Head of Research and Design WCC622363

Job Details:

Salary range: £79,005 - £88,149 per annum. Salary negotiable depending upon experience
Work location: Westminster City Hall, 64 Victoria Street, Westminster, SW1E 6QP
Hours per week: 36
Contract type: Permanent
Closing date: 8 October 2025

About Us:

THE EXTRAORDINARY STORY OF 809 CONNECTED BUSINESSES

Digital and Innovation in Westminster City Council is a world of extraordinary stories, where creative and enterprising people put local residents and businesses first.

Today, Westminster is the most connected borough in London. But, when David joined us in the mid-2010s, small businesses were still struggling to get connected to fibre. Without gigabit-capable broadband, some companies even resorted to biking memory sticks around the city, simply to share files with clients.

Although still in a junior role, David took the initiative and successfully made the business case for £2.8 million of European funding to support connectivity for small businesses across Westminster. Feedback from businesses has been overwhelmingly positive as the project has enhanced their communications with clients. The new connectivity allows them to make video calls and work remotely. As the pandemic hit and many more people needed to work from home, it became clear just how vital this investment had been.

Fast-forward a few years. Westminster is leading the way for connectivity, as a result of the project businesses are thriving, and David is heading up a service of his own responsible for delivery of the Smart City strategy.

The Role:

As the Head of Research and Design, you can make your own powerful contribution to people across Westminster. Balancing strategic leadership with hands-on delivery across a complex digital portfolio, you’ll shape and deliver the Council’s research and design vision, working to improve outcomes for residents and businesses.

Your day-to-day will be dynamic and varied — touching everything from service transformation to core IT. Overseeing the delivery of robust user research plans dedicated to understanding the needs of our residents, communities and businesses, you’ll be focused on simplifying, streamlining and improving user journeys across Council services.

You’ll lead a team of experienced professionals, managing performance and providing expert advice and guidance. User-centric design and accessibility will be at the heart of everything you do, and you’ll use your strong leadership skills to influence change across a large multi-disciplinary team.

Please refer to the for more information.

About You:

An established professional with significant experience of leading multi-disciplinary research and design teams in a complex, heavily regulated environment, you’ll have proven expertise in user research, service design and human-centred design methodologies. Your understanding of diversity, equality and inclusion — especially in relation to service delivery — will be strong, as will your knowledge of research, experience and service design principles, practices and methods.

In a previous role, you’ll have delivered large-scale digital transformation projects, and you’ll have strong knowledge of the end-to-end product and service life cycle.

On a personal level, you’ll be a natural communicator with the ability to influence senior leaders and external stakeholders. As a leader, you’ll be encouraging, thorough and motivating, committed to instilling a culture of continuous improvement within your team. You’ll keep calm under pressure, with the ability to deliver against multiple competing deadlines.

More importantly than anything, you’ll be a person passionate about improving outcomes for Westminster residents, businesses and communities. This is a unique opportunity to shape digital transformation in a collaborative team committed to meaningful change, and to supercharge your career in the process.

Westminster City Council is committed to supporting Care Leavers into the workplace. Care Leavers seeking their first job and who wish to be considered under our scheme, will automatically be invited to interview should they meet the essential criteria for the role.

The Council is committed to achieving diverse shortlists to support our desire to increase the number of staff from underrepresented groups in our workforce. We especially encourage applications from a Global Majority (GM), people who are Black, Asian, Brown, dual-heritage, indigenous to the global south, and or have been racialised as 'ethnic minorities' (formally known as B.A.M.E , Black, Asian and multiple ethnic) background and, while the role is open to all applicants, we will utilise the positive action provisions of the Equality Act 2010 to appoint a candidate from a global majority background where there is a choice between two candidates of equal merit. If you are from a Global Majority background you can self-declare this to the hiring manager as part of our positive action commitments.

What We Offer:

Westminster is an amazing place. We are home to more than 200,000 residents from all backgrounds, over 50,000 vibrant and vital businesses and three-quarters-of-a-million people work in Westminster. Westminster City Council’s strategy is to work towards a Fairer Westminster. A Fairer Westminster is one in which our communities are at the heart of our decision-making and help to determine the city’s future. By working directly with our communities and other partners, we can build a more inclusive city that celebrates our diverse communities, and where residents, workers and visitors from all backgrounds will feel welcome and safe. 


At Westminster City Council, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive workplace and employer of choice. We encourage and welcome applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that, at all levels, represents the communities we serve. We champion equality, diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, has a sense of belonging and is empowered to be their best, that is the Westminster Way. To find out more about how we do this visit


As a forward-thinking Council we appreciate that people work in different ways, therefore our staff benefit from working a range of flexible working patterns as well as Agile working.


The Council is a Disability Confident Employer. If you have declared a disability in your application, we guarantee an interview if you meet the essential criteria of the job. If you are invited for interview, you will be asked if you need any reasonable adjustments in order to attend, and we will make these wherever possible.      

We reserve the right to extend or close this vacancy early without warning subject to the volume of suitable applicants.