Senior Service Designer

About the role

We are looking for someone to join us as a Senior Service Designer.

As a senior service designer you will work in multidisciplinary teams, often blended from dxw, client and partner staff, including ‘user researchers, content designers, business analysts, developers and others. You will help those teams work together to create products and services that both meet the needs of the different people who will use and be affected by them, and help our clients achieve their intended outcomes.

You will use a wide range of service design approaches and methods in a mix of settings, across strategic projects as well as discovery to live projects in line with the Government Service Manual and dxw design team principles and practices, and support other service designers to do the same. You will deploy familiar forms of co-design and collaboration. You may also bring new approaches to the team to broaden our skillset.

As one of our senior service designers, you will work on more complex projects and guide others in the design team, and our clients too. You will be comfortable working on services at different stages of their life cycle, from early discovery around new and potential services to transformation and improvement of existing ones.

You will work with the whole team to understand and frame the problem, support research, design and facilitate workshops and create the necessary outputs to move the project forward. You will work with our delivery leads to refine project plans, look for opportunities to improve project outcomes and advocate for all forms of design both inside and outside of dxw. 

You will use a range of approaches to create and communicate clear and compelling recommendations, making sure they reach and influence the right people.

You will support your colleagues in sales activities to create good proposals and in project inception to establish human-centered and agile ways of working. During projects you will help clients to build their own service design capability and capacity.

You will help dxw strengthen our service design practice by supporting the hiring, coaching and mentoring of others. You will help to improve the way we work, developing, challenging and documenting our design practices to ensure that service design at dxw is the best it can be. 

You’ll regularly share your experiences with the team and the wider design community to develop your own skills and help others improve.

About us

dxw works with the public and third sectors to create services and products that improve lives. 

We’ve been around since 2008 and worked on lots of projects that have made a real difference - things like helping to reduce reoffending, launching a safe online community platform and raising awareness of poor air quality.

dxw is employee-owned and staff have an important voice in the direction of the company. People - the people who work at dxw, our clients, and the people we create services for - are at the forefront of what we do. 

We encourage people looking for flexible working arrangements to apply.We think it’s important to have diverse teams and aim to create an environment where everyone is supported to do their best and be themselves.

About you

We’re looking for someone who cares about designing and building public services that work well for the people who rely on them. 

You work with empathy and resilience as part of a multidisciplinary, agile team, and support others to do the same. You work in a way that facilitates inclusion, equity and parity both in the teams you work with and the services you will help deliver.

You have a good understanding and practical experience of human-centered service design principles and practice.

You use a wide range of methods to explore and identify challenges and opportunities across the whole service lifecycle, front and back stage. You have a curiosity for, and experience of, working with people, technology, data, systems, including the value and impact that the application of service design can help bring. 

You build effective relationships with multiple stakeholders through collaboration and co-design to align service design activities with project priorities and make sure outcomes are aligned with user needs and make sense to the client organisation.

You can help dxw to hire, supervise, and support the development of other service designers.

You understand the value of good communications. You work with colleagues to help clients understand and adopt a human-centered and agile approach. 

Experience of design in the public sector is ideal but not mandatory. It’s more important that you share our passion for creating public services that improve peoples’ lives.

Nice to haves might include that you may be part of the broader service design community, and interested in challenging and moving our practice on. You may also enjoy writing and speaking on design or other topics. You may have other professional experiences adding breadth to your skillset.

Join us!

You can learn more about dxw, how we work and what matters to us on our website and by reading our playbook.

Our public sector work means that appointments will be made subject to a background check and you must be located and eligible to work in the UK at the point of application. Unfortunately we are currently unable to offer visa sponsorship.