Principal Service Designer

[What you will be working on]

The Consulting Practice within the Government Technology Office of GovTech helps agencies resolve complex IT challenges and modernize systems with confidence. We bring together deep engineering, product, and design expertise to assess legacy environments, align stakeholders, and shape multi-year solutions that are human-centric, scalable, and delivered by GovTech and industry partners. Each team member is a leader in their domain and works collaboratively with GovTech teams and agencies to address the government’s most critical technology challenges. As a founding member, you’ll also shape this growing practice while working on diverse and impactful problems in the public sector.

[What you will be working on]
We are looking for a Principal Service Designer to join our team and help drive the evolution of services that matter. You’ll bring clarity to complex challenges, advocate for user needs, ensuring that we are solving the right problems by deeply understanding the people we’re designing for.

• Apply service design and design research methods to help agencies understand the end-to-end user experience across systems, touchpoints, and stakeholders
• Lead discovery to uncover root causes, user needs, and systemic barriers—ensuring problems are clearly framed before solutions are defined
• Partner with the GTO Design Practice to refine and scale design-led frameworks for discovery, problem definition, and co-design
• Represent the user perspective in technical and product discussions to ensure solutions are meaningful and implementable
• Mentor designers and peers to grow design capability and embed upstream thinking across teams

[You’ll thrive here if you]

• Enjoy making sense of complex, ambiguous challenges
• Translate technical concepts into clear, human language
• Focus on outcomes and long-term value, not just deliverables
• Influence through trust, clarity, and collaboration
• Love working at the problem-definition stage

[Who we are looking for]

• 10+ years in service design, UX, design strategy, or adjacent fields such as innovation or user research
• Proven ability to lead service design in complex, multi-stakeholder environments
• Skilled in storytelling, facilitation, and experience mapping to align diverse perspectives
• Strong communicator who builds trust quickly and brings people together
• Confident navigating ambiguity and balancing user, technical, and operational needs
• Passionate mentor who fosters curiosity, learning, and systems thinking
• Entrepreneurial mindset with a drive to create impact for public good