Design CoE Lead

Let's Write Africa's Story Together!

Old Mutual is a firm believer in the African opportunity and our diverse talent reflects this.

As the Design Centre of Excellence (CoE) Lead, the individual is accountable for defining, governing, and advancing design as an enterprise capability system across the Group.

This role operates as the enterprise capability owner on design capability, standards, and enablement, ensuring that design across all digital channels and portfolios is consistent, scalable, measurable, and continuously improving.

The Design CoE Lead is responsible for:

• Establishing the enterprise design capability model (process, tools, governance, and assets)
• Governing the integrated design standards ecosystem, including the Design System and Digital Corporate Identity (C.I.)
• Enabling delivery teams through standards, methods, tooling, coaching, and assurance
• Driving cross-practice integration (Product Design, Research & Simulation, Content, CX, etc.) into a coherent system of work in the Digital Channels

Operating as a peer to Design Leads within delivery portfolios, the role ensures capability strength and design quality at scale, without assuming accountability for delivery execution or portfolio design strategy.

The Design CoE Lead reports to the Executive: Digital Channels and contributes to enterprise performance through design capability maturity, efficiency, and quality outcomes.

Enterprise Design Capability Leadership

• Define and evolve the enterprise design capability strategy, aligned to organisational goals and operating models
• Establish and maintain a comprehensive capability framework spanning:
• Skills and role definitions
• Methods and practices
• Tooling and platforms
• Governance and assurance
• Lead the integration of multiple design disciplines into a unified system of work
• Identify and close capability gaps across the organisation through structured interventions

Design Standards & Governance Authority

• Define and govern a holistic design standards architecture, ensuring integration across:
• UX, UI, Content, Behavioural Design
• Personalisation and AI-enabled design
• Accessibility, compliance, and trust
• Establish and operate a Design Authority and Governance Model, including:
• Structured review frameworks
• Quality assurance checkpoints
• Standards compliance mechanisms
• Ensure standards are embedded, adoptable, and measurable across delivery teams

Design System & Digital C.I. Stewardship

• Own the Group Design System as the central integration layer for design standards and reusable assets
• Ensure the Design System:
• Functions as a scalable, consumable product for delivery teams
• Drives consistency and efficiency across channels
• Create and govern the Digital Corporate Identity (C.I.) and its application across all digital environments
• Drive adoption, contribution, and continuous evolution of the system across portfolios

Collaborate with Digital Operations to ensure Design Operations & Enablement Infrastructure

• Ensure the establishment and scale of design operations capabilities, including:
• Research operations
• Tooling strategy and governance
• Vendor and partner enablement
• Knowledge and standards management systems
• Create and maintain a single source of truth for all design standards and assets
• Enable efficient onboarding and operation of design teams across portfolios

Enablement of Delivery Portfolio Teams

• Enable Design Leads and delivery teams through:
• Standards and frameworks
• Coaching and mentorship
• Governance and quality assurance
• Ensure teams can apply design capability independently and at scale
• Facilitate cross-team alignment through communities of practice and shared governance forums

Design Measurement & Continuous Improvement

• Define and track design capability and quality metrics, including:
• Standards adoption and compliance
• Design system utilisation
• Design quality and consistency indicators
• Use insights to drive continuous improvement of capability, standards, and tools
• Contribute to enterprise experience and design measurement frameworks

Leadership & Practice Development

• Lead and develop the Design CoE leadership team (leaders of leaders)
• Drive maturity of design practices through structured development plans
• Foster a culture of:
• Excellence and accountability
• Continuous improvement
• Collaboration across disciplines
• Ensure alignment with organisational people and leadership standards
• Manage departmental performance in alignment to scorecard outcomes

Working Experience & Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s Degree in Design, Human Sciences, Technology, Business Administration or a related field. Postgraduate qualification (Honours or Master’s) in a relevant discipline is advantageous.
• Experience Depth & Breadth: 10+ years’ experience across multiple design disciplines (e.g. Product Design, Customer Experience, Content, Research), with at least 5+ years operating in senior design leadership roles focused on capability development, standards, or design enablement at scale.
• Enterprise Environment Experience: Demonstrated experience operating within large, complex organisations, enabling design across multiple portfolios, platforms, and channels within digital and agile environments.
• Capability & Systems Leadership Experience: Proven track record in establishing or maturing design capability models, operating models, or Design CoE / DesignOps functions, including standards, governance, tooling, and practice development.
• Design System & Standards Experience: Demonstrated experience in leading or governing design systems, standards frameworks, and reusable design assets, driving consistency, scalability, and efficiency across delivery teams.

Technical Expertise

• Integrated Design Expertise: Expert-level understanding of how multiple design disciplines integrate to deliver coherent experience outcomes, and the ability to translate this into standards, frameworks, and systems of work.
• Human-Centred Design Mastery: Deep understanding of human-computer interaction, behavioural design, and experience design principles across channels, audiences, and customer journeys, with the ability to codify these into scalable standards.
• Methods, Frameworks & Best Practice: Expert knowledge of design methodologies, principles, and emerging practices (including AI-enabled design), with the ability to apply them pragmatically within enterprise capability and governance frameworks.
• Standards & Governance Architecture: Strong capability in defining and operationalising design standards, governance models, and quality assurance mechanisms that are both enforceable and consumable by delivery teams.
• Regulatory & Risk Awareness: Working knowledge of regulatory, compliance, accessibility, and risk considerations within digital environments, with the ability to embed these within design standards and governance frameworks.
• Leadership & Stakeholder Integration: Experience operating at senior leadership level, influencing executives and cross-functional stakeholders, and enabling teams through coaching, governance, and capability uplift rather than direct delivery ownership.

Skills

Adaptive Thinking, Business Requirements Analysis, Commercial Acumen, Creative Design, Current State Analysis, Customer Analytics, Market Analysis, Negotiation, Oral Communications, Presentation Preparations, Presentation Techniques, Presenting Solutions, Product Development, Strategic Planning, User Experience (UX) Design

Competencies

Education

Bachelors Degree (B) (Required)

Closing Date

20 June 2026 , 23:59

The appointment will be made from the designated group in line with the Employment Equity Plan of Old Mutual South Africa and the specific business unit in question.

The Old Mutual Story!