Senior Service Designer (GDS)

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Senior Service Designer (GDS) - Contract

Rate: £470 per day (Inside IR35)
Location: London / Remote
Start Date: 1 June 2026
Duration: 6 months
Clearance: Must be eligible for BPSS

Role Overview

We are looking for an experienced Senior Service Designer to work on complex, user-centred services within a government environment. This role aligns with the GDS Senior Service Designer definition and requires someone who can work with minimal supervision, influence across multidisciplinary teams, and help embed good service design practice.

You will work closely with service managers, product managers, programme directors, delivery teams and policy stakeholders to develop service concepts, shape end-to-end journeys, and ensure services meet user needs while aligning with organisational and policy constraints.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead service design activity across complex services, taking ownership of end-to-end service design outcomes
• Work with service managers and programme leads to develop and communicate service design concepts
• Use user research and evidence to inform design decisions, clearly explaining impacts, risks and trade-offs
• Design inclusive, accessible and ethical services that meet relevant standards (including accessibility)
• Facilitate and adapt service design workshops, journey mapping and co-design sessions
• Collaborate effectively across disciplines (user research, product, content, delivery, policy and technology)
• Apply iterative design methods, rapidly prototyping and refining services based on evidence
• Identify and create reusable service patterns and help embed good practice within teams
• Support and mentor other designers, promoting user-centred design principles

Skills & Experience (GDS Senior Service Designer)

You will demonstrate practitioner-level capability in:

Design communication

• Clearly communicating complex service design problems and decisions to non-design stakeholders
• Building consensus and challenging assumptions constructively

Designing for everyone

• Designing inclusive, accessible and environmentally sustainable services
• Ensuring services meet appropriate standards and regulations

Designing strategically

• Aligning service design with organisational goals and policy intent
• Using constraints, risks and opportunities to shape service outcomes

Designing together

• Planning and running effective design sessions with users and stakeholders
• Working confidently across team, organisational and professional boundaries

Evidence-based and iterative design

• Synthesising complex research and data to inform design
• Iterating complex services using agile and user-centred design methods

Leading design (working level)

• Leading service design activity within a team
• Supporting and mentoring other designers

Essential Requirements

• Proven experience as a Senior Service Designer on complex digital services
• Strong understanding of GDS standards, user-centred design and service design methods
• Experience working in government or large, policy-led organisations
• Eligibility for BPSS clearance

Reasonable Adjustments:

Respect and equality are core values to us. We are proud of the diverse and inclusive community we have built, and we welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and perspectives. xwzovoh Our success is driven by our people, united by the spirit of partnership to deliver the best resourcing solutions for our clients.

If you need any help or adjustments during the recruitment process for any reason, please let us know when you apply or talk to the recruiters directly so we can support you.