Junior Service Designer

Digital Data and Technology (DDaT) enables the Home Office to keep the UK safe and secure. We design and build the services that help people apply for visas or passports; support policing and counter-terrorism operations; and protect the UK’s borders.

This is an exciting time to be at the Home Office. You’ll have a chance to shape the future and support our mission to deliver exceptional public services that work for everyone.

Our work is guided by these principles:

• we put user needs first
• we value delivery and outcomes over process
• we work in the open

Our flexible working policy ensures a healthy work-life balance. We also nurture talent and offer a broad range of learning and development opportunities that will help you flourish in your role.
We work hard to maintain a positive working culture and are committed to helping you fulfil your potential. We value diversity and provide an open, inclusive and supportive environment to help you do your best work.

The Home Office operate a hybrid working model means that staff will need to attend their workplace a minimum of 40% of their contracted hours, averaged over an agreed period which suits business needs.

You can keep up-to-date with our work on the Home Office DDaT blog

We’re looking for a Junior Service Designer to join our successful Digital Career Development Programme and who wants to make a lasting impact on how the Home Office delivers user-centred products and services.

Our Service Designers work in multi-disciplinary team in on some of the most exciting and impactful services that government delivers for the public, as well as internal systems for more than 35,000 staff across the department.

Some of the projects you could work on include:

• designing our ongoing work to digitise the entire visa application process and integrating a series of separate products into a more cohesive user experience;
• improving the technology systems for Border Force officers to reduce rework and improve their experience;
• creating user-centred asylum application systems to make applying simpler for applicants.

You can learn more about design and research in the Home Office on our blog:

Refugee integration loans: a Policy CoLab case study

https://hodigital.blog.gov.uk/2018/12/20/content-is-crucial-but-the-right-design-is-essential/A product-centric approach to the EU Settlement Scheme;

How inclusive services help us to deliver effectively

By looking at our design system and internal style guide.

As a Junior Service Designer, you’ll look at the end to end experience of our services, to identify problems and reimagine how the service or policy should work. You’ll work as part of a multi-disciplinary team to test ideas, challenge assumptions, and propose design solutions based on user needs.

Our development programme is an 18-month contract, which combines development activities, mentoring, job shadowing, structured learning and applying your learning on a charity project.

At the 12-month point, you’ll have the opportunity to apply for a permanent role and promotion within the Home Office. This programme is an excellent opportunity to learn from experienced service designers and begin your own career as a service designer in government.

We’re looking for people who are collaborative, inclusive, open to their work being critiqued and who are empathetic towards their colleagues and users. A healthy balance of determinism and pragmatism will be needed on our complex services and products.

If you want to join us in keeping the UK safe and secure and ensuring that our services for migrants and asylum seekers are easier and simpler to use, apply now.

Learn more at our online event

We will hold an online event in August (whilst the advert is open) to provide an opportunity to hear more about the Programme and ask questions.

If you would like to attend, please email DigitalDevelopmentProgramme@digital.homeoffice.gov.uk (please specify the role you are interested in).

As a service designer on this development programme, you will:

• Identify opportunities to improve the performance of existing services.

• Create compelling service solutions by drawing on multiple inputs, such as user research, operational insights, and data patterns.

• Understand and appropriately balance the needs of users, providers and government.

• Help develop the end-to-end view on projects, creating service visualisations to help teams understand, scope, and explore their work.

• Rapidly create sketches, diagrams, and lo-fi prototypes to share and test ideas.

You will also be expected to carry out the following day to day activities:

• Present findings and designs to team members.

• Identify and raise any blockers to design activities.

Essential skills

You’ll have a demonstrable passion for user-centred design, with the following skills or experience in:

• Mapping services and analysing end-to-end user journeys to identify where services aren’t performing.

• Working with the different elements of a service, including processes, people, and technology, to create designs that meet user needs.

• Creating diagrams and visualisations to communicate concepts.

• Understanding of the design process and how to work in a multi-disciplinary team.

• Planning and facilitating workshops.

• Considering the needs of diverse audiences to design accessible and inclusive services.

Our skills align with the cross gov DDaT Capability Framework ​​ Digital, Data and Technology Profession Capability Framework – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)​

Desirable skills

Ideally you will also have the following skills or some experience in:

• Working in an agile development environment.

• Managing workload effectively.

• Familiarity with the Government Service Standard.

Candidates reaching the required standard and attending the final interview, will be assessed using technical and experience-based questions. Technical level definitions can be found via https://www.gov.uk/guidance/service-designer

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Evidence and context-based design