Senior Service Designer

Role Responsibility

We have roles within our BBC News Team and Systems & Service Design Team.

There’s never been a better time to join the BBC News digital team. Over the last four years, we have doubled the reach of the News site and apps in both the UK and globally. Our ambition: to make the leap from one-size-fits-all to a modern, personalised and valued digital news service that is relevant and useful for everyone, every time they use it.

The Systems & Service Design team is the design team that looks after the employee experience and designs the systems used by BBC staff across all the departments. You’ll get to uncover and influence how things work behind the scenes of famous BBC services like iPlayer, Radio 1 or BBC News. This covers content production workflows i.e. any system used to commission, create, publish, schedule or promote content on one of the BBC’s many products. Our goal: support content makers, journalists, broadcasters, editors, camera crews or commissioners have the best tools for the job. We also design the systems used by all BBC staff throughout their day, from recruitment process to booking leave or accessing the intranet.

• Be the voice of the user in project teams, explaining your rationale to Engineers, Editorial and Product Managers.
• Collaborate with other members of UX&D and the cross-discipline team to get to the heart of what our users need: mapping experiences, creating sketches, concepts, user journeys, wireframes, and prototypes.
• Engage the wider team and key stakeholders in the user-centred design process, ensuring that user research is at the heart of design decision making.
• Instigate projects where design, design thinking and service design would make a positive impact. Prioritise your own workload, and plan the work of other UX colleagues in your team.
• Lead the development of BBC user experiences, refining them towards a polished design, considering typography, iconography, layout, motion and brand identity along the way.
• Line manage, mentor and develop colleagues, inspiring them to new creative heights.
• Coordinate and facilitate multi-disciplinary workshops and activities.
• Help organise user research and proactively try out ideas and designs with audience members.
• Work with people across UX&D to make sure we’re making the most of the BBC’s Global Experience Language (GEL).
• Guide the work of external agencies and freelancers to learn new things, see new perspectives and collaborate on new ideas.
• Support a positive working environment that considers the needs of a diverse team.

The Ideal Candidate

Your portfolio’s full of great service design work across many different experiences. You have an appetite to tackle big, knotty problems and complex stakeholder landscapes. Now you’re ready to take all that experience and expertise and use it to inspire others.

Yes, you can craft delightful designs. But you know improving user experiences isn’t just about grafting away at the drawing board. You take a broader view – approaching design conceptually and thinking about the whole experience, choreographing the interplay of front and back of home, across multiple screens and touch points, with accessibility baked in.

You’re great at facilitating workshops and also explaining design concepts to anyone, no matter how senior or inexperienced. And you know how to balance what the user needs with what’s really achievable.

You keep up to speed with the latest design trends and technology developments. You’re enthusiastic, curious and full of ideas. And you’re constantly fascinated by what people really need, and how we can create the right experience for them.

You might tend towards blueprints, wireframes, user flows and personas. Or layout, colour, and typography. And maybe you’ve got something special up your sleeve, like you’re a top illustrator, motion graphic designer or front-end prototype builder. Our teams are made up of a diverse range of people, skills, and experience, so we’d love to hear about you and yours.