Senior Service Designer

As a service designer you’ll create and improve services so they work well for users and meet business goals. Your job is to look at the whole journey a user takes when using a service and make sure every part of that journey is designed to work smoothly.

Service designers work closely with different teams, including users, business analysts, developers, and other designers. You will use research and data to understand what users need, where things might be going wrong, and how to make services better.

You will often create maps of the user’s journey to identify key points where improvements can be made.

A big part of the role is ensuring that services are accessible and inclusive, so they work for everyone, regardless of their abilities or circumstances.

As a service designer, you will combine creativity with practical problem-solving, working closely with others to improve services continuously.

If you are successful, you could be working on:

1. Customer Experience and Design: As part of the team, you will be transforming the way government works for citizens and learners of all ages, as well as businesses and educators. We partner with teams across DfE to champion user needs, connect, improve and simplify services. If you join our friendly and ambitious multi-disciplinary agile team, you will work with analysts, product managers, designers, delivery managers and content specialists to directly deliver better outcomes for our users.
2. Education Estates: Be part of our dynamic and friendly team, working to create safe, sustainable, and inspiring learning environments that support excellent educational outcomes for children and staff in schools. You’ll have the chance to work on impactful services like building new schools, providing funding, and designing services that focus on climate sustainability or help children connect with nature. If you’re passionate about making a difference and have a wide range of service design skills, we’d love to hear from you.
3. National Careers Service: You will work across government to deliver the manifesto commitment to bring together Jobcentres and the NCS to provide a national jobs and careers service, focused on getting people into work and helping them get on at work. You will join a highly effective cross-Whitehall team to redesign and bring together two flagship government services, working to ensure the new service is user centric and delivers against priority government objectives.

As a senior service designer you will:

• Lead the interactive design of complex, user-centred services, adapting based on user feedback, data, and requirements.
• Utilise both qualitative and quantitative data to make informed design decisions, ensuring services meet the needs of users and align with department objectives.
• Collaborate effectively with multidisciplinary teams, providing leadership and guidance to ensure shared goals and successful outcomes.
• Communicate complex design concepts to stakeholders at all levels, using storytelling, evidence, and design artifacts to influence decision-making and direction.
• Shape and implement service design strategies that contribute to long-term department objectives.
• Ensure services are accessible and inclusive, designed to meet the diverse needs of all users, and comply with government standards on accessibility and inclusivity.

Essential criteria:

• Experience leading complex, user-centred design projects in government or the public sector, applying interactive design principles, and adapting based on user research and feedback.
• Ability to map complex services and user journeys to ensure clear, actionable insights.
• Expertise in analysing both qualitative and quantitative data to inform design decisions and interpret user behaviour.
• Strong experience in facilitating workshops, co-design sessions, managing stakeholder relationships across different levels and be able to articulate complex design concepts and through storytelling, evidence, and design artifacts.
• Experience ensuring designs are inclusive and meet or exceed accessibility standards.

Desirable Criteria:

• Experience applying advanced interactive methodologies such as Lean UX.
• Proficiency in advanced data analysis tools and techniques to identify opportunities for innovation and improvement.
• Ability to mentor and coach other team members and designers, fostering a collaborative design culture within teams and across the organisation.
• Advanced expertise in inclusive design, with a track record of delivering services that meet the needs of diverse users, ensuring full compliance with accessibility standards.