Principal Service Designer

As a Principal Service Designer, you’ll work on challenging problems that require an understanding of complex services and systems, as well as the wider context they sit within.

You will still practice as a service designer but you will also focus on defining a strategic approach and ensuring delivery quality across large projects or programmes.

This role is within the Police & Public Protection Technology Team. Day-to-day, you will be part of a project team and will work with team members and stakeholders to:

• explore and understand the problem space
• ensure services are accessible, inclusive and meet the needs of users
• resolve discrepancies between service design approach and organisational aims
• promote the benefits of user-centred design

As the service design authority in your area, you will be expected to lead and assure the work of other service designers and provide guidance on best practice.

You will also be expected to raise awareness of what good service design looks like across the Home Office and wider government service design community, by sharing experience and insight that others can learn from.

CDD provides support and expertise to portfolios in achieving the Home Office ambition to transform digital public services and deliver world class digital technology and systems by transitioning towards a ‘Good Product Centric organisational structure’ as defined by ‘Government policy paper – Transforming for a digital future: 2022 to 2025 roadmap for digital and data’, whilst increasing User Centred Design and research standards across PPPT.​

CDD’s structure comprises a Senior Leadership team of Product, Delivery, Design and Research experts who provide advice, support and coaching into programmes, a multidisciplinary team who support programmes hands-on with transitioning from ‘project’ to ‘product’, develop reusable resources and communities of practice to aid this change, and an enabling function who manage the communications, stakeholder and PMO responsibilities

In partnership with Policing & Law Enforcement CDD will optimise delivery of technology and ensure a better user experience in PPPT to meet the user’s needs whilst remaining the trusted delivery partner of choice for our customers.

 Responsibilities

Your main day-to-day responsibilities will be:

• leading projects, planning the design approach, and facilitating activities that help teams and stakeholders understand the problem space and assess the implication of design decisions
• creating compelling policy and service solutions based on decisions that are informed by user research, data patterns, policy and operational intent and technical architecture
• ensuring that delivery teams build services that are accessible and inclusive, supporting the Head of Service Design to develop and embed best practice guidelines
• establishing an effective user-centred design (UCD) culture, persuading stakeholders and staff groups of the value of service design, and embedding UCD practices into teams’ agile workflows
• engaging with senior stakeholders to present project findings and related recommendations to senior decision makers across government.
• managing other service designers, including setting goals, conducting performance reviews and mentoring junior members of staff
• leading the PPPT Design Community of Practice
• engaging with industry professionals across the Home Office and government to drive profession development and ways of working

Other day-to-day activities

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

• supporting an inclusive community of practice that enables service designers to share ideas and best practice, and proactively help and support each other
• assuring services to make sure they are accessible and meet both Home Office and government standards
• representing the department and DDaT on a range of internal and external working groups

Essential skills

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

• analysing and evaluating complex problems, understanding the wider systems they sit within, to identify opportunities for cost reduction and improvement

• leading on the design and implementation of services across people, process, and technology, front stage and back stage, to ensure that user needs and target outcomes are being met

• structuring and managing the design process, framing problems and identifying measurable target outcomes to minimise ambiguity and align effort

• effectively and persuasively communicating information and ideas across

• organisational and technical boundaries, using diagrams, prototypes and written narratives

• engaging with stakeholders at all levels, advocating for user centred ways of working and managing expectations as needed

• considering the needs of diverse audiences to ensure teams design accessible and inclusive digital services

Our skills align with the cross gov DDaT Capability Framework ​​