Senior UX Designer, Puzzles

Join our team at the Guardian and be a part of a diverse and inclusive global organisation that delivers fearless, investigative journalism, and holds power to account. Our team of award-winning journalists, cutting-edge commercial professionals, and industry-leading digital experts are committed to making a difference and represent a wide range of backgrounds and perspectives. We offer a challenging and exciting environment for career development, with a focus on training, growth and fostering an inclusive culture.

We are looking for a Senior UX Designer to join our Puzzles team, which is part of the newly formed Premium Propositions Product Group on a 12 month fixed term contract. You will lead the design of a world-class, cross-platform puzzles experience that drives daily engagement, subscription growth, and ad revenue. From a quick to cryptic crossword on your morning commute, to our Film Reveal puzzle (think Pointless meets cinema testing trivia), Guardian puzzles look to elevate our readers' downtime.

This is a hybrid strategic-practitioner role: you will define the UX vision for the Puzzles proposition while being hands-on in crafting intuitive, engaging, and visually compelling experiences across web and mobile. Your work will transform The Guardian’s puzzles offering from a "nice-to-have" add-on into a premium destination for our supporters.

You will collaborate closely with Product Managers, Engineers, and Researchers, shaping experiences that are not only delightful and accessible but also commercially impactful.

Lead the UX design for the Puzzles proposition, from discovery and ideation to polished delivery, including engaging user journeys, wireframes, prototypes, and interfaces that encourage daily play, subscription conversion, and retention. Rapidly prototype new puzzle formats, gamification features, and subscription-focused interactions. Champion a test-and-learn approach to validate hypotheses and optimise user engagement, collaborating with researchers to conduct qualitative and quantitative user research, Act as the UX voice in the Puzzles squad, communicating design rationale clearly to Product, Engineering, and Commercial stakeholders, working closely with engineers to ensure designs are implemented accurately and efficiently across web and app platforms.

Leverage the Guardian design system to deliver consistent, scalable, and high-quality experiences, contributing components, patterns, and best practices. Define the long-term UX vision for the Puzzles proposition, balancing user delight, business goals, and technical feasibility. Identify opportunities for gamification, cross-platform parity, and subscription-focused enhancements.

• Proven experience designing digital products in cross-functional teams, ideally in subscription, gaming, or content-rich environments.
• Strong portfolio showcasing end-to-end UX design for web and mobile, including gamified experiences.
• Experience working with design systems and component libraries.
• Deep understanding of interaction design, usability, accessibility, information architecture, and user behaviour.
• Comfortable balancing business objectives, technical constraints, and user needs.
• Experience mentoring designers and contributing to a positive, collaborative team culture.
• Experience with casual or mobile gaming, gamification, or puzzles.

We actively encourage applications from candidates who are Black, Asian or minority-ethnic (BAME), or from other groups traditionally underrepresented in the UK media.

We operate in a hybrid environment working 2 days a week from our offices in Kings Cross and 3 days a week remotely.

We value and respect all differences (seen and unseen) in all people. We aspire to have inclusive working experiences and an environment that reflects the audience we serve, where our people have equal access to career development opportunities, their voices are heard and can contribute to our future. We actively encourage applications from people of all backgrounds. Many of our staff work flexibly and we will consider all requests for flexible working arrangements.

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