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:

• Schools Group Digital: This rapidly expanding digital division works with teachers and schools. You will be at the heart of the Government’s opportunity mission, ensuring every child and young person, regardless of their background, can achieve at school. We’ve built substantial user-focused services across teacher recruitment and retention, supporting teachers and many other education professionals to do their best work. As service designer, you can connect up career-spanning user journeys, or join fellow digital professionals creating new frictionless experiences to transform how parents and schools support children.
• 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.
• Digital Data Services: Leading Service Design across citizen and sector facing key digital services for Get Information about Schools, Compare School and College Performance and Analyse Schools Performance and its successors. Working on service design for new policy areas and existing services to enable integration and improved customer experience across those services.
• Apprenticeship Service: We work to put employers and apprentices at the heart of apprenticeships delivering a programme that is led by employer choice and demand, is higher quality and focused on occupational competence. To do this we deliver innovative, user-focused services that operate at scale and enable employers, apprentices, training providers and end-point assessment organisations to work together to make apprenticeships great. We are proud to be known as pioneers across government.

Job Responsibilities:

• Lead the iterative 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 iterative 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.
• 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.

Desirable criteria will only be assessed at interview, in the event of a tie break situation, to make an informed decision.