About the role

As a Service Designer at dxw, you’ll be a hands‑on designer working within multidisciplinary teams to help create and improve public services that meet real user needs and deliver value for clients. This role sits between Junior and Senior levels and focuses on developing strong service design practice while contributing meaningfully to client work.

You’ll collaborate closely with user researchers, content designers, developers, delivery colleagues, business analysts and client teams. Working across different stages of the service lifecycle, you’ll help teams understand problems, explore opportunities and design services that work across front and back stages.

This is a practitioner role. You’ll be supported by more senior designers and the wider UCD community, with opportunities to grow your skills, confidence and impact over time.

Alongside project work, you’ll contribute to dxw’s service design discipline by sharing knowledge and helping improve how we work. You’ll also take part in wider design and company activities and may contribute to internal initiatives.

We value diverse perspectives and encourage people with a broad range of experience to apply. We are particularly interested in candidates with experience within the health and justice sectors.

Key responsibilities

• Apply human‑centred service design methods to explore, shape and improve services across the full service lifecycle.

• Work on services at different stages, from early discovery and strategy to transformation and improvement of live services, in line with the Government Service Manual.

• Use a range of methods to identify challenges and opportunities across frontstage and backstage service experiences.

• Create clear and useful design artefacts, such as service blueprints, user journeys, flow diagrams and prototypes, to support shared understanding and decision‑making.

• Work as part of multidisciplinary, agile teams, often blended with dxw, client and partner colleagues.

• Collaborate closely with other designers, researchers, developers and delivery leads to design and test ideas.

• Communicate design ideas, insights and rationale clearly to a range of audiences.

• Support inclusive, collaborative ways of working within teams and with clients.

• Help teams and clients understand service design approaches and the value they bring.

• Support clients to build their own service design capability and skills where appropriate.

• Balance exploration and delivery, helping teams move forward while learning from evidence.

• Contribute to the development and improvement of dxw’s service design practices and ways of working.

• Support recruitment activity and contribute to strengthening the service design practice.

• Share learning, experiences and ideas with the wider design community at dxw.

Expectations of the role

• You will be a practitioner designer, spending most of your time working hands‑on on client projects.

• You will work with guidance and support from senior designers, while taking ownership of your own design tasks and outputs.

• You will be expected to collaborate closely with others and seek support when needed.

• You will contribute to a supportive, learning‑focused design community at dxw.

About you

You care about designing public services that work well for the people who rely on them, and you’re motivated by understanding complex problems and improving systems.

You:

• Have around 2–3 years’ experience working in service design or a related role.

• Believe in the value and impact that service design can bring to organisations and users.

• Are comfortable working as part of a multidisciplinary team.

• Work in ways that support inclusion, equity and accessibility.

• Have a working knowledge of agile methodologies.

• Have practical experience using human‑centred service design methods.

• Can create and explain design artefacts that help teams and clients understand problems and opportunities.

• Have strong communication skills and can articulate design ideas and insights clearly.

• Are curious, willing to try new things, and know when to ask for help.

• Are interested in contributing to and learning from the wider design community.

About dxw

We’re an employee-owned agency of technology, design and delivery experts who work primarily with public and third sector organisations to build usable and accessible digital services that fit seamlessly into user’s lives.

We help organisations like the NHS, the Department for Education, and Citizens Advice spend less money on technology, so that they can spend more on helping the most vulnerable. We aim not only to produce better services, but to radically and permanently improve people’s interactions with government AND to make it a better instrument of good.

Recent projects include improving access to adult social care, supporting rehabilitation of people leaving prison, and many more.

One of the things that makes us different is that we are employee-owned, so we are not beholden to external shareholders, and are protected against being taken over by private equity. It also means we can prioritise being an inclusive employer, reducing our impact on the planet, and working in the open. We particularly encourage applications from people who are underrepresented in tech and/or looking for flexible working arrangements.

What we offer

We want our team to feel supported both inside and outside of work. Alongside a competitive salary, we offer a range of benefits designed to promote flexibility, wellbeing, and long-term security:

• Time off & balance: A generous 28 days of annual leave per year, plus all England bank holidays. We also offer a holiday buy and sell scheme, giving you the flexibility to customise your time off to suit you.

• Family-first support: Up to 18 weeks of paid parental leave to support your family, depending on your situation.

• Health & wellbeing: A healthcare cash plan providing financial support to help cover everyday medical, dental, and optical costs, plus 24/7 confidential support and counselling whenever you need it.

• Workplace flexibility: Flexible hours to support your work-life balance, top-tier tech, and a home office budget to build a comfortable setup.

• Collaborative environments: Full access to our London and Leeds offices, alongside a network of co-working spaces across the UK.

• Financial future & travel: We’ll match your pension contributions up to 6%, provide comprehensive life cover, and offer interest-free season ticket loans alongside the Cycle to Work scheme.

How to apply

We use Applied for hiring to make our process as fair as possible.

As part of our process, we’ll ask you to provide written answers to a few short questions related to the work you’d do on the job.

Our hiring panel will review these anonymously. If you score well, we’ll then review your CV and invite you to an initial chat to get the ball rolling. From there, our hiring process typically involves two stages, at least one of which is a formal interview.