Senior Service Designer

Are you a dedicated person who is passionate about making a difference?

Would you like to work for the Ministry of Defence?

Defence Business Services (DBS) is one of the largest shared service organisations in Europe that provides a wide range of corporate services, to over 1.2 million end users, including serving and past military and families, as well as MoD civil servants and industry. DBS delivers large scale administration and smaller specialist services to enable the wider MOD to focus on its core aims, maintaining the UK’s Defence and Security. Services include Human Resources, Pay, Veterans, Finance and Procurement.

•  Our Vision – To support UK defence customers with outstanding service every time.
•  Our Mission – Together we will proudly support Defence, continuously improving and delivering flexible, timely, sustainable and value for money services that underpin the whole force and enhance operational capability.

DBS is committed to creating a great place to work for all our colleagues. We are building an inclusive culture and respectful environment that reflects the diversity of the society.

We want to maximise the potential of everyone who chooses to work for us through opportunities to develop your skills and experience. We also offer a range of flexible working patterns and support to make a fulfilling career accessible to you and offer a Civil Service pension with an average employer contribution of 28.97%. Where your role permits, we support a blended working approach alternatively known as hybrid working.

Where business needs allow, some roles may be suitable for a combination of office and home-based working.  This is a non-contractual arrangement where all office-based employees will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of their working time in office, subject to capacity and any required workplace adjustments.  Requirements to attend other locations for official business, or work in another MOD office, will also count towards this level of attendance. Applicants can request further information regarding how this may work in their team from the Vacancy Holder (see advert for contact details). Defence Business Services cannot respond to any questions about working arrangements.

DBS has recently undertaken a review of its operational locations in the North West, and have consolidated all activities in Norcross, Blackpool. A further move, to the new Government Hub at Talbot Gateway in Blackpool, is scheduled to take place in 2026.

Come and join the DBS community today!

DBS DIT provides digital capability that supports corporate services across the Ministry of Defence, including Finance, Commercial, Payroll and Human Resources for Military Personnel, Civilian Personnel and Veterans. Our digital solutions comprise enterprise resource planning systems, performance management, analytics, automation, low code applications and public facing services through Gov.uk. These are deployed via a number of core technologies including Oracle, Cognos, Microsoft and Blue Prism utilising cloud platforms (SAAS/PAAS/IAAS) and on-premise hosting.

Service designers design the end-to-end journey of a service. This helps a user complete their goal and government deliver a policy intent. In this role, your work may involve the creation of, or change to, transactions, products and content across both digital and offline channels provided by different parts of government.

A senior service designer is an experienced designer who works with minimal support and can influence and mentor others.

In this role level, you will:

• work with service managers and programme directors to develop design concepts
• have responsibility across complex services
• help set direction and embed good practice within teams
• make important decisions based on research and understand how this research impacts others
• work closely with the User Centred Design Lead and User Centred Design Team to create service designs, analyesing research data, and deliver iterations to digital products.
• work closely with other SMEs (Subject Matter Experts), user researchers, content and interaction designers, business and performance analysts and wider digital teams to iteratively improve services for users in line with the GDS (Government Digital Service) Service Standard.
• design accessible services for all users
• engage in DBS, MOD, and pan-government service design communities.
• manage and/or mentor Junior Service Designers
• present your work for assessment by Government Digital Services and MOD Internal Assessment Teams)

Essential experience:

• Design communication. You can clearly explain complex problems and ideas to teams or stakeholders outside of design. You can clearly document and communicate design decisions, related risks and any unresolved issues. You can build consensus around a design approach, for example, by asking difficult questions and challenging assumptions. (Skill level: practitioner)
• Designing for everyone. You can advise teams on how to design inclusive, accessible and environmentally sustainable content or services. You can design and deliver ethical content or services that consider the personal and social context of users. You can ensure a design meets appropriate standards, for example accessibility regulations. (Skill level: practitioner)
• Designing strategically. You can help a team understand how user-centred design helps it meet its goals. You can help teams align their work to the goals and vision of their organisation. You can use risks, opportunities and constraints in technology, systems and policy to shape design. You can identify and create new design patterns and components. (Skill level: practitioner)
• Designing together. You can advise others how to effectively plan and run design sessions with a team, users or stakeholders. You can adapt a design session to ensure you achieve a useful outcome. You can effectively involve the right people throughout the design process. You can work across team or profession boundaries, for example with policy teams. (Skill level: practitioner)
• Evidence-based design. You can analyse, synthesise and clearly explain complex evidence relevant to users or a service, for example, large data sets. You can help your team use design hypotheses effectively. You can use complex research and data to develop and test design ideas. (Skill level: practitioner)
• Iterative design. You can help other designers apply iterative design principles and agile methodologies to their work. You can iterate and improve complex designs based on successive rounds of research. You can independently prototype complex ideas at an appropriate fidelity. You can adapt designs quickly to changes in requirements, priorities or user needs. (Skill level: practitioner)
• Leading design. You can lead and coordinate design work in your team, with support. You can communicate the value of user-centred design to your team. You can support other designers. You can work with digital and data leaders in your organisation, when needed. (Skill level: working)

We’ll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• DDAT Service Designer: Designing for everyone
• DDAT Service Designer – Evidence Based Design
• DDAT Service Designer – Designing Together
• DDAT Service Designer – Iterative Design