About the Role
The Lead Experience Designer is the craft lead of the Experience Design practice, responsible for translating experience strategy into tested design work across physical, digital, and phygital touchpoints. Reporting to the Head of Experience Design, the Lead Experience Designer transforms the vision for brands' differentiating experiences into detailed journey maps, service blueprints, and prototypes that can be executed by teams across the business, all with a keen focus on relevant customer and stakeholder personas.
Ready to apply for roles like this?
Unlock the company name and direct application link. Subscribers get instant access to fresh jobs across Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Riyadh, many with visa support.
Unlock employer & apply directly
This role involves building and maintaining a detailed evidence base that reflects customer intelligence, Voice of Customer (VoC), and journey insight into tangible, testable design work throughout each phase of the end-to-end customer journeys.
As the primary design partner on clienteling platforms and other key experience initiatives, the Lead Experience Designer shapes member-facing journeys and tools for front-liners and sales associates, ensuring these designs are grounded in real customer and store needs. The role focuses predominantly on CX Design and Service Design, while also encompassing UX design, UI, and prototyping.
Responsibilities
Strategic Roles and Responsibilities
- Contribute design craft expertise to the Head of Experience Design's roadmap, ensuring strategic priorities are translated into detailed, actionable design work.
- Help define and maintain design methodology, standards, and documentation as the Experience Design practice scales.
- Translate world-class brand DNA and strategies into inspiring and differentiating experiences.
- Bring customer intelligence, trends, and journey insight into the design process, ensuring interventions are grounded in evidence rather than assumption.
- Support the design agenda for reinventing experiential retail formats, including Department Stores, online flagships, and new concepts.
Functional Roles and Responsibilities
- Build detailed customer journey maps and service blueprints per brand, segment, and touchpoint.
- Design and prototype clienteling tools, front-liner/sales associate interfaces, and customer-facing experience concepts, particularly for top brands.
- Collaborate with Customer Intelligence to conduct qualitative research (shop-alongs, staff interviews, mystery shopping input, concept testing) to inform design decisions.
- Employ Design Thinking methodologies in day-to-day project work, onboarding stakeholders to the approach where needed.
- Create signature moments that balance creative differentiation with commercial impact.
- Collaborate with various functions and enablers to ensure designs are co-created, generate strong buy-in, and are implemented as intended.
- Maintain design documentation and playbooks to ensure consistency and reusability across brands.
- Support the Head of Experience Design and Customer Intelligence team in tracking and continuously improving key journeys.
People Management Roles and Responsibilities
- Mentor and provide craft guidance to other designers, interns, or agency resources working on Experience Design projects.
- Collaborate closely with the Head of Experience Design to build out the wider Experience Design team as it grows.
- Act as a design role model to stakeholders beyond the immediate team, fostering design literacy throughout the business.
- Work closely with store teams, customer care, and other front-line teams to ensure designs remain grounded in operational reality.
Qualifications
Education/Certification and Continued Education
- Academic background in Design, Creative, UX/Service Design, or a related field. CCXP or UX-related credentials are a plus.
Years of Experience
- 4-7 years in CX/service design and UX design, ideally in luxury retail, hospitality, or premium omnichannel environments.
Knowledge and Skills
- Strong fluency in journey mapping, service blueprinting, and prototyping tools (Figma or equivalent; bonus for no-code prototyping such as bolt.new).
- Ability to work across physical and digital touchpoints, not limited to screens.
- Comfort in conducting qualitative research and translating findings into design decisions.
- Strong documentation habits, able to produce design artifacts actionable by others.
- Ability to autonomously handle detailed craft while staying aligned with broader strategic direction.
- Comfortable presenting work to senior stakeholders and cross-functional teams.
