Position: Head of Product Design & Research

Reporting to Director of Product

Contract type: Full Time, Permanent, Hybrid or Remote (every second week)

About the Role:

This is an exciting opportunity to join Cera as our Head of Product Design and Research, where you will have a transformative impact on the way care is experienced and delivered. This is a leadership role where you will shape our design strategy, processes, and team culture, ensuring that design excellence becomes a core part of Cera’s DNA. While the role is hybrid, you will regularly collaborate with stakeholders and teams in our London office.

The Head of Product Design and Research role plays a pivotal role in creating Cera’s solutions for our carers and customers. A key focus of this role is to ensure that Cera’s product experiences are the best that they possibly can be, so that Cera can achieve its goal of providing great care to all of our users whilst improving the experience of everyone involved in care delivery. You will lead an established and experienced Product Design & Research team, working closely with cross-functional teams across product, engineering, and operations. This role requires building a deep knowledge of our business and processes and a passion for user centred design and its application in our technology.

About you:

• Proven Design Leadership: You bring significant experience leading design teams within a fast-growing, product-focused environment. You have experience managing performance, hiring, and nurturing the development of designers across all levels.

• Design Evangelist: You are passionate about improving the maturity of design across the business. You actively promote the value and improve the understanding of design and user centricity.

• Strategic Product Mindset: You excel at strategic thinking and have a strong product mindset. You understand how design impacts the business and are adept at linking design decisions to business outcomes.

• Experience in ResearchOps and DesignOps: You have experience in implementing and evolving research and design processes and systems that optimise workflows, improve quality, and enable teams to work at scale without sacrificing excellence.

• Mentor and Coach: You are passionate about fostering the professional growth of designers and creating an environment where they can thrive. You’ve helped designers achieve their career goals and level up their skills.

• Collaborative & Data-Driven: You thrive in a collaborative, cross-functional environment and use data-driven insights to make informed design decisions. You can balance creative vision with analytical thinking.

• Innovator at Heart: You’re always looking for ways to push the boundaries of what’s possible, stay current with design and technology trends, and drive innovation across products and processes.

Roles and Responsibilities:

• Design Leadership & Strategy: Partner with product leadership to define and execute a strategic vision for product design, ensuring alignment with business goals. Translate business and user needs into a cohesive product design strategy that scales across teams and initiatives.

• Mentorship & Team Development: Provide leadership, coaching, and mentorship to an experienced team of designers, fostering a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement. Help designers define their career paths, identify growth opportunities, and inspire them to do their best work.

• Process Improvement, DesignOps & ResearchOps: Establish and refine design processes, methodologies, and systems to enable efficient, high-quality design delivery at scale. Implement DesignOps and ResearchOps practices that ensure the team is functioning at its highest level while seamlessly integrating design into product development workflows.

• Cross-functional Collaboration: Work closely with product managers, engineers, and operational teams to build user-centred solutions that balance business objectives with user needs. Act as the champion for design within the organisation, driving a product mindset and ensuring the design is a key contributor to strategic decision-making.

• User-Centred Innovation: Conduct research and collaborate on data analysis (both qualitative and quantitative) to uncover insights that inform product decisions. Stay ahead of industry trends and competitor offerings, continuously driving innovation and experimentation in product design.

• Strategic Communication: Communicate the design vision and strategy clearly and persuasively to stakeholders at all levels of the organisation. Present design thinking and outcomes to leadership, ensuring the design team’s work is aligned with the company’s commercial and operational objectives.

Background and Experience:

• Significant experience in leading a design team, preferably at a Director or Head level, in a product-focused environment.
• Demonstrated ability to scale design processes, with experience implementing and optimising DesignOps and ResearchOps practices.
• Comfortable working with ambiguity and adept at creating common understanding and knowledge.
• Strong strategic product design experience, including user research, system thinking, and conceptual design.
• Ability to manage and prioritise a portfolio of design projects, ensuring timely and high-quality delivery.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to articulate design thinking and advocate for design across the organisation.
• A strong product mindset with a focus on driving business value through design innovation.

Life at Cera

We’re committed to creating an inclusive workforce. We believe in a world where you have the freedom to explore and express yourself without judgement, no matter who you are or where you’re from. Where you value yourself and feel proud of who you are. Where individuality is a source of confidence, because difference makes the world a better place.

What we offer

• Flexible working scheme
• Discretionary bonus / long term employee incentives
• Lifeworks discount platform and Employee Assistance Programme
• Training and development for your role and future career development
• Tech equipment provided
• Refer a friend scheme
• Service awards and recognition awards
• Company pension scheme
• 25 days holiday + your birthday off on top of bank holidays too!

Our team is made up of academics, innovators, start-up accelerators and care experts, all connected by a vision to build a better future for care through the combination of best-in-class carers, empowered by technology. Our app proactively tracks and monitors the health of our customers, enabling families and medical professionals to have visibility of changes in health and well being status. Using AI to predict potential health concerns, we’re able to help our customers avoid unnecessary hospital visits, whilst protecting vital NHS resources.

You have the opportunity to join a purpose-driven company at the tipping point of transformation. You’ll play a key part in the evolution of Cera and make a real impact, now and in the future.