Lead Designer

Role Overview We are looking for an experienced design leader to join our team and lead design for high-impact national initiatives. As a Lead Designer, you will lead a team of designers, owning the end-to-end user experience, setting the standard for design quality, and working shoulder-to-shoulder with a skilled team of engineers, business analysts, and operations stakeholders to deliver services in the Singapore public space. Role and Responsibilities Design Leadership & Delivery • Own the end-to-end design of your engagement, from discovery through to delivery, and set the direction and quality bar for the work. • Establish and uphold design standards, run critiques and design reviews, and ensure consistency across the product. • Mentor and support designers on the engagement and contribute to Ufinity Design Team standards, knowledge-sharing, and capability-building. Discovery & User Research • Plan and lead research - interviews, surveys, usability testing, and stakeholder consultations - and synthesize findings into clear, actionable insights. • Facilitate discovery workshops with business users and stakeholders to map current-state workflows, identify pain points, and define the design scope. • Translate findings into personas, user journey maps, service blueprints, and design recommendations that inform product strategy and prioritization. Concept Development, Prototyping & Testing • Turn user insights and stakeholder requirements into wireframes, mock-ups, and high-fidelity interactive prototypes in Figma for user testing, stakeholder presentations, and development handover. • Develop design iterations and alternatives for stakeholder review, clearly articulating the rationale, trade-offs, and recommendations for each. • Drive continuous refinement based on user feedback, technical constraints, and evolving needs, simplifying complex systems to enhance usability. Design Systems & Technical Collaboration • Own and govern the design system on your project - its evolution, cross-channel consistency, and lifecycle - not only its initial creation. • Develop detailed UI specifications, interaction patterns, and visual design standards to support development teams during implementation. • Collaborate closely with engineers across the delivery lifecycle, from initial concepts to final delivery, to ensure accurate and feasible implementation. Stakeholder Management & Advisory • Act as the senior design point of contact with client stakeholders - product owners, agency leads, business analysts, and technical leads. • Influence design direction beyond your immediate remit; navigate ambiguity and competing priorities and manage escalations and sensitive conversations with discretion. • Present concepts, prototypes, and research findings to senior stakeholders in clear, compelling, and persuasive formats, aligning differing viewpoints toward a shared direction. • Translate business and policy context into a clear design direction and scope. AI & Modern Practice • Apply AI tools and workflows across the design process - accelerating research, exploration, and delivery - with sound judgment on where they add value and where they don't. • Run structured experiments and help evolve how the team's workflows adapt to AI and emerging practices. Skills and Qualifications Required • Diploma or bachelor's degree in design, HCI, IT, or a related field, or equivalent practical experience. • 6 - 8 years of experience in product design , UX/UI design, or service design, including a track record of leading design on complex, multi-stakeholder projects. • Demonstrated stakeholder management: influencing senior stakeholders, navigating ambiguity, and managing escalations and difficult conversations - shaping outcomes, not simply working alongside stakeholders. • Strategic communication and presentation skills: able to synthesize, persuade, align differing viewpoints, and hold a credible, composed presence with senior audiences. • Practical AI-in-design capability: actively applying AI tools and workflows in your practice, with clear judgment on their appropriate and responsible use. • Strong proficiency in Figma and other prototyping tools; familiarity with Miro, Jira, or equivalent collaboration tools. • Confident across UX research methodologies, journey mapping, service blueprinting, visual and interaction design, and prototyping. • Experience in building and maintaining design systems, with a solid understanding of design fundamen…