Senior Service Designer — Public Sector, SC Cleared

Sanderson Government and Defence; Hemel Hempstead; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 90,000; Full time

Job summary

Sanderson Government and Defence is seeking a Senior Service Designer to lead discovery-to-delivery service design across public sector programmes. You will own the design approach, outputs and outcomes, ensuring user-centred solutions that align with client objectives and government standards.

You will mentor junior colleagues, collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, and contribute to the growth of service design capabilities while supporting business development activities.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years' experience designing services and products.
• Proven experience leading service design workstreams across multiple projects with minimal supervision.
• Strong expertise in Government Digital Service (GDS) standards and principles, including experience supporting and passing service assessments.
• Experience selecting and tailoring service design methods, approaches and artefacts to suit client requirements and organisational maturity.

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

GDS standards

Workshop facilitation

Stakeholder management

User-centred design

Agile teams

Job description

Sanderson Government and Defence is seeking a Senior Service Designer to lead discovery-to-delivery service design across public sector programmes. You will own the design approach, outputs and outcomes, ensuring user-centred solutions that align with client objectives and government standards.

You will mentor junior colleagues, collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, and contribute to the growth of service design capabilities while supporting business development activities.