Lead Service Designer

Job summary

Do you want to work on services that help and support millions of people?

Do you want to work of some of the biggest transformational changes in the UK?

If yes, this role may be perfect for you

DWP Digital and Transformation Group offers fulfilling careers for people who want to use their skills to make a genuine difference to society. We’re part of the UK’s biggest government department, supporting millions of people every day.

We deliver products, services, support and payments to people at key times in their lives. Working Age Services is one of the highest profile digital transformation programmes in the world.

Our products and services include a set of new digital tools called the Work Hub, designed to help citizens understand their skills, explore different job roles and careers, find courses to help fill skills gaps, gain work experience, apply for jobs and discover opportunities to progress their careers.

We are also responsible for Universal Credit and other benefit payment systems which are considered national critical infrastructure for over 8 million people in receipt of benefits.

We’re looking for Lead Service Designers who can help the Working Age Services design teams and the wider department to actively seek out, explore and understand key problem statements and collaborate to hypothesise and rapidly test different approaches to deliver outcomes for the people using our services.

We are looking for confident and inquisitive candidates with great facilitation skills who can help bring teams and stakeholders together, provide frameworks and common languages to help us collectively push boundaries and drive new experiences and make use of new technology to help solve problems and improve outcomes for our customers.

We are particularly interested in hearing from candidates who have worked with policy and strategy teams as a large part of this role will be maturing our approach to new and emerging policy.

You’ll be working alongside other user centred design professionals who are committed to deliver the best possible outcomes for all our users and ensuring everything we design is accessible to everyone.

You’ll join a highly supportive community, sharing your expertise, and learning new skills from those around you. As a Lead Service Designer, you will play a critical role in being a mentor and role model for the wider Service Design team.

Job description

As a Lead Service Designer you will lead and drive the exploration and understanding of emerging policy and business strategy for Working Age Services working closely with the Lead Product Managers and Product Strategy team to mature and adapt the service to meet the needs of all the people who use our services.

You will be as passionate about people as you are about service design, championing and leading collaboration between teams spanning digital, policy, legal and others to define, design and deliver a great service.

As a Lead Service Designer you are an expert practitioner. You have a proven track record of representing and advocating for user-centred design even where it’s not present but should be. You will have excellent workshop facilitation and stakeholder skills to engage with colleagues from across the department.

You will have proven experience in driving awareness of service performance and improvement needs which have resulted in successful service outcomes. You understand user needs and business or policy goals and can support strategy and decision making.

You will set direction to define and then implement good practice and make sure that useful guidance, tools and patterns are available across services and teams to solve recurring problems for users. You will define and initiate work to designers so they can visualise whole services, both end to end and front to back, across business areas or departments in order to reduce or remove issues and problems.

Role and Responsibilities

• Understand user needs and help others to do understand them too, so that collectively we can design Working Age Services and other services to support those needs.
• Align and lead the communication with Lead Product Managers and policy colleagues to define the user journey and articulate the vision for products and services.
• Engage and manage stakeholder needs across different areas with a focus on heading discussions at senior departmental level.
• Demonstrate strong working knowledge of service design in practice as a recognised industry expert and help others to understand its value for both service users and in helping the department to meet its business objectives.
• Lead design direction based on evidence.
• Drive the creation of high-quality service design deliverables, including personas, experience maps, insights packs, user flow maps, and service blueprints.
• Analyse research findings, data, insight gathering, critical thinking and concept generation.
• Understand as-is service design and identify improvement opportunities.
• Analyse pain points within services and communicate and share design solutions that fulfil user needs and business outcomes.
• Drive the communication of insights and stories around the strategy and concepts being designed to senior stakeholders and management.
• Use prototyping methods to communicate and share ideas and concepts with real users to encourage collaboration and iterative processes.
• Lead the adoption of best practice and build a strong open and collaborative culture within the department and feed into the design community.
• Analyse and identify cost saving opportunities whilst implementing best practice service design.
• Define the service design approach and key items on the design agenda, working to implement best practice.
• Actively provide support and mentor team members whilst developing appropriate training to support designers.
• Lead the capability and promote service design in and beyond the department.
• Support recruitment for the DWP User-Centred Design community.

Person specification

When giving details in your employment history and personal statement you should highlight your experience in line with essential criteria below:

• Lead criterion: Have significant experience leading the design of end-to-end, front-to-back services which solve complex problems.
• Provide expertise and best-practice at programme level to design evidence-based services that meet user needs, colleague needs and organisation objectives, and achieve service outcomes.
• Be comfortable communicating to a wide range of colleagues, advocating for user centricity, and influencing senior stakeholders on the value of service design, your strategies, approaches and decisions.
• Lead on the creation and maintenance of a positive and collaborative working environment within your organisation, to enable the conditions for service design.

If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact Aisha.Gultasab@dwp.gov.uk.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £75,026, Department for Work and Pensions contributes £21,735 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

We also have a broad benefits package built around your work-life balance which includes:

• Working patterns to support work/life balance such as job sharing, term-time working, flexi-time and compressed hours.
• Generous annual leave – at least 25 days on entry, increasing up to 30 days over time (pro–rata for part time employees), plus 9 days public and privilege leave.
• Support for financial wellbeing, including interest-free season ticket loans for travel, a cycle to work scheme and an employee discount scheme.
• Health and wellbeing support including our Employee Assistance Programme for specialist advice and counselling and the opportunity to join HASSRA a first-class programme of competitions, activities and benefits for its members (subscription payable monthly).
• Family friendly policies including enhanced maternity and shared parental leave pay after 1 year’s continuous service.
• Funded learning and development to support progress in your role and career. This includes industry recognised qualifications and accreditations, coaching, mentoring and talent development programmes.
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join professional and interpersonal networks including Women’s Network, National Race Network, National Disability Network (THRIVE) and many more.

Hybrid Working

This role may be suitable for hybrid working, which is where an employee works part of the week in their DWP office and part of the week from home. This is a voluntary, non-contractual arrangement and your office will be your contractual place of work.

If a hybrid working arrangement is suitable for the role and for you, you will normally be required to spend a minimum of 60% of your contracted working hours from your DWP office.

If you have a disability, caring responsibilities, or other circumstances that may affect your ability to meet the minimum office attendance requirement, please discuss this with us using the contact details in this advert.

Salary Information

Pay for this role is from £75,026 to £80,267.

Our offer to successful candidates will be based on an assessment of your skills and experience as demonstrated at interview.

Existing Civil Servants who secure a new role on lateral transfer will maintain their current substantive salary.

Existing Civil Servants who gain promotion will move to the bottom of the grade pay scale or receive a 10% increase applied to their current substantive salary, whichever is greater.

Any temporary allowances that you are currently in receipt of will not form part of the calculation to determine your pay. Any allowances that are in payment will cease when you move into your new role.

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

Stage 1: Application

Your application will consist of three parts:

1. A Personal Details application form.

2. Employment history - this should contain your work experience and any skills, qualifications and accomplishments relevant to the jobs you have completed based on the essential criteria.

3. Personal statement - up to 1000 words. This statement should be used to provide examples of how you meet the essential criteria listed in the Person specification.

Ensure that all examples provided in your statement are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. If you choose to use gen-AI to support your statement, you must follow the guidelines outlined in the Artificial intelligence and recruitment guide.

The sift panel will use the information in your employment history and personal statement to assess your experience, skills and knowledge against the essential criteria.

You will be provided with one combined overall assessment score for both your CV and Personal Statement.

An initial sift will be conducted using the lead criterion stated above. Candidates who pass the initial sift will progress to a full sift.

For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.

Important Information

• You will be asked to complete your employment history. Any information that you would customarily share on a CV should therefore be entered onto the application form.
• Personal details that could be used to identify you including your name, contact details and address must be removed for your application to be considered.
• If your employment history/personal statement contains any personal details your application will be withdrawn.

Stage 2: Interview

If you’re successful at sift stage you will be invited to a video interview via Microsoft Teams. There, you will be assessed against the experiences listed in the essential criteria.

You will be asked to do a 10 minute presentation on a specific topic. Further details will be provided to candidates invited to interview.

Interviews will take place from early September 2026. Interview dates to be confirmed.

Other information:

If high application volumes are received, the benchmark for candidates to proceed to the next stage may be raised. In line with our commitment to the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS), we aim to advance all candidates applying under the DCS who meet the minimum standard. However, we may only progress those candidates who best meet the required standards.

All successful candidates and those placed on reserve will be posted in merit list order by location.

For any other roles

For these vacancies, we strongly recommend that applicants consult with an immigration specialist or qualified advisor to assess their eligibility for Visa Sponsorship before deciding to apply. Please note that while we consider sponsorship requests in accordance with current DWP guidance and Home Office policy, sponsorship cannot be guaranteed.

Further Information

Find out more about Working for DWP

For Hints and Tips on completing your application visit Applying for jobs at DWP Digital.

A reserve list may be held for a period of 6 months from which further appointments can be made.

Reserve list candidates will be posted in merit order by location.

The Civil Service values honesty and integrity and expects all candidates to abide by these principles. Please ensure that all examples provided in your application are taken directly from your own experience and that you describe the examples in your own words. Applications will be screened and if evidence of plagiarism or copying examples/answers from other sources is found, your application will be withdrawn. Internal DWP candidates may also face disciplinary action.

Reasonable Adjustment

At DWP we value diversity and inclusion and actively encourage and welcome applications from everyone, including those that are underrepresented in our workforce.

We consider visible and non-visible disabilities, neurodiversity or learning differences, chronic medical conditions, or mental ill health. Examples include dyslexia, epilepsy, autism, chronic fatigue, or schizophrenia.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should: Contact Government Recruitment Service via DigitalRecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the “Reasonable Adjustments” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

For further information on reasonable adjustments, terms and conditions and how we recruit visit the How We Recruit, page

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 : Aisha Gultasab
• Email : Aisha.Gultasab@dwp.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : digitialrecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

Appointment to the Civil Service is governed by the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles. If you wish to make a complaint, please find further details here: https://careers.dwp.gov.uk/how-we-recruit/.

Attachments

DWP Terms and Conditions January 2024 Opens in new window (docx, 17kB)Success-Profiles-Candidate-Overview Opens in new window (pdf, 635kB)