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These are exciting times at the Department for Education. We are transforming to become a user centred organisation, delivering better outcomes for all our users through agile and iterative software development and continuous improvement.

You will work with user researchers, product managers, designers, business analysts, delivery managers and content specialists as part of a multi-disciplinary team to directly deliver better outcomes for users. You will innovate to radically transform how public services are delivered and improved.

Read more about software development on the DfE Digital blog.

Senior service designer

You will

  • will work with service managers and programme directors to develop design concepts, that cut across departments where necessary
  • may have responsibility across complex services
  • will help set direction and embed good practice within teams (Mentor and coach individuals and service teams, support education including inductions, training and workshops.)
  • will make important decisions based on research and understand how this research impacts others
  • Contribute and lead to help shape a vibrant, diverse and passionate service design community and UCD family and help to mature the profession capability, standards and service design design
  • prioritise understanding the needs and behaviour of users and know how to use this insight to underpin and drive the work that we do
  • communicate effectively to share the as-is and the future vision of the service, working closely with service owners to help define the backlog, pulling together aspects such as user research, business design, data science, policy intent and key metrics
  • analyse failure within a service and identify root causes for that failure
  • negotiate policy and legislative change to support new services
  • map/prototype end-to-end services and understand how they fit into wider societal, service, system and organisational contexts
  • identify and design new service patterns and standards that scale
  • coach, mentor and train other designers, helping set and communicate good practice to improve quality and consistency across DfE’s transformation programmes
  • know how to design inclusive, accessible digital services that solve a whole problem for users
  • understand the existing system of your service and work with teams to target improvements and cost reductions
  • help people and teams overcome complexity, running and synthesising workshops to create clarity, alignment and direction
  • analyse failure within services and identify root causes for failures

You’ll have

Essential

  • Evidence and context-based design. You know how to design systems for use across multiple services and can identify the simplest approach out of a variety of approaches.

  • Leadership and guidance. You can change organisational structures to fixable and sustainable designs. You know how to lead on the strategy for the whole organisation, marrying business needs with innovative analysis. You can make and justify decisions characterised by high levels of risk, impact and complexity. You know how to build consensus between organisations (private or public) or highly independent and diverse stakeholders. You can solve and unblock issues between teams or departments at the highest level. You understand the psychology of a team and have strong mediation skills.

  • User focus. You know how to give direction on which tools or methods to use. You are experienced in meeting the needs of users across a variety of channels. You’ll have significant experience collaborating with teams and stakeholders to help define the problem that needs to be solved. You can bring insight and expertise in how user needs have changed over time to ensure these are met by the business.

  • Facilitation. You’re confident using facilitation and co-design approaches and service design methodologies to bring users, stakeholders, and individuals together to frame problems, agree on shared purpose and shape a design process to deliver desired service outcomes.

  • Prototyping. You are experienced in using a variety of methods of prototyping your vision and engaging others with how the world could be. You know how to share best practice and can coach others. You can look at strategic service design end to end. You know how to involve your team, stakeholders and users and build feedback and validation into your ways of working.