Lead Product Designer - London

Virgin Active are committed to changing people's lives for the better through wellness. Our team are dedicated to delivering a unique leisure and relaxation experience throughout all our clubs. All our team members pride themselves on incorporating Virgin Active values and ensuring the highest Brand Standards into their work, so our members can experience the finest facilities and service. We take value in recruiting the very best team members who work behind the scenes to support our clubs in delivering a world class member experience. We are looking for a Lead Product Designer to join our Digital & Tech Transformation department.

As Lead Product Designer, you set the vision and standard for experience design at Virgin Active. You’ll make design a strategic advantage by shaping systems, defining clarity and coherence across the digital estate, and embedding design into problem framing, not just UI execution. You will lead the design practice while remaining hands-on, crafting experiences that are behaviourally sharp, emotionally resonant and unmistakably Virgin Active.

The Role

• Lead and elevate the design practice by defining standards, rituals, tools and ways of working.
• Set the vision for what exceptional member experience looks like across the digital ecosystem.
• Own the strategy and direction of the design system to scale quality and consistency globally.
• Balance leadership with hands-on craft, using Figma to set the bar for clarity, simplicity and coherence.
• Define experience vision and design principles across core journeys to ensure unified, intuitive experiences.
• Ensure the Virgin Active brand is expressed consistently and recognisably across markets.
• Use research, insight and behavioural understanding to guide design direction.
• Mentor and develop designers to build capability, craft and progression.
• Shape feedback loops and rituals that protect quality and focus.
• Partner with Product, Engineering and Brand to create feasible, scalable, high-quality solutions.
• Communicate direction and rationale clearly to senior stakeholders to support confident decision making.
• Support delivery through prototyping, validation and iteration beyond launch.

Experience

• Deep experience leading design for consumer digital products at scale, with a portfolio showing systems thinking and behaviour change.
• Experience guiding and elevating the craft of other designers while remaining highly skilled hands-on.
• Ability to evolve and scale a design system as a core product asset for alignment and delivery efficiency.
• Strength across interaction, visual and systems design, with consistently high standards for clarity and detail.
• Strong capability in research insight, behavioural understanding and shaping confident design direction.
• High proficiency with Figma and contemporary design tools, plus comfort exploring with AI and emerging tech.
• Ability to create clarity in complex spaces and frame direction across Product, Engineering, Research and Brand.
• Skilled stakeholder communicator with influence at senior levels.
• Thrives in ambiguity, drives alignment and momentum, and models excellence in craft and culture.

Our Perks

• 25 days (excluding bank holidays) annual leave, plus a Celebration Day – and we want you take them.
• Access to Scottish Widows Pension with us matching contributions up 5%.
• Complimentary Virgin Active membership for you and a buddy. You can also get free membership for your children too, ability to take advantage of our Club V.
• Private Dental and Healthcare Insurance – your physical health is important, and we want you to have the access to healthcare should you require it.
• Life Assurance 4x your salary – which we hope you will not need.
• We want you to love Virgin Active like we do, so you get discounts across Virgin active – everything from guest passes to 50% off PT sessions.
• You will join Virgin Family - where not only can you communicate with your colleagues across Virgin Group, but also many discounts (including Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Holidays and Virgin Media/O2)
• Maintaining a healthy diet while at work can be hard, so we offer all our team members 20% off food and drink at our KAUAI branches located in clubs.
• Managing finances can be difficult, so we offer access to Salary Finance. They can support you with loans and savings plans, as well as help you become a personal finance expert.
• Mental health is a cornerstone of wellbeing. Our BUPA employer assistance programme is there when you need a helping hand with 4 free counselling sessions.
• We know finding a new home to rent can be stressful. We partner with Dexters who offer complimentary corporate letting services – meaning no tenant charges.
• Access to ePoints, offering loads of online discounts to retailers.
• Always wanted to take that yoga course? Well VA offer discount on all their Academy courses, trained by the very best instructors.