Lead Service Designer

We are looking for an expert practitioner with broad industry experience.  As a strong influencer and practitioner, you will be able to define and assure best practice, leading, coaching, and mentoring others, including coaching senior stakeholders and professionals from other disciplines in service design, agile and user-centeredness.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Provide expert UCD leadership to shape the service design practice and improve ways of working by integrating and embedding consistent and high-quality professional standards.
• Develop and shape strategies to introduce and drive awareness of service design practices, building the influence of our team across the organisation, using advanced negotiating and influencing skills with senior leaders across our organisation to embed effective practice in service development and redesign
• Analyse and understand the expectations of service owners and product teams to resolve complex problems, shaping and defining the design work needed on projects. Ensuring design is informed by data and insight to support faster and more accurate decision making at scale.
• Work with service teams to design the scope of new services across the end-to-end health protection journey so that it works seamlessly for users.  Act as the voice of users in the design of our services bringing insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure they are met and/or exceeded by the business and are continually evolving to anticipate future needs
• Provide expertise and guidance in designing and iterating customer journeys across multiple channels. Apply strategic and effective design thinking on specific projects. Balancing user needs and stakeholder goals to design the services and products that UKHSA supports.
• You will work with the Head of User Centred Design (HUCD) to define UKHSA’s approach to service design; creating the right environment to establish the design profession within UKHSA, ensuring your team can flourish and promoting a user-centred approach to service design and improvement across end-to-end health protection services, leading your team to design stand out, equitable and inclusive services, and transforming organisational culture.
• You will report to the HUCD and as a member of the User-Centred Design senior team, you will embody transformational and inclusive leadership
• Represent UKHSA’s service design capability across government, NHS and the wider public health system.
• Undertake the full range of line management responsibilities as well as providing coaching and support to staff across UKHSA; proactively develop, promote and monitor staff engagement and wellbeing measures, striving to make improvements, year on year.
• Deliver, influence and shape best in class digital and non-digital products and services. Ensuring design work is of a high quality and meets accessibility and inclusivity requirements – defining standards, prioritising improvements, and providing constructive feedback on designers’ work

Essential Criteria

• Significant experience of working at a senior level within a service and/or interaction design role and of using UCD methods and practices in large, complex organisations, with a good understanding of the key standards to be addressed in their application and assuring the quality of design delivery.
• Proven track record in navigating complex stakeholder landscapes, leading and managing relationships with a variety of senior internal and external stakeholders, including the ability to work across boundaries to influence and gain the confidence of senior leaders for service improvements
• Experience leading and planning the work of others across multiple strands of work, working directly with other professions to ensure effective and timely delivery
• Proven leadership and line management skills with track record of embedding design standards, governance and assurance mechanisms
• Able to use research and data to negotiate design decisions and guide the strategic direction of services and products, designing and iterating customer journeys, products and services across multiple channels. You can be accountable for design decisions.
• Able to explain the value and practice of service and/or interaction design, and design ideas and concepts, in a way that other people understand

Desirable Criteria

• Experience of guiding teams to/designing services that meet the government and/or NHS service standard – including experience of being assessed or assessing government services against the standard
• Able to coach and lead teams in Agile and Lean practices, determining the right approach for the team to take and evaluating this through the life of a project. Able to think of new and innovative ways of working to achieve the right outcomes
• Knowledge of the barriers to access which affect participation in public health interventions, able to demonstrate the importance of designing inclusive, equitable, accessible and sustainable public services, with understanding of best in class in inclusive service design