Principal Service Designer

As a Principal Service Designer in the Chief Digital Office (CDO), your job will enable design to be embedded at a strategy level, informing decisions that support Defra group becoming more service orientated.

The CDO is responsible for significant service transformation across the Defra group. Our Digital and Data Transformation strategy is an integral part of change which goes beyond just using the latest technologies, it’s about how we think and work, adopting agile principles as we continue to focus on user needs.

We’re seeking a dynamic, pragmatic and future-focused individual to take on this exciting new role. The role will sit within a small, but growing multi-disciplinary team focused on progressing our service transformation work by understanding how Defra can become more service and outcome orientated.

You will be excited by the challenge of understanding user needs and policy goals to support strategy and decision making. You will be experienced at acting on whole service areas – both end-to-end and front-to-back, across organisational boundaries and government departments – to identify issues and opportunities. You will be the service design profession expert in our team, using your knowledge and skills to develop our service taxonomy and influence overall design approaches in a complex service landscape.

Responsibilities

• Work with us to help shape how organisational decisions about investment and prioritisation are based on evidence and intentional design
• Influence senior leadership and help teams across Defra group understand how what they’re delivering is part of a whole service area and the outcomes and goals this supports – pushing Defra group to become a more service and outcome-oriented organisation
• Enable design to add value to how leadership teams shape strategy and priorities to meet goals and deliver a future Defra
• Work with us to help teams and leadership manage uncertainty by learning by doing, to ‘test and learn’, to deliver the right outcomes
• Influence performance reporting so we measure and target improvements to things that matter to users
• Act as an authority on service design and connect with the wider community

Skills and experience

• Experience of working with senior stakeholders and multidisciplinary teams to lead strategic design decisions
• Experience of understanding user needs and designing services that support those needs
• Evidence of driving awareness of service performance and improvement which have resulted in successful service outcomes
• Experience of mentoring others and leading workshops, collaborating with senior stakeholders
• Working at times from minimal evidence and responding positively to ambiguity and changing requirements