Senior Service Designer — Public Sector Transformation

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

Job summary

Sanderson Government and Defence is seeking a Senior Service Designer to lead service design workstreams for large public sector programmes. You will shape innovative services, ensure user-centred outcomes, and align solutions with organisational objectives.

You will mentor colleagues, collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, apply GDS standards and accessible design, run workshops, and support business development.

Qualifications

• Minimum 5 years' experience designing services and products.
• Proven experience leading service design workstreams across multiple projects or clients 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.
• Strong workshop facilitation and design sprint experience.
• Ability to simplify and solve complex problems in fast-paced environments.
• Excellent storytelling and communication skills with a broad range of stakeholders.
• Experience working within agile, cross-functional teams alongside user researchers, UX/UI designers, business analysts, product owners, delivery managers and developers.
• Ability to manage competing priorities and work proactively under tight timescales.
• Experience engaging with legal, policy and other specialist teams to drive service and design decisions.

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

Stakeholder facilitation

Storytelling

Agile teams

Mentoring

User-centred design

Workshop facilitation

Prioritisation

Communication

Job description

Sanderson Government and Defence is seeking a Senior Service Designer to lead service design workstreams for large public sector programmes. You will shape innovative services, ensure user-centred outcomes, and align solutions with organisational objectives.

You will mentor colleagues, collaborate with multidisciplinary teams, apply GDS standards and accessible design, run workshops, and support business development.