Director - Experience Design & Strategy

MAKE STRATEGY A REALITY | ACCELERATE YOUR GROWTH | CHOOSE YOUR PATH

Do you have the credibility, curiosity and commercial edge to build a new experience capability inside the world’s leading change and transformation consultancy? Are you ready to shape how the UK’s biggest brands design customer experience, from strategy through to delivery? If so, join us. 

North Highland is the world’s leading change and transformation consultancy. We make change happen like no one else. As a result of strong business performance, we’re launching a new UK Experience practice, and we’re recruiting a Director to build it: owning customer experience design and strategy and service design as a distinct, commercially significant capability, working closely with our Senior Managing Director for Experience.

SUMMARY

You play a key role in defining what North Highland’s experience proposition looks like in the UK, for whom, and how it connects to our wider transformation change portfolio. You will bring the market relationships and credibility to open doors with senior clients, and the discipline to position customer experience and service design as a genuine business issue with board-level stakes. 

You will work across FTSE 100 and major public sector clients, applying service design and experience strategy methods, including journey mapping, service blueprinting, operating model design and business case development, to help clients close the gap between the experience they promise and the one their customers actually get. You will work closely with colleagues across our Change, Tech & Data and Strategy practices, so your recommendations land as integrated, technically credible solutions clients can actually implement.  

We take pride in helping our clients close the gap between the experience they promise and the one customers actually get. We’re looking for someone with that same conviction, plus the ambition to build a team and a reputation around it. 

YOU WILL:

• Lead executive-level client relationships across FTSE 100 and major public sector organisations, positioning customer experience and service design as the discipline that connects brand promise to business outcomes. 

• Hands on leadership of end-to-end service design and experience strategy engagements: diagnosing client maturity, mapping journeys and blueprints, designing future-state operating models, and building the business case that justifies the investment before it starts and the metrics that prove it worked afterwards. 

• Actively hunt for new work: identify opportunities with new and existing clients, shape and lead proposals, and pitch to senior buyers to build a credible pipeline for the practice from day one. 

• Play a key role in shaping, growing and leading North Highland’s UK Experience practice, building and grow a team around you. Recruit, mentor and develop consultants and designers, and establish the bench strength the practice needs as it scales. 

• Partner with colleagues across our Change, Tech & Data and Strategy practices, so experience recommendations are technically sound and organisationally deliverable. 

• Contribute to thought leadership, methodologies and a market-facing point of view that establishes North Highland’s Experience practice as a credible, design-led growth partner in the UK. 

• Executive presence: able to facilitate senior stakeholder workshops, present to C-suite audiences, and hold their own in commercial and contracting conversations. 

IDEALLY, WE'D LIKE:

• 10+ years’ experience in customer experience, service design or experience strategy, including a demonstrated track record at a consultancy, digital agency or professional services firm. 

• A track record of leading large, complex, multi-workstream engagements and building executive-level client relationships, across any industry. 

• Deep fluency in service design and CX methods: end-to-end journey mapping, service blueprinting, ecosystem mapping, operating model design, and concept prototyping and validation. 

• Evidence of building the business case that connects design and experience investment to revenue, retention, cost or adoption outcomes, and of defining the metrics that track those outcomes after launch. 

• A strong record of business development: crafting proposals, pitching to senior buyers, and establishing credibility with C-suite clients to build consensus and win work. 

• Experience building, leading and developing a team in a design-led, customer-focused way, including growing capability from an early stage. 

• The market relationships and reputation to open doors and represent North Highland’s Experience practice externally from day one. 

• A curious, client-obsessed approach: someone who digs into a client’s business to find the opportunity others miss, rather than waiting to be asked. 

Nice to have: 

• Client-side or industry experience in a customer experience, service design or experience leadership role, in addition to consulting. 

• P&L or practice growth experience: building a team or capability from an early stage within a consulting or professional services environment. 

• Specific industry depth in retail, energy and utilities, public sector or life sciences. 

• External accreditation or recognition from a recognised professional body, for example the Service Design Network. 

• Published thought leadership or public speaking on customer experience, service design or AI-enabled experience. 

• Experience applying AI and data to elevate customer experience, working alongside data and engineering colleagues. 

Total Rewards associated with this position include a comprehensive benefits package designed to support your well-being and financial security. Unique perks include flexible time off, a private medical plan, a health cash plan, a workplace savings scheme (including ISAs and GIAs), and enhanced parental leave.

Applicants must be authorized to work in the United Kingdom, without the need for visa sponsorship by North Highland. Work visa sponsorship will not be provided, either now or in the future, for this position.

North Highland is an equal opportunity employer, and we adhere to all applicable laws and regulations to ensure a fair and equitable workplace. All qualified applicants will receive fair and impartial consideration without regard to race, color, sex, gender identity, religion, national origin, age, sexual orientation, disability, veteran status, or any other characteristic protected by law. We handle all information in accordance local privacy standards and maintain strict confidentiality.