Senior Service Designer

Working pattern: Flexible working, full time, part-time and job share will all be considered.

Who we are

Essex County Council’s (ECC) reputation as an ambitious, progressive council has never been stronger. We continue to make Essex a thriving county to live, work, and visit. ECC is one of the county’s largest employers, with over 7,500 staff, providing many services including adults and children’s social care, environmental, transport, education, planning, and benefits.

The Service Transformation team is one of the few established multi-disciplinary teams in local government. We’re problem solvers, and we take a user-centered approach to complex problems to help teams build good services that support the needs of Essex’s residents and businesses.

You’ll find an inclusive culture and a place where your opinion is valued. This role is based in Chelmsford (just 25 minutes by train from Stratford) but currently we are working remotely full time – there is the opportunity for remote working to continue in the future.

You can find out more about us and our work on our Service Transformation blog.

Who you are
You are an experienced Service Designer with the confidence and expertise to lead multiple and complex projects. We’re looking for someone who is ambitious, autonomous, curious, good at developing strong working relationships and able to get into the details of specific projects whilst also seeing the bigger picture.

What’s in it for you?
This is a unique opportunity to join an ambitious team who are passionate about improving the user experience and outcomes for people in Essex. You’ll break new ground in the sector and in doing so you’ll further your own profile and career. You’ll also help improve thousands of people’s lives for years to come.

 Your Skills

You’ll have a service design qualification or equivalent on-the-job experience, strong visual design and communication skills and the ability to take a service design project through from initial scoping right through to implementation and evaluation.

What you’ll do
You will:
• Advocate for user-centred design across the council and work in the open to upskill others and promote awareness and understanding.
• Work collaboratively with service areas to scope new service design projects that meet ECC’s Strategic aims and financial considerations.
• Work strategically on end to end services to deliver improved service outcomes and costed savings with minimal support.
• Work collaboratively with user researchers, designers, product and content specialists and other change colleagues across the organisation.
• Compile user research into actionable insights and lead design activities that build on your findings.
• Use quantitative and qualitative data to produce designs that meet user needs and provide a persuasive case to influence senior stakeholders.
• Develop ideas and design concepts using sketching, prototyping and iterative design.
• Make the case for design decisions, explaining and communicating ideas to senior stakeholders to build consensus.
• Identify service patterns and help drive the continuous development of design patterns and standards.

Next steps

For more information, please email nicholas.ward@essex.gov.uk

To apply, please submit your CV and a covering letter to servicedesign.jobs@essex.gov.uk

Interviews will take place 14th, 15th and 16th October 2020.