Design Leadership Jobs in United Kingdom
Find your next Design Leadership role at companies that value creative talent
Showing 142 jobs
Primary Design Manager
🇬🇧 Stafford, Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom
Ge Vernova 🇬🇧 Stafford, Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom
Lead and deliver primary plant designs for HV/EHV substation projects while ensuring compliance with regulatory and customer standards. Coordinate with global engineering teams and stakeholders to manage project milestones and technical requirements.
Design Manager
🇬🇧 West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
Ersg Careers 🇬🇧 West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
Lead and coordinate the design of water and wastewater infrastructure projects from outline design through detailed design, construction, and commissioning, while managing an in-house design team and ensuring quality, safety, and environmental compliance. Coordinate multidisciplinary inputs, project schedules and commercial matters, maintain client and stakeholder relationships, and provide technical guidance and development support to team members.
Design Manager
🇬🇧 West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
Ersg Careers 🇬🇧 West Yorkshire, England, United Kingdom
Lead and coordinate the design of water and wastewater infrastructure and non-infrastructure projects from outline design through construction and commissioning, managing an in-house design team and ensuring quality, safety, and standards compliance. Coordinate multidisciplinary inputs, project schedules and commercial matters, maintain client and stakeholder relationships, and provide technical guidance and professional development support to team members.
Head of Design
Remote (🇬🇧 United Kingdom)
Aru Labs Remote (🇬🇧 United Kingdom)
The Head of Design will lead the overall design direction, visual identity, and design systems across all brand touchpoints. They will manage the design function, collaborate with cross-functional teams, and oversee the quality of creative output for campaigns and product launches.
Design Manager
🇬🇧 Bedford, MK40 1SU, United Kingdom
Tiptopjob 🇬🇧 Bedford, MK40 1SU, United Kingdom
Manage the mechanical design function and lead a team of five engineers, splitting time between team leadership and hands-on design engineering. Deliver designs for new machines, upgrades, and spare parts to agreed timelines and KPIs, prepare drawings and parts documentation, and coordinate with electrical design, software and controls, and manufacturing teams.
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Schedule Design Manager
🇬🇧 Luton, LU1 2YN, United Kingdom
Easyjet 🇬🇧 Luton, LU1 2YN, United Kingdom
Lead the end-to-end design and development of easyJet’s future schedules, balancing long-term commercial value, strategic priorities, and operational resilience. Manage planning scenarios and milestones, guide analysts and planners, and establish governance and improved methods to support clear, evidence-led decisions and controlled handovers.
Head of Design
🇬🇧 City of London, London, United Kingdom
Entain 🇬🇧 City of London, London, United Kingdom
Set the creative vision and act as brand guardian for global design outputs, while leading and inspiring a multidisciplinary team delivering integrated campaigns across UK brands. Champion AI adoption, develop strategically grounded design concepts, partner with stakeholders to improve creative impact, and establish processes that scale design delivery.
Design Manager
🇬🇧 Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom
Anglian Water's @one Alliance 🇬🇧 Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, England, United Kingdom
Lead design delivery for a portfolio of water recycling and wastewater projects, managing multidisciplinary engineering teams and project plans covering scope, programme, cost, risk, and resources. Collaborate with alliance partners and suppliers to deliver safe, affordable, innovative, low-carbon designs while promoting digital engineering, standardisation, and team development.
Design Manager - Water Sector
🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Stantec 🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Lead multidisciplinary teams in delivering water-sector projects from concept through detailed design, including clean water, wastewater, flood risk, and urban drainage work. Plan and oversee technical delivery across major projects, collaborate with clients and project managers, and ensure value and service excellence.
Design Manager - Water Sector
🇬🇧 Warrington, England, United Kingdom
Stantec 🇬🇧 Warrington, England, United Kingdom
Lead multidisciplinary teams in planning and delivering major water-sector projects, from concept through detailed design, including design-and-build and owner's engineer services. Act as the technical lead alongside the Project Manager, coordinating clients and internal and external specialists to deliver high-quality, cost-effective outcomes.
Schedule Design Manager
🇬🇧 City of London, London, United Kingdom
Easyjet 🇬🇧 City of London, London, United Kingdom
Lead the end-to-end design and development of airline schedules, balancing long-term commercial value, strategic priorities, and operational resilience. Manage planning scenarios and milestones, guide analysts and planners, and establish governance and improved methods for evidence-based decisions and controlled handovers.
Design Manager
🇬🇧 Glasgow, Glasgow City, Scotland, United Kingdom
The Resolute Group Ltd 🇬🇧 Glasgow, Glasgow City, Scotland, United Kingdom
Lead and coordinate electrical design for power transmission and distribution projects from ECI and pre-construction through detailed design and delivery. Work with engineering, construction, commercial, client, consultant, and design teams to ensure designs are compliant, coordinated, and buildable.
Design Manager
🇬🇧 Weybridge, Surrey, England, United Kingdom
Strabag 🇬🇧 Weybridge, Surrey, England, United Kingdom
Lead and coordinate design throughout the project lifecycle, managing deliverables, assurance, progress reporting, risks, and interfaces with clients, consultants, subcontractors, and internal teams. Support tender and project delivery through safe, practical, economical designs, quality checks, process improvements, staff development, and compliance with company procedures and applicable standards.
Senior Design Manager
🇬🇧 Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom
Strabag 🇬🇧 Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom
Lead and manage the design process from pre-construction through project completion, ensuring safe, compliant, buildable, sustainable, and commercially effective solutions. Coordinate design teams and stakeholders, maintain design registers and assurance processes, monitor progress, manage risks, and support tendering and project delivery.
Design Manager – Energy & Water Resources
🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Arup 🇬🇧 Manchester, England, United Kingdom
Lead multidisciplinary teams and oversee design delivery, technical assurance, and quality standards for energy, water, and resources projects, particularly in the nuclear sector. Develop client and stakeholder relationships, mentor colleagues, and support business development through bids, technical proposals, and client engagement.
About Design Leadership careers
Design leaders in 2026 set the strategic vision for design organizations navigating an AI-saturated market. This role requires a balance of craft expertise and high-level business acumen to advocate for design's value at the executive level.
Effective leaders foster a culture of technical agency, establishing systems that allow human creativity and machine efficiency to coexist.
Companies like Stripe and Airbnb seek VPs and Directors of Design who can scale teams and align design strategy with long-term business objectives.
We feature senior leadership positions including Design Directors, Heads of Design, VP of Design, Chief Design Officers, and design team leads at companies like Meta, Google, Airbnb, Stripe, and fast-growing AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. These roles span product design, brand, and cross-functional design organizations.
Many companies offer remote design leadership roles, including distributed-first companies like Notion, Linear, GitLab, and Vercel. AI companies like Midjourney and Anthropic also hire remote design leaders. Some companies prefer hybrid arrangements for VP+ positions.
Most positions require 8–15+ years of design experience with 3–5+ years managing teams. Strong candidates demonstrate strategic thinking, team building, stakeholder management, and a track record of shipping successful products at companies like Figma, Spotify, Netflix, or emerging AI startups. Browse leadership portfolios to see how experienced designers showcase their impact.
Design leadership salaries are highly competitive: Design Directors earn $160k–$240k, VPs of Design $220k–$350k+, and CDOs at major companies can exceed $400k with significant equity packages. AI companies like OpenAI, Anthropic, and Databricks often offer premium total compensation. Consult our salary guide for detailed breakdowns.