Job description
Company Description
We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future.
As strategies, technologies, and innovation collide, we create opportunity from complexity.
Our teams of interdisciplinary experts combine innovative thinking and breakthrough technologies to progress further, faster. Our clients adapt and transform, and together we achieve enduring results.
We are over 4,000 strategists, innovators, designers, consultants, digital experts, scientists, engineers, and technologists. And we have deep expertise in consumer and manufacturing, defence and security, energy and utilities, financial services, government and public services, health and life sciences, and transport.
Our teams operate globally from offices across the UK, Ireland, US, Nordics, and Netherlands.
PA. Bringing Ingenuity to Life.
Job Description
We believe in the power of ingenuity to build a positive human future. We challenge where it matters and own the outcome. We combine strategic thinking, customer-centric service design, and agile engineering practices to accelerate innovation in a tech-driven world.
Why consider joining our Digital & Data community? 🤔
- Join our Digital & Data team working alongside product, design and a wide range of other experts and cross-disciplinary teams to bring ideas to life through innovative software solutions.
- Grow a flexible and unique career within a trust-based, inclusive environment that values excellence, innovation, and curiosity. You have the option to progress with us on a technical career track. No need to go onto the Partner career track if this doesn’t align with what you want to do.
- Hybrid working - our approach is to be in the office or on client site a minimum of 2 days per week.
- Work on a broad variety of projects and tech stacks for clients across seven sectors - no project is ever the same
- Join other experts within our supportive and collaborative tech community through knowledge-sharing and peer-level support, coaching and mentoring
- Deepen your expertise through our a culture of learning and growth – you’ll have budget to take courses (technical and non-technical training), plus gain certifications
About the Role đź’
At PA Consulting, design is not decoration — it’s direction.
It shapes how the future feels. We’re looking for a Head of Design to lead our team of designers within Digital Strategy & Experience (DS&E) — a creative leader who can inspire, challenge, and elevate how design defines transformation across industries.
You’ll guide a multidisciplinary team of product, experience, and visual designers who create meaningful, emotionally intelligent, and commercially impactful experiences for our clients. You’ll balance craft and consultancy — working closely with strategists, technologists, and data scientists to turn insight into invention.
This isn’t an internal studio role; it’s a market-facing leadership position. You’ll represent design at the most senior levels of client relationships, helping win work, grow accounts, and position design as a force for transformation across our global client base.
Key Responsibilities 🚀
Lead and Inspire
Lead and grow a multidisciplinary design team within DS&E — building a culture where curiosity, experimentation, and excellence thrive.
Create an environment where designers feel safe to break rules, challenge convention, and redefine what “great” looks like.
Nurture both creative craft and consulting confidence — helping designers articulate their value in every client conversation.
Define Design Strategy
Set the creative direction across projects — ensuring our design work fuses business strategy, human insight, and technological possibility.
Collaborate across DS&E and PA’s broader digital, data, and innovation teams to deliver world-class design outcomes.
Lead the evolution of our design practice — from the processes we use to the stories we tell in the market.
Grow Clients and Business
Act as a senior design ambassador — building deep, trusted relationships with clients and helping them see design as a commercial lever, not just a creative one.
Shape proposals, lead pitches, and contribute to thought leadership that opens doors and wins new opportunities.
Play a pivotal role in helping DS&E achieve its growth goals — ensuring design remains a differentiator in every engagement.
Develop People and Culture
Attract, develop, and retain world-class talent — from strategic thinkers to master craftspeople.
Create a culture of mentoring and collaboration, where every designer has the space to grow and the courage to experiment.
Champion diversity of background and thought, ensuring our team reflects the world we’re designing for.
Qualifications
What We’re Looking For ✅
Experience
Significant experience in a senior design leadership role within a consultancy, innovation firm, or design-led business.
Proven success leading teams through complex, high-impact projects -— from vision to execution.
Experience translating creative excellence into business results and client value.
Mindset and Skills
Equal parts creative visionary and commercial operator — someone who sees design as a tool for growth, not just expression.
Deep understanding of design as a storytelling medium — where beauty, logic, and emotion meet.
Exceptional communicator who can hold their own in the boardroom and inspire in the studio.
Culture and Attitude
A rebel with discipline. A rule-breaker with purpose.
Thrives on collaboration across disciplines and sectors.
Obsessed with how design, AI, and technology can redefine what’s possible.
Manifesto for the Designers You’ll Lead
We are not just looking for designers.
We are building a home for the creative misfits — the ones who see the world differently, who draw inspiration from the unexpected, who believe design is about feeling, not just function.
We care about the elegance of a font, the beauty of a fine line, and the subtleties that make design human.
We’re not here to maintain conventions; we’re here to rewrite them.
At PA, we’ve turned blue to neon green. We’ve made static design dynamic — transforming the conventional into the extraordinary.
Our credibility as designers comes from breaking the rules beautifully.
If you’re the kind of leader who inspires others to challenge the status quo, to create work that moves people and changes industries — you’ll fit right in.
Together, we’ll define and invent the future.
Additional Information
Life At PA encompasses our peoples’ experience at PA. It’s about how we enrich peoples’ working lives by giving them access to unique people and growth opportunities and purpose led meaningful work.
Our purpose guides how we work with our clients and our teams, and support our communities, to deliver insight and impact, solving the world’s most complex challenges. We’re focused on building a workplace that values human difference and diverse mindsets, and a culture of inclusion and equality that unlocks the potential in our people so everyone can be their best self.
Find out more about Life at PA here.
We are dedicated to supporting the physical, emotional, social and financial well-being of our people. Check out some of our extensive benefits:
- Health and lifestyle perks accompanying private healthcare for you and your family
- 25 days annual leave (plus a bonus half day on Christmas Eve) with the opportunity to buy 5 additional days
- Generous company pension scheme
- Opportunity to get involved with community and charity-based initiatives
- Annual performance-based bonus
- PA share ownership
- Tax efficient benefits (cycle to work, give as you earn)
We’re committed to advancing equality. We recruit, retain, reward and develop our people based solely on their abilities and contributions and without reference to their age, background, disability, genetic information, parental or family status, religion or belief, race, ethnicity, nationality, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity (or expression), political belief, veteran status, or by any other range of human difference brought about by identity and experience. We welcome applications from underrepresented groups.
Adjustments or accommodations - Should you need any adjustments or accommodations to the recruitment process, at either application or interview, please contact us on [email protected]
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