Design Practice Lead

About the role

Join X, bigly labs – Dis‑Chem’s high‑performance innovation hub – as the Design Practice Lead. You will shape and evolve the UX, UI, Service Design, and Design System practice to deliver cohesive, human‑centred experiences that drive smarter healthcare across South Africa.

Key responsibilities

• Define and own the overarching design strategy, aligning front‑stage customer experiences with back‑stage processes and legacy systems.
• Translate enterprise strategy and research insights into omnichannel service blueprints and scalable design systems.
• Govern the Design System as an enterprise product, establishing a governance model that ensures quality, accessibility, and UI consistency.
• Lead, coach, and mentor senior design practitioners, fostering craft excellence and strategic delivery across multiple tribes.
• Maintain the “golden thread” between the strategic North Star vision and proposition‑level design explorations.

Required profile

• Bachelor’s degree in Interaction Design, Service Design, HCI or a related human‑centred design discipline.
• 10+ years of experience in user experience, product or service design.
• 3–5 years in a strategic leadership role managing senior designers and design systems.
• Strong commercial acumen and experience designing within complex, regulated enterprise environments.

Required skills

• Advanced proficiency with design system architecture tools such as Figma.
• Experience using service‑blueprinting and complex mapping tools like Miro and FigJam.
• Ability to bridge design and agile workflows using Jira and Confluence.