Service Design Principal
dunnhumby is the global leader in Customer Data Science, partnering with the world’s most ambitious retailers and brands to put the customer at the heart of every decision. We combine deep insight, advanced technology, and close collaboration to help our clients grow, innovate, and deliver measurable value for their customers.
dunnhumby employs nearly 2,500 experts in offices throughout Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Americas working for transformative, iconic brands such as Tesco, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Unilever and Metro.
At dunnhumby, we’re on a mission to unlock extraordinary growth and innovation for our clients. As part of this, we are expanding our strategic design capabilities to tackle complex challenges in a human‑centred, commercially grounded way.
As a Service Design Principal, you will play a pivotal role in shaping and delivering end‑to‑end value across our core capabilities: Media, Loyalty & Personalisation, and Category Management. You’ll work closely with global clients and cross‑functional teams—including Commercial, Product & Tech, Strategy, and Data Science—to co‑create impactful, scalable solutions that connect customer needs with business opportunity.
A craftsperson of the highest level, you combine strategic clarity, structured problem‑solving and exceptional communication with deep design expertise. You guide, elevate, and approve the work of other designers and researchers, and are trusted to lead high‑stakes, high‑complexity initiatives. You bring presence, credibility, and the ability to shape thinking at senior levels across dunnhumby and with clients.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the design and development of end‑to‑end service experiences for new and existing propositions, ensuring solutions are desirable, viable, and feasible.
- Bring structure and clarity to ambiguous problems, framing challenges at the business, proposition, and ecosystem level—not just features.
- Collaborate with internal and external stakeholders to deeply understand needs, pain points, and commercial opportunities.
- Translate insights into compelling service blueprints, customer journeys, experience architectures, and prototypes.
- Partner effectively with commercial and proposition leads to align experience definition with market opportunities and strategic direction.
- Facilitate co‑creation workshops, strategic framing sessions, and design sprints with clients and internal teams.
- Communicate complex ideas clearly and concisely, crafting narratives that influence senior audiences and support strategic decision‑making.
- Champion a human‑centred approach across the organisation and raise the bar for design quality, thinking, and craft.
What We’re Looking For
- Proven experience leading end‑to‑end service design in complex environments—ideally consultancy, platform‑oriented organisations, or innovation‑led teams.
- Exceptional problem structuring, strategic thinking, and the ability to operate confidently at proposition/business‑model level.
- Strong business acumen, with awareness of commercial opportunity development, market dynamics, and value creation.
- A portfolio demonstrating high‑impact service design work from insight through to implementation, ideally involving large‑scale proposition design.
- Excellent stakeholder management and facilitation skills, with presence and credibility in senior and client‑facing settings.
- Ability to synthesise complexity into clear, logical, and compelling narratives.
- Experience in Enterprise B2B industries
- Experience in retail, media, loyalty, or data‑driven environments is a plus.
- Comfortable working in fast‑moving, cross‑functional settings where shaping direction is as important as delivering outputs.
What you can expect from us
We won’t just meet your expectations. We’ll defy them. So you’ll enjoy the comprehensive rewards package you’d expect from a leading technology company. But also, a degree of personal flexibility you might not expect. Plus, thoughtful perks, like flexible working hours and your birthday off.
You’ll also benefit from an investment in cutting-edge technology that reflects our global ambition. But with a nimble, small-business feel that gives you the freedom to play, experiment and learn.
And we don’t just talk about diversity and inclusion. We live it every day – with thriving networks including dh Gender Equality Network, dh Proud, dh Family, dh One, dh Enabled and dh Thrive as the living proof. We want everyone to have the opportunity to shine and perform at your best throughout our recruitment process. Please let us know how we can make this process work best for you.
Our approach to Flexible Working
At dunnhumby, we value and respect difference and are committed to building an inclusive culture by creating an environment where you can balance a successful career with your commitments and interests outside of work.
We believe that you will do your best at work if you have a work / life balance. Some roles lend themselves to flexible options more than others, so if this is important to you please raise this with your recruiter, as we are open to discussing agile working opportunities during the hiring process.
For further information about how we collect and use your personal information please see our Privacy Notice which can be found (here)