Senior Service Designer

Salary: Up to £60,450 depending on skills and experience
Contract type: 3.5 year fixed term appointment
Grade: MoJ Band Ab
Number of open roles: 5
Locations: Sheffield with some travel to London
Hours: 37 hours/week (42 hours incl. lunch)
Working pattern: flexible working, full time, part time
Interview locations: Will be remote via video link
Closing date: 28th April 2020

Introduction

These are exciting times at MOJ Digital and Technology. We have a clear vision – to develop a digitally-enabled justice system that’s better and simpler for everyone. We’re looking for talented people who are passionate about this mission and ready for the challenge.

You’ll be welcomed into a thriving design community and into multidisciplinary teams, alongside user researchers, business analysts, product owners, delivery managers and developers to deliver world-class, user-centred services.

As well as doing great work, we’re creating a place that’s great to work in. We offer brilliant training opportunities, excellent kit and support from expert colleagues. On top of that, you’ll find flexible working, an inclusive culture and a place where your opinion is valued.

The role

Your job will be to lead the design of accessible and impactful services for staff and citizens. You could be designing a sophisticated case management system for probation staff, transactions like sending money to prisoners, or macro-level change like helping people in custody prepare for life outside prison.

You’ll have a strong history of designing complex services. You’ll have strong interpersonal and partnership skills and enjoy working in a delivery focused, agile environment. You’ll be excited by the challenge of understanding user needs and policy goals to support strategy and decision making, and experienced at designing whole services – both end to end and front to back, across business areas and government departments. You’ll understand the way the internet works and want to push the government and the practice of service design beyond where it is now.

As a senior, you’ll have developed a core set of practice skills and you have the ability to define what does good look like across a number of practice approaches. You’ll also be a part of advancing our approach, helping to grow our culture, coaching junior members of the team, and partnering with and inspiring our stakeholders.

Responsibilities

As a Senior Service Designer, you will:

• Work within and across multi-disciplinary teams to design, prototype and build services

• Understand user needs, journeys and motivations across systems, departments and organisational boundaries

• Understand the existing supporting systems of a service — both online and offline
• Understand root causes of failure within existing services
• Confidently identify opportunities for improving outcomes and efficiency within existing services
• Develop design concepts, prototypes and service blueprints that help reimagine how services can be delivered

• Develop trusted relationships with your team and senior stakeholders, successfully bringing them along with you in the design process
• Help to define vision and outcomes for products, services and programmes, shaping strategy and influencing long-lasting change

• Help define what good looks like by welcoming constructive criticism on your work and be able to constructively review the work of others
• Train, mentor and manage other designers
• Take a lead in growing and advancing your Community of Practice

Skills And Experience

The ideal candidates will be able to demonstrate the following skills & experience:

Essential

• Interpreting and analysing user needs and business objectives in highly complex service areas
• Using research and insight to design, prototype and test whole services, from concept to final delivery
• Creating high-quality artefacts such as experience maps and service blueprints
• Confident and experienced in paper and digital prototyping, using tools and applications such as InVision, Sketch and Adobe Creative Suite
• Confident and experienced in leading workshops, design sprints and co-design with stakeholders and users
• Can confidently talk to developers and understands security, accessibility, version control and hosting
• A strong understanding and application of mixed design methodologies such as user-centred design, systems thinking or futures thinking to solve complex social problems
• Confident and experienced in leading design vision and explaining design concepts in a clear and compelling way to influence strategy and delivery
• Confident and experienced working in a fast paced, agile environment
• Confident and experienced in coaching or supporting junior designers
• A minimum of 3 years of relevant industry experience
• Experience of designing at scale

Desirable

• Experience of prototyping in HTML or CSS
• Designing in highly technical environments

Our selection process

Candidates MUST Submit The Following

• a current and relevant CV, including a link to a portfolio showing your relevant work (if you don’t have a portfolio online, please upload it to Google Drive and include a link to it in your CV);
• a Cover letter (1 page max) outlining why you are interested in the role and how you meet the essential skills and experience required;

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles, a flexible framework, to assess candidates against a range of elements using a variety of selection methods, therefore giving you the opportunity to demonstrate the various elements required to be successful in the role.

We Look For People Who Exhibit The Core Civil Service Behaviours

Through shortlisting applications and at interview we will be assessing how you meet the skills and experience outlined in the job description.

• Leadership
• Communicating and influencing
• Working together
• Developing self and others
• Making effective decisions
• Delivering at pace
• Seeing the big picture
• Changing and improving
• Managing a quality service

We are an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status or disability status.

The job advert lists the essential, specialist skills and experience as well as key Civil Service competencies required for the role.

At the CV review/sift stage we will use the technical/specialist skills and experience to determine your suitability for the role.

At the Interview the panel will ask you open-ended questions to which they are seeking answers/evidence of essential, previous skills, experience and behaviours in order to guide their hiring decision.

Note: due to the volume of applications we receive we are unable to provide feedback after the CV review (sift) stage.

Salary and working arrangements

If successful, the salary we offer you will be within the advertised range and will depend on the skills and experience you demonstrate at the interview. Therefore in your cover letter it would be helpful to the hiring teams if you can indicate your salary expectations and if possible your notice period.

Benefits

• A generous pension scheme on average of up to 22%
• 25 days leave, plus bank holidays, plus 1 privilege day usually taken around the Queens’ birthday
• 1 additional day of leave for every year you work, up to a maximum of 5 extra days
• Flexible working – whether it’s working from home or remotely, working part-time, job sharing, or working compressed hours, we have people doing it and are happy to discuss options with you
• Access to training and development through Civil Service Learning, GDS Academy and Pluralsight
• Great maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!
• Bike loans and secure bike parking (subject to availability and location)
• Season ticket loans, childcare vouchers, and eye-care vouchers.
• Some offices may have a subsidised onsite Gym.
• Up to 5 days paid leave for voluntary work you may wish to undertake

Things you need to know

Security and Immigration checks

Successful candidates must pass a disclosure and barring security check.

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed

Candidates will be subject toUK immigration requirements as well asCivil Service nationality rules

If you’re applying for a role requiring security clearance please be aware that foreign or dual nationality is not an automatic bar. However certain posts may have restrictions which could affect those who do not have sole British nationality or who have personal connections with certain countries outside the UK.

Nationality Requirements

Open to the UK,Commonwealth andEuropean Economic Area (EEA) and certain non EEA nationals. Further information on whether you are able to apply is available here.

Eligibility

Candidates in their probationary period are not eligible to apply for vacancies within this department.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s recruitment principles.

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equality of opportunity. There is a guaranteed interview scheme (GIS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. Contact point for applicants- for further information regarding this role please contact MoJ D&T Recruitment.

Further information

All Civil Servants will adhere to the ‘Civil Service code’, which outlines the Civil Service’s core values, and the standards of behaviour expected of all civil servants in upholding these values.

Note for current Civil Servants: If successful, the salary offered would normally be determined by applying the MoJ salary progression rules. If the appointment is on level transfer your substantive salary (excluding any allowances) will remain unchanged, unless it exceeds the maximum stated within the MoJ pay band, and unless your current salary is below the relevant MoJ grade minimum. If the appointment is on temporary or substantive promotion the salary will be increased by the appropriate promotion percentage or moved to the minimum of the relevant MoJ grade minimum, whichever is the greater.

Note for non Civil servant applicants: This post is open to UK Nationals, Commonwealth Citizens, EEA Nationals of other member states and certain non-EEA family members. There must be no employment restrictions or time limit on your permitted stay in the UK. You should normally have been resident in the United Kingdom for at least 3 years and in some cases 5 or even 10 years preceding your application due to the requirement to have a checkable history for security vetting purposes. If you answer ‘No’ to the questions regarding nationality then it is unlikely your application will be pursued. If you are unsure as to your eligibility on any of these points, please contact the recruitment team for clarification or advice.

This position is currently being advertised on a 3.5 year fixed term basis:

• Civil Servant Applicants should be aware there may be an opportunity for you to be transferred on a permanent basis if this role has been advertised as a fixed term appointment.
• Non Civil Servant Applicants should be aware there may be an opportunity for this post to be converted to permanency if it has been advertised as a fixed term appointment.