Senior Public Sector Service Designer (SC Cleared)

Sanderson Government and Defence; Aberdeen City; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

Sanderson Government and Defence is seeking a Senior Service Designer to lead end-to-end service design for large public sector programmes. You will shape design approaches, outputs and outcomes, ensuring user-centred solutions aligned to client objectives.

You will work with multidisciplinary teams, mentor colleagues and contribute to building service design capability within the practice, while upholding security clearance requirements.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years' experience designing services and products.
• Led service design workstreams across multiple projects with minimal supervision.
• Strong expertise in Government Digital Service (GDS) standards and passing service assessments.
• Tailor service design methods and artefacts to client needs and maturity.
• Strong workshop facilitation and design sprint experience.
• Ability to simplify complex problems in fast-paced environments.
• Excellent storytelling and communication with diverse stakeholders.
• Experience in agile, cross-functional teams with researchers, designers, BAs, PMs and devs.
• Ability to prioritise and manage work under tight timescales.
• Experience engaging with legal, policy and specialist teams for decisions.
• Flexibility to support wider design disciplines or delivery projects.
• Showcase examples of service design work with artefacts and outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end service design activities from ideation through to solution development and testing
• Define and tailor service design approaches, methods and outputs to meet client needs and levels of design maturity
• Develop and oversee high-quality service design artefacts, ensuring consistency and impact
• Apply expertise in Government Digital Service (GDS) standards, accessibility and inclusive design to support successful service assessments
• Facilitate workshops, co-design sessions and stakeholder engagement activities
• Communicate complex ideas through clear storytelling and visualisation techniques
• Manage stakeholders effectively, balancing competing perspectives while advocating for user-centred design
• Identify and manage priorities, risks, dependencies and delivery requirements
• Mentor and support junior colleagues, delegating responsibilities where appropriate
• Contribute to the development of service design tools, methods and propositions by staying current with industry trends and emerging technologies

Skills

Service design leadership

Public sector experience

Stakeholder facilitation

User-centred design

Workshop facilitation

Job description

Sanderson Government and Defence is seeking a Senior Service Designer to lead end-to-end service design for large public sector programmes. You will shape design approaches, outputs and outcomes, ensuring user-centred solutions aligned to client objectives.

You will work with multidisciplinary teams, mentor colleagues and contribute to building service design capability within the practice, while upholding security clearance requirements.