Principal Product Designer - 24 Month FTC (we have office locations in Cambridge, Leeds and London)

We are looking for a Principal Product Designer to join Genomics England on a 24-month fixed-term contract, supporting the delivery of our Adult Population Genomics Programme. This exciting initiative will sequence the genomes of 150,000 adults to explore how genomics can support optimised prescribing, improve early disease detection and enable more personalised interventions.

As Principal Product Designer, you will play an important role in leading design across a group of products, working with others to solve complex product challenges and help de-risk delivery through effective discovery.

You will help shape product strategy and create effective, safe and standards-compliant user experiences that meet user needs and align with Government Service Standard and regulatory best practice. This is an opportunity to bring strategic design leadership to a high-impact programme with the potential to improve outcomes for patients and the wider healthcare system.

Everyday responsibilities include:

• Solve complex design problems using a thoughtful, systematic and principled approach.
• Lead design strategy and delivery across a group of products, coordinating and supporting the work of other designers.
• Co-create the experience vision and strategy with product teams, working closely with Product Managers and squads to shape future experiences through user-centred, data-informed approaches.
• Support D&R colleagues within their area, helping to build cohesion, connection and shared understanding.
• Identify opportunity areas to explore, drawing on strong contextual knowledge of the product domain.
• Engage subject matter experts and decision makers effectively throughout the design process.
• Identify gaps in the team’s understanding of users and user needs.
• Recommend, advocate for and participate in design research.
• Raise awareness and visibility of design and research work, and help colleagues build confidence and capability where needed.
• Facilitate decision making and co-creation across multiple teams, including internal and external stakeholders, using appropriate methods.
• Build a joined-up understanding of key user and feasibility risks related to product design, working with others to reduce those risks through design.
• Understand and guide others to work within the regulatory frameworks that govern the products they are responsible for.
• Steer design delivery in line with product, service and company OKRs.
• Maintain a high standard of design quality and consistency across squads.
• Take responsibility for the quality, consistency and compliance of design components, encouraging shared use across products.
• Lead by example by sharing work openly, seeking feedback and sharing learning with colleagues.

Skills & experience for success:

• Experience designing in the public sector, ideally within a healthcare or science-related domain.
• Strong product design experience, with a track record of creating impactful, high-quality product experiences using a range of methods and approaches to strengthen design delivery.
• Experience solving complex design problems, conducting effective product discoveries and supporting strategic alignment on product direction.
• Ability to lead product design strategy and delivery across a group of products, coordinating the work of designers to achieve cohesive, consistent and user-centred outcomes.
• Experience supporting product designers with their growth and development, helping them build domain knowledge and navigate complex design challenges.
• Experience partnering with multidisciplinary teams, including engineering, data, product, research and subject matter experts, to co-create impactful experiences and shape a clear design vision.
• Comfortable engaging senior stakeholders and decision-makers throughout the design process, building influence through evidence-based recommendations and decisions.
• Skilled in balancing qualitative and quantitative insights to support hypothesis-led, evidence-based design approaches.
• Experience designing in agile delivery environments, responding to change and helping teams adapt to evolving requirements, priorities and user needs.
• Ability to understand and mitigate risk through design within a product area, ensuring alignment with relevant regulatory frameworks.

Desirable skills:

• Experience designing to the Government Digital Service Standard.
• Experience working within highly regulated, risk-sensitive contexts.
• Experience with design systems, building repeatability and scalability into design workflows and supporting more efficient ways of working.
• Experience building and navigating relationships to support collaboration and adoption of best practice.
• Understanding of engineering constraints and feasibility considerations, with experience working collaboratively with technical colleagues.
• Experience balancing tactical delivery with longer-term product strategy to support scalable and sustainable solutions.
• Awareness and sensitivity to ethical, compliance and regulatory considerations when designing and delivering products that use sensitive data.

Salary from: £71,800

Closing date for applications - Thursday 1st October at midnight

Being an integral part of such a meaningful mission is extremely rewarding in itself, but in order to support our people, we’re continually improving our benefits package. We pride ourselves on investing in our people and supporting them to achieve their career goals, as well as offering a benefits package including:

• Generous Leave: 30 days’ holiday plus bank holidays, additional leave for long service, and the option to apply for up to 30 days of remote working abroad annually (approval required).
• Family-Friendly: Blended working arrangements, flexible working, enhanced maternity, paternity and shared parental leave benefits.
• Pension & Financial: Defined contribution pension (Genomics England double-matches up to 10%, however you can contribute more if you wish), Life Assurance (3x salary), an Electric Vehicle salary sacrifice scheme and a Give As You Earn scheme.
• Learning & Development: Individual learning budgets, support for training and certifications, and reimbursement for one annual professional subscription (approval required).
• Recognition & Rewards: Employee recognition programme and referral scheme.
• Health & Wellbeing: Subsidised gym membership, a free Headspace account, and access to an Employee Assistance Programme, eye tests, flu jabs.

Equal opportunities and our commitment to a diverse and inclusive workplace

Genomics England is actively committed to providing and supporting an inclusive environment that promotes equity, diversity and inclusion best practice both within our community and in any other area where we have influence. We are proud of our diverse community where everyone can come to work and feel welcomed and treated with respect regardless of any disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, religion, sexual orientation, or social background.

Genomics England’s policies of non-discrimination and equity and will be applied fairly to all people, regardless of age, disability, gender identity or reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, being pregnant or recently becoming a parent, race, religion or beliefs, sex or sexual orientation, length of service, whether full or part-time or employed under a permanent or a fixed-term contract or any other relevant factor.

Genomics England does not tolerate any form of discrimination, harassment, victimisation or bullying at work. Such behaviour undermines our mission and core values and diminishes the dignity, respect and integrity of all parties. Our People policies outline our commitment to inclusivity.

We aim to remove barriers in our recruitment processes and to be flexible with our interview processes. Should you require any adjustments that may help you to fully participate in the recruitment process, we encourage you to discuss this with us.

Culture

We have four key behaviours that represent what we would like Genomics England to feel like and the culture we want to encourage, in order for us to achieve our mission. These behaviours help us all work well together, deliver on our outcomes, celebrate our successes and share feedback with each other. You can read about these and other aspects of our culture here Culture | Genomics England

Blended working model

Genomics England operates a blended working model as we know our people appreciate the flexibility that hybrid working can bring. We expect most people to come into the office a minimum of 2 times each month. However, this will vary according to role and will be agreed with your team leader. There is no expectation that people will return to the office full time unless they want to, however, some of our roles require full time on site attendance e.g., lab teams, reception team.

Our teams and squads have, and will continue to reflect on what works best for them to work together successfully and have the freedom to design working patterns to suit, beyond the minimum. Our office locations are: Canary Wharf, Cambridge and Leeds.

Onboarding background checks

As part of our recruitment process, all successful candidates are subject to a Standard Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check. We therefore require applicants to disclose any previous offences at point of application, as some unspent convictions may mean we are unable to proceed with your application due to the nature of our work in healthcare.