Design Manager (Group Level) - Multiverse

We’re on a mission to provide equitable access to economic opportunity, for everyone.

We close critical skill gaps in the workforce through a new kind of apprenticeship that combines work and learning. We begin by recognizing high-potential individuals both inside and outside of a company's current workforce and then we create applied, guided and equitable learning programs, with measurable impact. Because we believe the world needs a better way to match its potential.

We work with over 1,500 leading companies including the likes of Microsoft, Citi and Just Eat to help solve their business-critical problems, and we’ve trained over 16,000 professional apprentices in the tech and data skills of the future. This is made possible by our global team who are driven to achieve a mission that matters, together.

Join Multiverse and help us set a new course for work.

Why This Role Exists

At Multiverse, we’re building a product-led business that transforms the workplace through high-quality apprenticeships, giving people from all backgrounds access to world-class careers.

Our UX team designs intuitive, inclusive, insight-driven experiences that drive real outcomes — with velocity, learning, and craft excellence at the core.

We’re seeking a strategic, hands-on Design Manager to elevate UX quality and effectiveness across a pivotal product group: Product Fundamentals. You'll help deliver against our “Cost to Serve” OKR, building smarter systems that reduce operational effort without compromising user experience.

What You'll Do

Shape UX vision and priorities across your group
Align 3–4 cross-functional squads around user-centred goals, driving quality, efficiency, and measurable impact.

Be a hands-on leader (Player-Coach)
As a Player, you'll spend around 40% of your time actively contributing to strategic discovery, vision prototyping, and unblocking squad work.
As a Coach, you'll spend around 60% of your time developing your team — growing skillsets, managing performance, and raising the UX quality bar.
You'll lead from both the pitch and the sidelines, flexing your hands-on involvement based on team needs and maturity.

Champion quality and growth
Embed critique culture, QA standards, and operational UX excellence across your squads.

Drive scalable, cost-efficient systems
Design smart solutions that reduce internal effort and increase user satisfaction.

Collaborate across disciplines
Work closely with Research, Data, Product, and Engineering partners.

Embed Growth Design practices
Help your team prioritise experiments, optimisation, and measurable improvements.

Evolve our design operations
Shape planning rituals and workflows that support fast, sustainable delivery.

Hire, lead, and develop your team
Manage 2–5 product designers, building a culture of high performance and creativity.

Your Impact

You'll be measured by your ability to:

• Build a high-performing, aligned design team.
  

• Raise the quality bar through coaching, standards, and clear UX vision.
  

• Drive a scalable, impactful UX strategy that supports business goals.

About You

• Proven experience leading design teams and scaling quality in fast-paced environments.
  

• Strong UX craft and systems thinking, with a portfolio showing real-world impact.
  

• Skilled at balancing strategic leadership and hands-on contribution.
  

• Collaborative by nature — building strong partnerships across Product, Engineering, and Data.
  

• Comfortable embedding Growth Design principles and experimentation mindsets.
  

• A strong coach who grows designers’ craft, confidence, and impact.
  

• Fluent in Figma and fast at using prototyping for communication and alignment.
  

• Embodying Multiverse values, especially "Development is at our core."
  

Bonus Points

While not required, you might stand out even more if you:

• Show proof of curiosity through side projects — experimenting with things like 'vibe coding', new AI tools, or self-driven UX challenges.
  

• Bring multidimensional experience across complementary areas like coding, copywriting, motion design, video editing, or growth marketing.
  

• Can obsess over specific problems, going deep to truly understand the nuances of a user need or system challenge.
  

Who You’ll Be Joining

You’ll join a thoughtful, ambitious team of designers and researchers shaping Multiverse’s product evolution.

• Designers work as true partners with PMs and Engineers.
  

• Strong foundations exist: Product First Principles, Design QA, Critique Culture, and a Design System — with varied adoption across squads.
  

• Based on the Nielsen Norman UX Maturity Model, we’re currently at Stage 4: Structured — systematic, but variably effective.
  

• We're evolving toward a more craft-driven, scalable UX culture, and you’ll play a key role in raising maturity and consistency.

Growth Design at Multiverse

Growth Design at Multiverse is where UX craft meets performance mindset — using data-informed, hypothesis-driven design to unlock improvements across the full user journey.

What defines a Growth Designer isn’t where they work in the funnel — but how they work.

Key traits:

• Fast, iterative cycles with tight feedback loops
  

• Clear hypotheses, A/B testing, and KPI-driven thinking
  

• Obsession with retention, activation, and conversion improvements
  

• Comfort challenging assumptions—even "best practices"
  

Curious?

• Growthmates: The Growth Design Playbook
  

• Growth.Design: What is Growth Design?

Ready to shape the future of learning? Apply today.

How we hire

• Benefits

  • Time off - 27 days holiday, plus 5 additional days off: 1 life event day, 2 volunteer days and 2 company-wide summer shut-down days and 8 bank holidays per year

  • No-cost and low-cost health and wellbeing options, including medical insurance, medical cashback, Gympass and online mental health resources

  • Access to cost-saving schemes that include our Cyclescheme, Techscheme & Workplace Nursery Scheme

  • Security for the future with life insurance through AIG and access to our pension scheme. We now offer two pension schemes: net pay arrangement and salary sacrifice. For our salary sacrifice scheme, you would contribute a 5% employee contribution and we would contribute a 4% employer contribution, on all base pay.

  • Perks: quarterly team socials and winter parties, hybrid working, work from abroad scheme, and more!

Our commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We’re an equal opportunities employer. And proud of it. Every applicant and employee is afforded the same opportunities regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. This will never change. Read our Equality, Diversity & Inclusion policy here.