Human-Centred Design Principal (Associate Director)

We are looking for an experienced Human-Centred Design (HCD) Principal to join our HCD Practice at Social Finance. This role offers a unique opportunity to drive systemic change across complex social issues through human-centred design and research.

Human-Centred Design is a key focus for Social Finance, and we are now looking to grow our leadership team to deliver on the ambitions of our impact strategy. At Social Finance, we take an iterative, participatory approach to systems change and design. Our work is incredibly varied — we design digital products and services, organisational ways of working and business models, and instill complex systems change. As an Associate Director in HCD, you’ll be a strategic leader who champions human-centred design and research across the organisation, working with a small team to deliver impactful solutions rooted in real people’s needs.

We value curiosity, collaboration, pragmatism and comfort with ambiguity. We aim to invest and grow human-centred design and research capabilities in our organisation, and you’ll be joining at a time when you have a genuine opportunity to shape the direction of our HCD practice and wider Community of Practice. 

Our UK Team comprises around 60 dedicated change-makers, bringing together a wide range of skills and expertise to deliver better solutions to complex social problems. 

This role will sit within our Human-Centred Design Practice, anchored within our wider HCD Community of Practice. There are currently 3 people in the HCD Practice; the Practice Lead (also an Associate Director), a Service Design Manager, and a Design Research Manager. We have roughly 10 additional people from around Social Finance who meet on a monthly basis as part of our Community of Practice.

Our portfolio spans Social Finance’s four key impact areas: Children & Young People, Health & Social Care, Employment & Skills, and Housing & Homelessness. While this role will be able to work across our impact areas as projects come up, the role will initially focus on our Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) projects, in particular the Drive Project, described in more detail below. 

At a high-level the role will cover the following elements:

• Project leadership and delivery: Lead or advise on multiple projects concurrently. Initially these projects will be focused on the Drive Project, including leading our strategic Learning Partner function. Supporting and QA’ing the work of people both within and outside of the team. 
• Practice development: Contributing to the HCD practice and community of practice, including coaching or mentoring members. Helping to champion and embed HCD across Social Finance.
• Business contribution: Leading or contributing to HCD-focused new business. 

• Oversee or advise on several complex, multi-stakeholder research projects on sensitive social issues simultaneously, setting the strategic direction and ensuring they inform the design of impactful products, services, and policies.
• Lead or advise on projects that sit within our work on the Drive Project, including our strategic Learning Partner function. 
• Guide collaborative analysis and synthesis, developing actionable insights that drive decision-making and positive social impact.
• Coordinate across a multi-disciplinary project team, fostering effective collaboration across disciplines.
• Deliver strong project management, providing clarity, structure and momentum for team members.
• Contribute to a positive, inclusive team culture, and support staff development, morale and wellbeing. 
• Identify and manage risks, interdependencies and constraints, managing upwards effectively and coordinating with functional leads where appropriate (e.g. Information Governance, Legal, Finance).
• Build and sustain trusted relationships with senior stakeholders across clients and delivery partners. 
• Navigate complex political, commercial and organisational dynamics, exercising effective influence across partners with differing incentives and priorities. 
• Act as a credible external ambassador for Social Finance in senior forums. 

• Contribute to the development of Social Finance’s Human-Centred Design practice, including shaping approaches, tools and ways of working. 
• Help to coach, mentor and develop members of the HCD practice and Community of Practice.
• Champion responsible, inclusive, and ethical research practices, ensuring our work is accessible and beneficial for all users.
• Take an active role in the wider HCD Community of Practice at Social Finance; designing and running sessions to inspire and upskill the community. 

• Work closely with one or more of Social Finance’s impact areas or practice areas to identify opportunities, build out work, and to help embed Human-Centred Design.
• Contribute to business development, identifying opportunities for effective collaboration, scoping and designing end-to-end projects, and helping to grow our design and research portfolio
• Act as a business owner within the team, contributing to both impact and commercial sustainability. 

We are looking for an experienced Human-Centred Design Principal, who is passionate about solving complex social problems through design and research. You have experience leading design and research project teams, ideally in contexts involving complex stakeholder environments and systemic challenges. 

You may have a background in service design, user research, user experience design, or social research. You have experience applying these skills to drive tangible social impact. Your career path might not be linear – we value diverse experiences that contribute to a holistic understanding of how design and research can affect change. 

• You have experience leading design and/​or research project teams in complex public sector environments, with a strong understanding of UK digital transformation best practice.
• You can navigate complex stakeholder environments, and you are comfortable with ambiguity. 
• You have a pragmatic approach to user research, service design and product development, balancing rigour with achievability within budgets and technical constraints.
• You can analyse research findings and synthesise them into actionable outputs, identifying long-term value and strategic insights. 
• You have a deep understanding of ethical considerations in research and experience conducting research with users with diverse needs. 
• You have experience of working as a learning partner, or equivalent role.
• You’re collaborative and ego-free, able to give and receive feedback across all team levels, and have experience mentoring junior researchers.
• You can quickly understand the political, social and technological context of designing services, mapping current journeys and creating blueprints for improved user experiences.
• You have strong communication skills, and are comfortable in client-facing roles. 
• You’re a self-starter capable of scoping and leading projects independently, with excellent organisation and delivery management skills. 

• You can work effectively in digitally immature environments, supporting clients to identify opportunities for digital innovation.
• You have experience working in the VAWG sector, or a similar sector.
• You are skilled in designing, prototyping and building user-centred products, using a variety of tools like Figma, Miro and non-digital methods.
• You have quantitative evaluation design and data analysis skills, and feel comfortable designing data-driven solutions to prioritise user needs within technical constraints.
• You have experience working in, or leading, Agile teams and are familiar with GDS standards and service assessments.
• You have experience working in consulting and agency environments. 

The Drive Partnership, formed by Respect, SafeLives and Social Finance, is working to transform the national response to perpetrators of domestic abuse. The Drive Project is the Drive Partnership’s flagship intervention working with those causing harm in their relationships to prevent abusive behaviour and protect victim-survivors. Service users have been assessed as posing a high-risk, high-harm level of domestic abuse to the people that they are in intimate or family relationships with. They also often have multiple needs and are resistant to change.​The Drive Project has an intensive case management approach that challenges service users to change and works with partner agencies – like the police and social services – to disrupt abuse.

Social Finance are currently supporting the expansion of the Drive Project across England and Wales. This will increase the safety of victim-survivors of domestic abuse, in all communities, by putting the focus on the perpetrators.

We are an ambitious not for profit organisation that helps to design, fund and scale better solutions to complex social problems. Our vision is a fairer world where together we unleash the potential of people and communities.

We do this by working in partnership with local and national governments, funders, communities and the social sector to tackle complex and enduring social problems in the UK and across the world. Our skills include financial analysis, data and digital insight, outcomes-focused partnerships, strategy, research and design. We combine these specialisms in different ways to address specific social challenges. We create effective solutions that blend the expertise of communities and professionals to deliver better outcomes in issues such as homelessness, domestic abuse, children’s services, health, employment and skills.

Our multi-skilled team of over 120 people come from diverse backgrounds in the public, private and charity sectors, all sharing a passion for making change happen. We provide a high-quality training and development programme in-house with great opportunities for career progression. We’re a friendly and intellectually curious bunch, always up for a debate.

Our work improves the lives of people and communities in the UK and across the world. We are experts in systems change – shifting the way a whole system works around a specific social issue in order to ensure long-lasting change. Examples include:

• Employment & skills: Scaling evidence-based employment services through IPS Grow.
• Health & social care: Investing in health transformation, such as in End-of-Life Care services.
• Children & young people: Maximising access to education by building more inclusive systems.
• Housing & homelessness: Developing innovative funding models to help meet government new homes supply.

Our approach is a collaborative one, where we bring the best capabilities and people from across the organisation together to solve the challenges we face. 

Everyone at Social Finance believes that change for communities is possible. To help us achieve it, we have three core values that guide everything we do. We are curious, empathetic and pioneering. 

We actively encourage applications from under-represented and minoritised groups, including those with lived experience of the social issues we are working to address. We are an equal opportunities employer.

We support a range of flexible working options and welcome UK based applications from outside of London/​the Southeast so far as they can meet the in-person meeting requirements for the role. We can also accommodate secondments and part-time working. 

We work on some projects where our clients may require different levels of DBS checking for our employees. Candidates deemed suitable for a role after interview will be asked to declare any unspent convictions to ensure that we are able to resource them to projects appropriately.

Read more about working for Social Finance on our website. 

Reason (https://reasonrecruitment.com) is our exclusive recruitment partner for this role. Applications will be considered on a rolling basis until the position is closed, though early applications are strongly encouraged. 

If you have any questions concerning the role or want to express interest, please contact Alex Cavanagh alex@reasonrecruitment.com

We are currently working to the following timelines:

• Job close 24th July
• First interviews w/​c 27th July (30 mins, online). Times available: Tuesday 28th 9:30am – 12pm, Wednesday 29th 12–2pm, Thursday 30th 9:30am – 12pm.
• Second interviews 12th August (45 mins, online)
• Third interviews 20th August (1 hour, in person)