Service Designer

As a Service Designer, your job will be to work with skilled multidisciplinary teams to design, prototype, and build excellent public services. You’ll create multi-channel, cross-government services that are user-centered, equitable, sustainable, and accessible. 

You’ll help identify and fix some of the toughest problems in public infrastructure and you will be focussing on the design of services at scale. You’ll help the government transform the way it delivers services so that they’re more efficient, simpler, faster, and easier to use.

As a service designer, you will:

• analyse failure within services and identify root causes for that failure
• identify opportunities for cost reduction and improvement within an existing service
• understand user needs and identify where separate interactions with the government should act as one service that meets that need
• arrange these separate interactions into rational user journeys within that service
• look for commonalities in activities across services where products could be made 
• understand the existing supporting system of a service and design targeted improvements to that system to accommodate the new service - both digital and process-based
• create and rapidly iterate service prototypes and wireframes
• identify and design new cross-government service patterns and standards
• champion accessibility within service design to provide service teams with the support and guidance they need to meet accessibility standards.

Person specification

We’ll review applications against the following criteria:

• Service Design: you have an understanding of the importance of inclusive, equitable, accessible and sustainable public services. You have experience in designing services for users in complex environments. You have experience in making effective decisions with user research data. You can absorb large amounts of conflicting information and use it to produce simple designs.
• User focus - you know how to collaborate with user researchers and can represent users internally. You understand the difference between user needs and the desires of the user. You can champion user research to focus on all users. You can prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so. You can offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to be used.
• Leadership and guidance - you contribute to best-practice guidelines. You understand the sustainability and consequences of your decisions and can make decisions characterised by managed levels of risk and complexity. You can resolve technical disputes between wider peers and indirect stakeholders, taking into account all views and opinions.
• Prototyping - you approach prototyping as a team activity, actively soliciting prototypes and testing with others. You can establish design patterns and iterate them. You can use a variety of methods of prototyping and choose the most appropriate ones. You can develop prototypes with tools and/or the GOV.UK prototyping kit.
• Strategic thinking - you can define strategies and policies, providing guidance to others on working in the strategic context. You know how to evaluate current strategies to ensure business requirements are being met and exceeded where possible.
• Agile working - you have experience of working in agile, including an awareness of agile tools and how to use them. You can advise colleagues on how and why agile methods are used and be able to provide a clear, open and transparent framework in which teams can deliver. 

This role is aligned with the Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Capability Framework for the Civil Service. You can view the Service Designer role at https://ddat-capability-framework.service.gov.uk/service-designer.html

Benefits

The benefits of working at CDDO

There are many benefits including:

• flexible hybrid working with flexi-time and the option to work part-time or condensed hours
• a Civil Service Pension with an average employer contribution of 27%
• 25 days of annual leave, increasing by a day each year up to a maximum of 30 days 
• an extra day off for The King’s birthday
• an in-year bonus scheme to recognise high performance
• career progression and coaching, including a training budget for personal development
• paid volunteering leave 
• a focus on wellbeing with access to an employee assistance programme
• job satisfaction from making government services easier to use and more inclusive for people across the UK
• advances on pay, including for travel season tickets
• death in service benefits
• cycle to work scheme and facilities
• access to children's holiday play schemes across different locations in central London
• access to an employee discounts scheme
• 10 learning days per year
• volunteering opportunities (5 special leave days per year)
• access to a suite of learning activities through Civil Service learning

CDDO offers hybrid working for all employees. This means that everyone does some working from home and also spends some time in their local office. You’ll agree to your hybrid working arrangement with your line manager in line with your preferences and business needs.

Any move to the Central Digital and Data Office from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk

Things you need to know

Selection process details

The standard selection process for roles at CDDO consists of:

• a simple application screening process - We only ask for a CV and cover letter of up to 750 words. Important tip - please ensure that your cover letter includes how you meet the skills and experience listed in the “person specification” section above
• a 60-minute video interview that includes a brief presentation. Comprehensive details will be shared with the shortlisted candidates.

In the event we receive a high number of applications, we will conduct an initial sift on the lead criteria which is: 

• Service Design: you have an understanding of the importance of inclusive, equitable, accessible, and sustainable public services. You have experience in designing services for users in complex environments. You have experience in making effective decisions with user research data. You can absorb large amounts of conflicting information and use it to produce simple designs.

Depending on how many applications we get, there might also be an extra stage before the video interview, for example, a phone interview or a technical exercise.

In the Civil Service, we use Success Profiles to evaluate your skills and abilities. This gives us the best possible chance of finding the right person for the job, increases performance and improves diversity and inclusivity. We’ll be assessing your technical abilities, skills, experience, and behaviours that are relevant to this role.

For this role we’ll be assessing you against the following Civil Service Behaviours: 

• changing and improving
• seeing the bigger picture
• communicating and influencing

We’ll also be assessing you against the following technical skills and experience:

• service design
• prototyping
• user focus

Candidates who do not pass the interview but have demonstrated an acceptable standard may be considered for similar roles at a lower grade.

A reserve list will be held for a period of 12 months, from which further appointments can be made.

We are an equal-opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, colour, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, or disability status.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.