Head of Service Design

Job summary

HM Land Registry's services form part of the critical national infrastructure, safeguarding land and property ownership valued at £8 trillion. This enables over £1 trillion worth of personal and commercial lending to be secured against property across England and Wales.

For 160 years we have played a key role in the UK’s economic stability and growth. We are now looking for an experienced senior service designer, or design leader with experience of working on complex services or systems to join us as Head of Service Design to help transform these critical services for the future.

Job description

This is a senior leadership role within the User Centred Design team in Customer and Strategy, offering a unique opportunity to shape how HMLR designs and delivers its services. As the lead for Service Design, you will set the strategic direction for the discipline, guide and inspire multidisciplinary teams, and champion the value of service design across the organisation. You will play a pivotal role in ensuring service design informs, shapes and delivers HMLR's service strategy and supports the effective delivery of policy intent.

Working closely with the Head of User Centred Design, you will be responsible for ensuring services are user centred, effective, and bring measurable value to the organisation. As an experienced service design expert operating in an agile, digital environment, you will act as a role model and advocate for the evolution of our services within HMLR, government, and the wider industry. This is a complex and challenging role that will see the re-design of many paper-based and legacy services and the transformation of our data into something innovative and fit for purpose, that will change the future of land registration.

Person specification

You will be a highly experienced service designer, or design leader, with a strong track record of working on complex services and systems, operating confidently at senior level. With hands‑on expertise in service design, you will be skilled in applying and standardising service design practices, methodologies, frameworks and tools to drive meaningful improvements to user experience and organisational outcomes. You will be recognised as a service design expert, with proven experience of leading, developing and empowering service designers.You will be highly effective at building positive, trusted relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, using strong communication, influencing and persuasion skills to build credibility for service design at all levels. You will understand the bigger picture for a service to uncover long‑term challenges and opportunities, and working with senior leaders to shape these into a compelling vision for the future.

HMLR believe that a blended approach to where you work that enables some time working from home, as well as in the office may give you an improved experience and has clear business benefits. We expect everyone to spend at least 60% of their working time in the office. Beyond this expectation, there is no one size fits all approach (and we can spend up to 100% working in the office if we prefer).

For more information about the role, please see the attached job description.

Qualifications

Recognised qualification in digital design, technology or related subject.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Leadership
• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Making Effective Decisions

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £78,200, HM Land Registry contributes £22,654 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

#WeAreHMLR

At HM Land Registry our vision is a world leading property market as part of a thriving economy and a sustainable future. We are unique in terms of the economic and social impacts of our work, our ability to make a positive difference to the lives of our customers, our sense of mission, and our great people. They are the foundation of all we have achieved and all we aspire to in the future. We want our people to feel proud to work for HM Land Registry and able to fulfil their full potential.

We have a strong and positive culture, a commitment to inclusivity, an emphasis on continuous learning and development, and flexible ways of working. We offer competitive pay and annual leave, attractive pension options and a wide range of other benefits.

• We have integrity – we value honesty, trust and doing the right thing in the right way.
• We drive innovation – we are forward-thinking, embrace change and are continually improving our processes.
• We are professional – we value and grow our knowledge and professional expertise.
• We give assurance – we guarantee our services and provide confidence to the property market.

You can find more information on our rewards package on our website.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths and Experience.

Please copy and paste an anonymous CV into the online application form when prompted and provide details of your career history and qualifications, including a recognised qualification in digital design, technology or related subject.

The personal statement section (in no more than 1,000 words) must be used to provide details of how you meet the essential experience criteria listed in the attached job description.

In the event of a high volume of applications, we reserve the right to assess against the lead essential experience criteria listed below first:

• Extensive experience as a senior service designer or design leader working on complex services or systems.

Please review your application form before clicking ‘submit’ – once you have submitted, you will not be able to amend your application. Ensure your application form is received by the closing date for receipt of applications – this is 23:55pm on the advertised date.

The sift will take place shortly after the closing date. If successful at the shortlisting stage, you will be invited to attend a virtual, blended interview including a pre-prepared presentation. Interviews will be held in person at the Coventry Office week commencing Monday 20 April 2026.

The blended interview will assess the behaviours listed in the job description, as well as the strengths associated with the role. We want to hear your first, unrehearsed, natural response to the strength questions, and so we don’t advertise which strengths are being tested. The best way to prepare for strengths questions is to reflect on what you identify as your own personal strengths, and your preferred ways of working.

Candidates can refer to notes within their interview, but they should be used as a prompt only.

HMLR is accredited to the Disability Confidence Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum essential criteria at the shortlisting stage may be invited to attend an interview.

If any candidate requires the panel to consider a reasonable adjustment or there is anything else they would like the panel to take into consideration, they are asked to notify us of this at application stage where possible or during the process as soon as it becomes a requirement.

Visa Sponsorship

Please note, we will only offer sponsorship for a skilled worker visa where a role is in a certain business critical category. This role does not meet that category, and we will not sponsor a skilled worker visa. You must ensure you have the appropriate right to work in the UK before applying.

You can find more information on how we use your personal data on our website.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Annemarie Kiddle
• Email : Annmarie.Kiddle@landregistry.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : hrresourcingteam2@landregistry.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance to the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, please email hrresourcingteam2@landregistry.gov.uk in the first instance. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from HM Land Registry then you may take your complaint to the Civil Service Commission: http://civilservicecommission.independent.gov.uk/making-complaint/

Attachments

Transformation & Technology Candidate Pack 2026 Opens in new window (pdf, 2218kB)Job Description Opens in new window (pdf, 202kB)