Head of UI/UX

Overview

Join Creative Assembly and craft deep and detailed games that are entertaining to millions of players around the world. As the Head of UI/UX Department, you will build and lead a department that balances in‑house expertise with external partnerships, developer collaboration, and a data‑driven approach to player‑centric design.

Responsibilities

• Lead the recruitment, training, and mentoring of top UI/UX talent, fostering a culture of excellence.
• Craft the vision and strategy for UI/UX across the franchise in alignment with franchise and project goals.
• Work with Production to establish budgets, timelines, and staffing needs.
• Own the long‑term UI/UX backlog as part of the wider Gameplay Platform initiative.
• Establish and maintain quality standards, best practices, design systems, documentation, and guidelines.
• Use player feedback and research to inform UI/UX decisions.
• Keep the department ahead of industry trends, emerging technologies, and interaction models.
• Drive innovation in control schemes, accessibility, onboarding, and player journey design.
• Serve as the primary liaison for UX Testing & Research, validating player interactions.
• Collaborate with Project Leadership, UXR, and audience research for playtesting, A/B testing, eye‑tracking, and user research.
• Translate player insights into actionable design improvements.
• Maintain player personas and behavioural models to inform game design.
• Identify risks, opportunities, and new initiatives; plan mitigation and escalate as needed.
• Represent and communicate the department’s vision, strategy, and status to stakeholders.
• Support the franchise and project delivery with a data‑informed and people‑led mindset.
• Build and maintain the resourcing strategy and communicate it clearly to stakeholders.
• Lead and mentor the UI/UX team, fostering individual and collective growth.
• Define guidelines, standards, workflows, processes, and documentation across the department.
• Align the department’s vision and roadmap with the strategic roadmap of the organization.
• Plan future strategic work and ensure project delivery.
• Act as a tiebreaker between Projects and the franchise for department‑related decisions.
• Review UI/UX concepts, provide strategic direction and hands‑on feedback.
• Stay involved in high‑level problem‑solving to align solutions with player expectations.
• Plan and oversee UX research and playtests, analysing data for usability improvements.
• Engage external vendors and outsourcing partners, ensuring quality and integration of external work.
• Advocate for product‑ and player‑centric design in franchise‑wide discussions.
• Monitor UI/UX trends and best practices to keep the team at the forefront of industry standards.

Qualifications

Essential

• Strong leadership skills with a track record of mentoring and managing UI/UX teams.
• Proven experience building and leading a UI/UX department, including structure, hiring, and best‑practice implementation.
• Ability to balance creative vision, business and technical constraints with player value and best practices.
• Expertise in UI/UX for games: interaction design, accessibility, information architecture, usability heuristics, and technical requirements.
• In‑depth knowledge of game control schemes, onboarding, and player psychology.
• Experience in outsourcing and vendor management.
• Methodological and data‑informed approach.
• Experience with Scrum and Agile project‑management methodologies.
• Knowledge of project‑management software and tools.
• Excellent organisational, management, and problem‑solving skills.
• Strong diplomatic skills and ability to unite stakeholders with varied priorities.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Familiarity with in‑house engines (Unreal UMG, Unity UI) and iterative development workflows.

Desirable

• Experience in AAA or high‑profile game development with a major UI/UX leadership role across multiple platforms.
• Strong visual design sensibility and ability to work with artists and engineers on high‑quality UI aesthetics.
• Familiarity with motion design and UI animation principles.
• Proficiency in UI/UX tools such as Figma, Adobe XD, Axure.
• Passion for game accessibility standards (e.g., WCAG, Xbox Accessibility Guidelines).
• Experience planning and delivering large‑scale AAA game projects.
• Broad knowledge of the entire game development lifecycle and inter‑disciplinary dependencies.
• Broad interest in relevant industry trends.
• Experience with data analytics for player behaviour analysis.
• Hands‑on experience with UX research methods: usability testing, playtesting, and data‑driven design.

Benefits

• Work from anywhere temporarily each year (subject to restrictions such as visas).
• Enhanced holiday allowance, maternity and paternity breaks, flexible core hours, and no‑notice holidays.
• Bespoke relocation package.
• Private medical and dental insurance, life insurance, permanent health insurance, critical illness cover, and free health care screening.
• Additional perks such as free games, work parties, and discounts on technology.
• Wellbeing support and virtual confidential counselling.

Equal Opportunity Statement

We are an equal‑opportunities employer and encourage applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, marriage or civil partnership, pregnancy or maternity, religion or belief.

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