Description:
We are looking for a Lead Service Designer to join our User-Centred Design (UCD) practice.
You will work within multidisciplinary teams delivering complex digital transformation programmes across public and private sector organisations. Lead Service Designers play a key role in ensuring services are designed holistically across user journeys, organisational processes and supporting systems.
This role involves working across the full lifecycle of digital services, from early problem exploration and sales support through discovery, design and delivery to live service improvement.
You will collaborate closely with UX designers, user researchers, content designers, engineers, product managers and architects to guide service design activities and ensure services respond to real user needs while operating within organisational, technical and regulatory constraints.
Key Responsibilities:
Service design leadership in projects
- Define and guide the service design approach within projects
- Ensure service design activities are coordinated across teams and delivery phases
- Maintain a holistic view of services across journeys, channels and organisational touchpoints
- Support teams in translating research insights and business goals into coherent service solutions
Service systems and journey design
- Map and analyse complex service ecosystems involving users, processes, technology and policy
- Develop artefacts such as service blueprints, journey maps and ecosystem maps
- Help teams understand how different service components interact
- Identify opportunities to simplify services and improve user journeys
Working across the delivery lifecycle
- Help shape service design activities during early project stages, including problem exploration and discovery
- Ensure service thinking informs design and delivery decisions across multidisciplinary teams
- Support teams in translating discovery insights into practical service improvements
- Ensure services continue to evolve based on user feedback and operational insights once live
Collaboration and consulting
- Facilitate workshops and collaborative activities with multidisciplinary teams and stakeholders
- Work closely with engineers, architects and designers to ensure service solutions are feasible and coherent
- Communicate complex service challenges clearly to stakeholders
- Support teams and organisations in making evidence-based decisions about service improvements
Contributing to design practice
- Support and mentor service designers and other team members within delivery teams
- Advocate for user-centred and evidence-based approaches to service design
- Contribute to strengthening service design practices within projects
Qualifications
Skills and Experience
We are looking for designers who combine strong service design capability with the ability to work in complex organisational environments. You may have gained your experience in consulting, government, product companies or digital transformation programmes.
Essential
- Experience applying service design methods to complex digital products or services
- Ability to understand and map complex service ecosystems involving multiple stakeholders and systems
- Experience working in multidisciplinary teams alongside researchers, designers, engineers and product managers
- Strong facilitation and stakeholder collaboration skills
- Ability to communicate complex systems and service challenges clearly
- Experience supporting teams across multiple stages of digital service delivery
- Understanding of accessibility and inclusive design principles
Preferred Experience
We would particularly welcome candidates with experience in:
- Consulting or digital transformation environments
- Enterprise technology ecosystems
- UK Government or public sector services
- Designing services within complex organisational or regulatory environments
We are interested in designers who are curious about how emerging technologies are changing digital services. This includes interest in:
- how artificial intelligence is shaping service experiences
- how new tools and technologies can improve research and design practice
- how organisations can responsibly integrate new technologies into services that work for people