Senior Service Designer

Job summary

The role sits within the UKHSA’s core User-Centred Design (UCD) team, which is part of the Readiness and Surge division. Readiness and Surge works across UKHSA and sets the strategic direction for UKHSA’s readiness to respond to all threats and hazards.

We focus on Agency capability, putting external stakeholder and customer needs at the centre of designs for the future. We identify opportunities to improve public health outcomes through better user experiences and end to end design.

The team are responsible for:

• embedding UCD approaches into UKHSA ways of working
• UCD expertise in project delivery
• ensuring user needs are understood and designed for, advocating for all users, to achieve equitable outcomes
• ensuring our products are accessible and developed to the Government Service Standards and follow appropriate style guides and patterns
• leading the UKHSA-wide UCD community of practice to support organisational and in-profession development
• standards for UCD professionals

Working for your organisation

We pride ourselves as being an employer of choice, where Everyone Matters promoting equality of opportunity to actively encourage applications from everyone, including groups currently underrepresented in our workforce.  

UKHSA ethos is to be an inclusive organisation for all our staff and stakeholders. To create, nurture and sustain an inclusive culture, where differences drive innovative solutions to meet the needs of our workforce and wider communities. We do this through celebrating and protecting differences by removing barriers and promoting equity and equality of opportunity for all.  

Please visit our careers site for more information https://gov.uk/ukhsa/careers

Job description

As a senior service designer, you’ll work as part of a multidisciplinary squad collaborating with teams across UKHSA. This role involves providing strategy, guidance and support to internal teams across UKHSA to ensure that their policies, services and products are user-centred.

The senior service designer will work with stakeholders to design services that reduce friction and complexity across the whole service, finding accessible solutions to complex problems and helping UKHSA to achieve its public health objectives.

As an experienced practitioner you’ll be comfortable assuring best practice, leading and mentoring others within the team, including coaching stakeholders and professionals from other disciplines in service and interaction design and user-centricity.

Together with other UCD professions you’ll ensure quality, innovation, and creativity in how we approach all aspects of design and how we bring concepts to life for stakeholders to effect change.

You’ll be an active part of the UCD community. As a senior leader you’ll actively encourage, facilitate, and demonstrate sharing of insights and practices within the community and across the organisation.

This role is aligned to Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework - senior service designer.

As a senior service designer, you’ll:

• provide design leadership and deliver effective designs supporting service transformation by working with stakeholders and customers to understand existing services and identify key opportunities to improve the service end-to-end.
• identify solutions to complex problems within services, and support these by developing design concepts, balancing user needs with business, operational and technical requirements.
• act as a recognised and credible expert in service design, advocating for the value of a user-centred, inclusive, and evidence-based approach to service design and delivery, and influencing programme/project roadmaps to embed effective and user-centred design practice.
• lead and manage change positively, championing and promoting a culture of imaginative thinking, learning from experience, expanding mindsets and genuinely listen to and encourage ideas from key stakeholders, partners, and colleagues.
• work with other professions and stakeholders to discover and analyse insights to identify common themes, pain points and user needs
• make actionable recommendations based on insights and communicate these to stakeholders clearly and confidently
• improve design practice by using a range of design techniques and encouraging others to also think of alternative ways to conduct design work, developing the practical experience of non-specialists
• actively participate in the UCD community of practice, fostering a culture of continuous professional development, working openly and collaboratively to contribute to building the service design capability
• line manage staff, undertaking the full range of line management responsibilities as well as providing coaching and support to staff across UKHSA

This is not an exhaustive list.

Person specification

Essential criteria

• Significant experience in service design with experience of using user-centred design methods and practices in large, complex organisation
• Able to navigate stakeholder landscapes, leading and managing relationships with a variety of internal and external stakeholders with different reporting relationships to improve services and gain support for standards, design solutions, roadmaps, and ways of working
• Able to select and use appropriate design methods and prototyping tools to explore complex service problems and opportunities across digital and non-digital channels as appropriate
• Able to demonstrate the importance of designing inclusive, equitable, accessible and sustainable services
• Proven leadership skills with experience of leading, directing and planning design activities, working directly with other professions to ensure effective and timely delivery
• To be able to work as part of a multidisciplinary team, working directly with other professions to ensure effective and timely delivery
• To be able to identify and create new design patterns and components based on evidence
• Experience of coaching and mentoring other service designers
• Experience of government service assessments

Desirable criteria

• Working in an agile environment

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £56,185, UK Health Security Agency contributes

£16,276 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).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

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 and will assess your technical skills and experience.

The User Centred Design Team will be running two webinars:

• 13th of August at 15:00 Hrs.
• 20th of August at 15.00 Hrs.

The purpose of the webinar is to enable you to hear more about this role and speak to some of the team. This is a great opportunity to learn more about our culture, what we do at UKHSA and provide general advice on the application process.

If you would like to attend one of the webinars, pleases contact ucdteam@ukhsa.gov.uk who will email you a Teams invite for the webinar date of your choice.

Stage 1: Application & Sift

You will be required to complete an application form. You will be assessed on the listed 9  essential criteria, and this will be in the form of:  

• an application form (‘Employer/ Activity history’ section on the application)
• a 1000  word supporting statement.  

This should outline how you consider your skills,  experience  and knowledge  provide evidence of your suitability for the role, with reference to the essential criteria.

You will receive a joint score for your application form and statement. (The application form is the kind of information you would put into your C.V –please be advised you will not be able to upload your CV. Please complete the application form in as much detail as possible). Please do not email us your CV. 

Healthjobs UK has a word limit of 1500, but your supporting statement must be no more than 1000 words. We will not consider any words over 1000 words. 

Longlisting: In the event of a large number of applications we will longlist into 3 piles of:

• Meets all essential criteria
• Meets some essential criteria
• Meets no essential criteria

Only those meeting all essential criteria will be taken through to shortlisting.

Shortlisting: In the event of a large number of applications we will shortlist on:

• Significant experience in service design with experience of using user-centred design methods and practices in large, complex organisation
• Able to navigate stakeholder landscapes, leading and managing relationships with a variety of internal and external stakeholders with different reporting relationships to improve services and gain support for standards, design solutions, roadmaps, and ways of working

Desirable criteria may be used in the event of a large number of applications / large amount of successful candidates.

If you are successful at this stage, you will progress to interview and assessment.

Feedback will not be provided at this stage.

Stage 2: Interview

You will be invited to a remote interview via MS Teams.

Technical skills and experience will be tested at interview.

For this role we’ll assess your experience and specialist technical skills against the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework - senior service designer.

Candidates should expect questions on the following technical skills during the interview:

• Designing for everyone
• Designing strategically
• Evidence based design
• Leading design

You’ll be invited to a 60-minute remote video interview. This will include a presentation on your understanding of user-centred design and service design, to help us understand more about you and your skills and experience.

Interviews dates are planned for early September 2026. Please note these dates are subject to change.

Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Location

This role is being offered as hybrid working based at any of our Core HQs in either Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool or London (Canary Wharf). We offer great flexible working opportunities at UKHSA and operate using a hybrid working model where business needs allow. This provides us with greater flexibility about how and where we work, to get the best from our workforce. As a hybrid worker, you will be expected to spend a minimum of 60% of your contractual working hours (approximately 3 days a week pro rata, averaged over a month) on-site.

Our core HQ offices are modern and newly refurbished with excellent city centre transport link and benefit from benefit from co-location with other government departments such as the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC).

• Eligibility criteria
• Open to all external applicants (anyone) from outside the Civil Service (including by definition internal applicants).  
• Security clearance level requirement 
• Part 1

Successful candidates must pass a basic Disclosure and Barring Security (DBS) check before they can be appointed.

Part 2

Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can b