond.

• Accelerating agility and excellence by delivering next-generation tools, frameworks, and processes that amplify our impact and set benchmarks for the industry.

• Collaborating with Design Leadership to reinvent how we onboard, engage, and develop Design Research talent—ensuring every Design researcher is inspired, supported, and aligned to our future vision.

Why Lloyds Banking Group

We’re on an exciting journey and there couldn’t be a better time to join us. The investments we’re making in our people, data, and technology are leading to innovative projects, fresh possibilities, and countless new ways for our people to work, learn, and thrive.

What you’ll need

• Visionary, with a deep passion for Design Research and Experience Design and a drive to push boundaries.

• Inspiring, with the ability to rally teams and partners around ambitious goals.

• Agile, comfortable navigating between strategic vision and hands-on delivery.

• Collaborative, building agreement and momentum for new ideas and ways of working.

• Data-driven, able to measure and communicate the value of our communities of practice.

• Trusted, able to foster openness, challenge constructively, and champion a culture of inclusion and growth.

• Proactive, organised, and energised by solving complex challenges at pace.

• Exceptional communicator, able to share ideas and successes in compelling, engaging ways.

Our focus is to ensure we're inclusive every day, building an organisation that reflects modern society and celebrates diversity in all its forms.

We want our people to feel that they belong and can be their best, regardless of background, identity or culture.

We were one of the first major organisations to set goals on diversity in senior roles, create a menopause health package, and a dedicated Working with Cancer initiative.

And it’s why we especially welcome applications from underrepresented groups.

We’re disability confident. So if you’d like reasonable adjustments to be made to our recruitment processes, just let us know

We also offer a wide ranging benefits package, which includes:

• A generous pension contribution of up to 15%

• An annual performance related bonus

• Share schemes including free shares

• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping

• 30 days’ holiday, with bank holidays on top

• A range of wellbeing initiatives and generous parental leave policies

Want to do amazing work, that’s interesting and makes a difference to millions of people? Join our journey.