Senior Service Designer - SC Cleared, Public Sector Impact

Sanderson Government and Defence; Stockport; On-site; GBP 65,000 - 95,000; Full time

Job summary

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

You will mentor colleagues, work within multidisciplinary teams, run workshops, apply GDS standards, and contribute to thought leadership and capability growth across the practice. Active SC clearance is required.

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.

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

Mentoring

Agile teams

Design sprint

User-centred design

Storytelling

Public sector projects

Job description

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

You will mentor colleagues, work within multidisciplinary teams, run workshops, apply GDS standards, and contribute to thought leadership and capability growth across the practice. Active SC clearance is required.