Senior Service Designer

You will be joining the Chief Medical Advisor Directorate which provides trusted clinical and public health leadership through expert advice, guidance, epidemiological insights and evidence. The group leads and delivers services protecting the population from hazards locally, nationally and globally.

The role sits within the UKHSA’s core User-Centred Design (UCD) team, which is part of the Readiness and Surge division. Readiness and Surge works across UKHSA and sets the strategic direction for UKHSA’s readiness to respond to all threats and hazards. We focus on Agency capability, putting external stakeholder and customer needs at the centre of designs for the future. We identify opportunities to improve public health outcomes through better user experiences and end to end design.

The team are responsible for:

• embedding UCD approaches into UKHSA ways of working
• UCD expertise in project delivery
• ensuring user needs are understood and designed for, advocating for all users, to achieve equitable outcomes
• ensuring our products are accessible and developed to the Government Service Standards and follow appropriate style guides and patterns
• leading the UKHSA-wide UCD community of practice to support organisational and in-profession development
• standards for UCD professionals

As a senior service designer, you’ll work as part of a multidisciplinary squad collaborating with teams across UKHSA. This role involves providing strategy, guidance and support to internal teams across UKHSA to ensure that their policies, services and products are user-centred.

The senior service designer will work with stakeholders to design services that reduce friction and complexity across the whole service, finding accessible solutions to complex problems and helping UKHSA to achieve its public health objectives.

As an experienced practitioner you’ll be comfortable assuring best practice, leading and mentoring others within the team, including coaching stakeholders and professionals from other disciplines in service and interaction design and user-centricity.

Together with other UCD professions you’ll ensure quality, innovation, and creativity in how we approach all aspects of design and how we bring concepts to life for stakeholders to effect change.

You’ll be an active part of the UCD community. As a senior leader you’ll actively encourage, facilitate, and demonstrate sharing of insights and practices within the community and across the organisation. This role is aligned to Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework – senior service designer.

As a senior service designer, you’ll:

• provide design leadership and deliver effective designs supporting service transformation by working with stakeholders and customers to understand existing services and identify key opportunities to improve the service end-to-end.
• identify solutions to complex problems within services, and support these by developing design concepts, balancing user needs with business, operational and technical requirements.
• act as a recognised and credible expert in service design, advocating for the value of a user-centred, inclusive, and evidence-based approach to service design and delivery, and influencing programme/project roadmaps to embed effective and user-centred design practice.
• lead and manage change positively, championing and promoting a culture of imaginative thinking, learning from experience, expanding mindsets and genuinely listen to and encourage ideas from key stakeholders, partners, and colleagues.
• work with other professions and stakeholders to discover and analyse insights to identify common themes, pain points and user needs
• make actionable recommendations based on insights and communicate these to stakeholders clearly and confidently
• improve design practice by using a range of design techniques and encouraging others to also think of alternative ways to conduct design work, developing the practical experience of non-specialists
• actively participate in the UCD community of practice, fostering a culture of continuous professional development, working openly and collaboratively to contribute to building the service design capability
• line manage staff, undertaking the full range of line management responsibilities as well as providing coaching and support to staff across UKHSA
• significant experience in service design with experience of using user-centred design methods and practices in large, complex organisations
• to be able to navigate stakeholder landscapes, leading and managing relationships with a variety of internal and external stakeholders with different reporting relationships to improve services and gain support for standards, design solutions, roadmaps, and ways of working
• to be able to select and use appropriate design methods and prototyping tools to explore complex service problems and opportunities across digital and non-digital channels as appropriate
• to be able to demonstrate the importance of designing inclusive, equitable, accessible and sustainable services
• to have proven leadership skills with experience of leading, directing and planning design activities, working directly with other professions to ensure effective and timely delivery
• to be able to work as part of a multidisciplinary team, working directly with other professions to ensure effective and timely delivery
• to be able to identify and create new design patterns and components based on evidence
• experience of coaching and mentoring other service designers
• experience of government service assessments

Essential role criteria:

To be considered for this role, you’ll need:

• significant experience in service design with experience of using user-centred design methods and practices in large, complex organisations
• able to navigate stakeholder landscapes, leading and managing relationships with a variety of internal and external stakeholders with different reporting relationships to improve services and gain support for standards, design solutions, roadmaps, and ways of working
• able to select and use appropriate design methods and prototyping tools to explore complex service problems and opportunities across digital and non-digital channels as appropriate
• able to demonstrate the importance of designing inclusive, equitable, accessible and sustainable services
• proven leadership skills with experience of leading, directing and planning design activities, working directly with other professions to ensure effective and timely delivery
• to be able to work as part of a multidisciplinary team, working directly with other professions to ensure effective and timely delivery
• to be able to identify and create new design patterns and components based on evidence
• experience of coaching and mentoring other service designers
• experience of government service assessments

Desirable role criteria:

You may also have experience of:

• working in an agile environment