Senior Service Designer

HMRC is looking for a Senior Service Designer who is passionate about User-centred Design.

HMRC’s services are complex, you need to enjoy tricky problems and thinking about how services and policies will interact. With complex services we have a complex user base – millions of people have to use these services, which means a range of different needs and outcomes.

We want people who are curious about who will use a service, how they will interact with it and how something can be improved, testing those improvements through their design work.

Alongside working on a policy or service problem you’ll be a member of a developing service design community; the community provides a safe space to test out design ideas and offer support to other service designers to attain the best possible outcomes.

If this sounds like the sort of thing which excites you, this is the job for you. Watch this video, where we talk about what HMRC does and then how the work we do helps create better services.

Want to know more about the role?

Join our webinar on (22 October 2025 at 12pm) to talk with the vacancy holder.

To register your interest, please email ucdrecruitment@hmrc.gov.uk quoting Webinar – Senior Service Designer.

Key Responsibilities

As a senior Service Designer, you will:

• Provide service design expertise across multiple or complex services to help shape policy decisions .
• Develop user-centred services that meet user needs and fulfil business outcomes.
• Use and promote best practice and standards to design usable and inclusive services consistent with the rest of government and HMRC.
• Analyse pain points and failure points within services and create recommendations to address any issues identified.
• Map current service journeys and design service blueprints for new and/or improved services or processes across multiple channels.
• Effectively communicate complex information and ideas using sketches, scenarios, diagrams, maps, prototypes, and written narratives for multiple audiences.
• Build collaborative relationships within teams and with senior stakeholders across the organisation.
• Effectively use facilitation skills with teams and stakeholders to build a shared understanding of problems to be solved, work through challenges and enable design-led decision making.

You will also be expected to:

• Line manage, coach and mentor Service Designers – providing them with guidance, support, constructive feedback and design direction.
• Lead peer review sessions with other profession members to ensure service design standards are upheld across the organisation.
• Actively participate in the HMRC and cross-government design communities by leading community sessions and supporting initiatives.
• Seek out opportunities for learning and improvement by getting feedback from your colleagues and the business.

Essential Criteria

You will already have considerable experience and understanding of:

• Designing large or complex services that meet user needs and organisational outcomes, across all channels.
• Using user research and data to understand user needs, identify and understand problems, inform design decisions and influence stakeholders.
• Clearly and effectively communicating complex information and ideas, using things like sketches, user journeys, diagrams, maps, prototypes, and written narratives.
• Planning and facilitating workshops with senior stakeholders across organisational boundaries, end users and/or internal users.
• Engaging and collaborating with teams and stakeholders in a variety of ways to build a shared understanding of problems to be solved, work through challenges and facilitate design-led decision-making.
• Experience of leading, managing, coaching or mentoring people.