Principal Product Designer (Customer)

You will be joining the product design team at The Times, a group of around twelve people working closely with editorial, product, engineering, and data. We design the digital experiences that carry our journalism to readers, including thetimes.com, our iOS and Android apps, daily newsletters, subscriber journeys, and the internal editorial tools our newsroom uses to publish. We design close to the newsroom, testing with real readers to ensure our work informs and engages the millions who trust our titles every day. Your role: As a Principal Product Designer, you will lead design across the subscriber and commercial side of The Times. You will act as a senior individual contributor, taking ownership of the experiences that help people discover The Times, decide to subscribe, stay subscribed, and find ongoing value across our verticals. This is a hands-on role where you will set the standard for design excellence and lead significant initiatives within the customer experience. Day to day you will:

• Lead one major initiative end-to-end, such as crafting a new subscriber journey, designing a new vertical, or developing a groundbreaking commercial product.
• Design the entire path to subscription, optimizing onboarding, pricing pages, paywall moments, and the offer experience to convert intent into lasting relationships.
• Develop engaging experiences across various verticals-such as Puzzles, Wine, and Travel-thinking holistically across the product portfolio rather than inside one single product.
• Collaborate directly with commercial and product leadership, presenting your work and influencing strategic decisions at the executive level.
• Utilize AI as a design material to prototype, explore personalized experiences, and accelerate your workflow, while maintaining a clear understanding of its practical limitations.
• Elevate the overall standard of the design team through your high-quality work, constructive critique, and professional standards, without taking on direct people management.
  
  Extensive product design experience with a genuinely standout portfolio, ideally encompassing subscription businesses, commerce, fintech, or content-heavy journalism products.
• Proven experience leading a single, complex product initiative from initial problem-solving through to successful launch, demonstrating clear impact on commercial outcomes such as growth, retention, conversion, and lifetime value.
• Fluency in incorporating AI tools into your daily design practice, with the ability to clearly articulate specific applications and practical outcomes.
• Strategic communication skills, demonstrated by your ability to effectively influence senior commercial and executive stakeholders through the quality and rationale of your design work rather than presentation decks.
• Adaptability and confidence to operate as the most senior designer in the room while remaining heavily hands-on with the design files.
  
  News UK is one of the leading media businesses in the UK and Ireland. Our newsbrands include The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun, The Sun on Sunday and The TLS. Our national broadcast brands include talkSPORT, Times Radio and Virgin Radio UK, and we have market-leading local stations across Ireland. Our world-famous brands provide news, analysis, opinion and entertainment to almost 40 million people each month. Spanning print and pixel, audio and video, events and experiences, our multi-format brands are home to a plurality of opinion, representing the diverse communities we serve. Driven by passion, guided by principles and acting with purpose, we exist to promote a fair society, freedom of speech and a little bit of fun. Rethinking continually the business of storytelling, we represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter.
At News UK, we embrace a hybrid work model, currently requiring a minimum of three days per week in the office. This approach fosters collaboration, innovation, and team spirit within our workspace. Certain roles may necessitate additional in-office days; please discuss this with your recruiter for specific requirements. Life at News Driven by passion, guided by principles and acting with purpose. We represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter. We inform our audiences so that they can make decisions based on trusted information. We represent, reflect and reach the nation, telling the stories that matter most. To ensure these stories resonate with as broad an audience as possible, it is essential that our organisation reflects the diversity of the people we reach. Whether through age, gender, ethnicity, disability, social class or sexuality, we are committed to representing the rich variety of voices that make up our society. And we champion a culture where everyone has the opportunity to contribute and thrive as we continue to innovate and drive long term sustainable growth. This is done through our Diversity Strategy. At News UK, we take pride in our exceptional employee-led networks that bring together individuals with shared interests and create a vibrant sense of community. We believe our networks play a vital role in fostering a collaborative and supportive work culture at News UK. Groups that we support include the African & Caribbean Network, Parents and Carers, and LGBTQ+ group News Is Out, and the Apprentice Society.


• Private medical insurance including coverage for pre-existing conditions
• Discounted gym memberships, free ClassPass at Home, weekly in person/ virtual exercise classes
• 'Bikes for Work' and 'Electric Car' scheme
• Up to 60% discount on Harper Collins books
• Maternity leave up to 18 weeks full basic salary & paternity leave up to 2 weeks
• Access to exclusive events and competitions with exciting brands such as talkSPORT, Virgin Radio UK & The Times. Weekly virtual panel chats with top journalists and celebrities
• Access to wellbeing benefits such as EAP, physio/massage and counselling
• A generous pension scheme with employer contributions of up to 5%
• Wide range of training available, plus full LinkedIn Learning access
• 25 days holiday, plus bank holidays and up to 4 volunteering days per year