Senior Service Designer

L&Q; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 69,000 - 79,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Excellent pension plan

Annual leave 28-31 days

Westfield Health Cash Plan

Life assurance

Volunteer days

Lifestyle benefits

Employee Assistance Programme

Job summary

L&Q is seeking a Senior Service Designer to shape the target operating model and end-to-end resident journeys within our multi-year transformation.

You will lead a team of six, work with architecture and programme teams, and ensure service design standards are applied across change work.

This role offers hybrid working across London and other locations, with a strong emphasis on user-centred design and regulatory compliance.

Qualifications

• Extensive leadership of end-to-end service design in complex organisations.
• Proven user-centred research and inclusive design practice.
• Experience designing services within operating model change.
• Experience leading design teams and building capability.
• Ability to influence senior leaders across disciplines.
• Experience in social housing or regulated sector preferred.

Responsibilities

• Lead the service design team and external partners.
• Own the experiential view of target journeys and service blueprints.
• Design and assure change from discovery through delivery.
• Grow user-centred and systems thinking capability across L&Q.
• Collaborate with Senior Business Architect, programme teams, tech and data experts.

Skills

Service design leadership

User-centred research

Operating model change

Cross-disciplinary collaboration

Stakeholder influencing

Regulated sector experience

Job description

Contract Type

Permanent, Full-Time, 35 hours

Salary

Starting from £78,544 per annum (London weighted salary) or £68,571 per annum (Regional salary), dependant on experience

Grade

12

Reporting Office

London, Stratford or Manchester, Trafford

Persona

Agile Worker: 20% - 40% of contractual hours to be worked from reporting office/working location (hybrid working)

Closing Date

21st October 2026

Interview Dates

W/C 02/11/26 *Please note that in person interviews will be held for at least one of the interview stages for this role

Benefits include

Excellent pension plan (up to 6% double contribution), 28 days Annual Leave rising to 31 days with length of service + Bank Holidays, Westfield Health Cash Plan, non-contributory life assurance, up to 21 hours volunteering paid days, lifestyle benefits, Employee Assistance Programme and many more...

Join our Business Design and Architecture Team at L&Q

L&Q is one of the UK’s largest housing associations and providers of social and affordable homes. We house around 250,000 people primarily across Greater London and Greater Manchester. Our purpose is simple – to provide social homes and landlord services that everyone can be proud of.

Our transformation and change portfolio is service design led. It spans full operating model change across the Group, covering ways of working, process, team structures, systems, data and reporting. This role sets the standard for how that design work is done, and shapes the journeys that 250,000 residents and thousands of colleagues experience.

As Senior Service Designer, you will lead the experiential view of L&Q's Target Operating Model: the target end-to-end journeys and the services that enable them. You will hold this view alongside our Senior Business Architect, who holds the structural view. Together, the two disciplines give L&Q one coherent picture of how it works today and how it needs to work.

L&Q is in a multi year, multi million pound programme of transformation. Getting the resident and colleague experience right, and consistent, across that programme needs a strong service design practice and a clear design standard that others can apply.

You will report to the Head of Business Design and Architecture and lead a team of six: two direct and four indirect reports. You will also work with external service design partners. Business Design and Architecture brings together business architecture, service design and business analysis, and forms a core part of Group Transformation and Change.

Your impact in the role

• Leading the service design team. Leading and developing a team of service designers, including a Lead Service Designer, managing performance and building a high performing practice. Directing and quality assuring external service design partners alongside the permanent team.
• Holding the experiential view. Leading the design and continuous improvement of target journeys, service blueprints and service patterns, and the service design principles that guide change across the Group.
• Designing and assuring change. Leading service design on priority transformation work from discovery through to delivery. Representing service design in Design Assurance, making sure change meets our regulatory obligations and moves L&Q towards its target without breaking what works.
• Building capability. Growing user-centred and systems thinking capability across L&Q, including within our Business Analysis practice and among operational leaders.
• Key relationships. Working closely with the Senior Business Architect, Business Analysis leads, programme teams, technology and data experts, and resident involvement colleagues to deliver joined up change.

What you'll bring

• Substantial experience leading end-to-end, multi-channel service design in complex organisations.
• Demonstrable user-centred research and inclusive design practice, including with people in vulnerable circumstances.
• Experience designing services as part of wider operating model or organisational change.
• Experience leading design professionals and building design capability in others.
• Demonstrable experience influencing senior leaders and working across disciplines to deliver change.
• Ideally but not essential, experience in social housing or another regulated, resident or citizen-facing sector.

About L&Q

We’re one of the UK’s leading housing associations and developers. We were founded on a simple belief: high quality housing is vital for people’s health, happiness and security. Our purpose is simple – to provide social homes and landlord services that everyone can be proud of.

250,000 people call our properties ‘home’, and we’re proud to serve diverse communities across London, the South East and North West of England.

People are at the heart of our business and our success depends on employing the best people and getting the best from them. The foundation of everything that we are is built on our corporate values, which outline our core expectations and should be demonstrated at all times, and all levels, when representing L&Q.

At L&Q, we know that diversity and inclusion make us stronger – and they’re at the heart of everything we do.

When we recruit, we look at what really matters: your skills, experience, and potential. We’re proud to be recognised for creating an inclusive workplace. We’re a Disability Confident Leader (Level 3) and we’ve introduced our own Recruitment Advocate scheme to make sure every step of our hiring process is fair, transparent, and consistent. It’s all part of our commitment to ending discrimination and making L&Q a place where everyone feels welcome.

Sustainability is also at the heart of what we do. We recognise the responsibility we hold as one of the UK’s largest housing associations.