Lead Designer / Assistant Dir of Design Management

Hard Problems; Singapore; Hybrid; SGD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work flexibility

Job summary

GovTech Singapore is seeking a Senior Design Director to lead the Design Management function embedded with MSF/ECDA. You will mentor a team of designers and drive the modernisation of early childhood services through service design and digital transformation.

Work with product managers, developers, policy teams, and educators to deliver unified, accessible digital services that meet government standards. The role is based in Singapore with hybrid work up to three days from home.

Qualifications

• 10+ years designing and shipping digital solutions end-to-end.
• 5+ years leading and growing design teams.
• Experience leading design in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Mastery across design disciplines including problem framing, research, service design, product design, prototyping, and storytelling.
• Fluency with APIs, system integrations, data-driven interfaces, and permissions models.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive service design strategy aligned with ECDA's digital transformation and service modernisation goals.
• Influence and educate key decision makers, educators and policy stakeholders on modern design principles and opportunities.
• Partner with product managers, developers, policy teams, and early childhood stakeholders to ensure unified delivery of modernised digital services.
• Plan product roadmaps, scope transformation projects, and allocate design team capacity.
• Maintain oversight of design work to ensure alignment with ECDA's modernisation objectives and adherence to government digital service standards.
• Manage external design partners to ensure output meets design and usability standards.
• Propose, establish, and track metrics covering product performance and modernisation success, including adoption rates, service efficiency, and user satisfaction.
• Lead and mentor designers in modern design practices, emerging technologies, and government digital transformation principles.
• Plan career development paths for designers in digital transformation and government service design.
• Contribute to GovTech's wider design community by piloting new initiatives and sharing knowledge.

Skills

Service design

Design leadership

Stakeholder management

User research

Prototyping

Tools

Design systems

APIs

Job description

GovTech Singapore is the lead government agency driving Singapore's Smart Nation initiative and public sector digital transformation. It serves as the Centre of Excellence for Infocomm Technology and Smart Systems, building capabilities across data science, AI, application development, smart city technology, digital infrastructure, and cybersecurity. Its mission is to engineer digital government and make lives better for citizens, businesses, and the public sector.

The role

This position sits within GovTech's Design Management function and is embedded with the Ministry of Social and Family Development (MSF), specifically supporting the Early Childhood Development Agency (ECDA). You would lead the modernisation of early childhood development services through service design, driving digital transformation for families, educators, and early childhood professionals. You would manage and mentor a team of designers and report into GovTech's design leadership.

What you would do

• Define and drive service design strategy aligned with ECDA's digital transformation and service modernisation goals.
• Influence and educate key decision makers, early childhood professionals, and policy stakeholders on modern design principles and digital transformation opportunities.
• Partner with product managers, developers, policy teams, and early childhood stakeholders to ensure unified delivery of modernised digital services.
• Work with functional leads to plan product roadmaps, scope effort for transformation projects, and allocate design team capacity.
• Maintain oversight of design work to ensure alignment with ECDA's modernisation objectives and adherence to government digital service standards, including design systems and usability guidelines.
• Manage external design partners to ensure their output meets established design and usability standards.
• Propose, establish, and track metrics covering product performance and modernisation success, including digital adoption rates, service efficiency, and user satisfaction.
• Work directly on design deliverables for critical projects, demonstrating best practices in digital service transformation.
• Lead and mentor designers in modern design practices, emerging technologies, and government digital transformation principles.
• Plan career development paths for your designers, covering digital transformation, government service design, and user experience practices relevant to early childhood services.
• Contribute to GovTech's wider design community by piloting new initiatives, sharing knowledge, and helping less experienced designers grow.

What they are looking for

• 10 or more years designing and shipping digital solutions end-to-end, from research and insight through to product and service delivery and measurable impact.
• 5 or more years leading and growing design teams, with a track record of building design culture and capability across disciplines.
• Experience leading design in complex, multi-stakeholder environments (B2B, enterprise, or platform contexts are particularly relevant).
• Demonstrated ability to manage multiple concurrent projects and portfolios while maintaining quality.
• Mastery across design disciplines including problem framing, research, service design, product design, prototyping, and storytelling.
• Comfort working at the intersection of technology and design, with enough fluency in APIs, system integrations, data-driven interfaces, and permissions models to co-create effectively with engineers.
• Commitment to accessibility and inclusive design, including WCAG standards.
• Strong communication and storytelling skills, with the ability to build trust and align people at all organisational levels.
• An entrepreneurial mindset with a drive to create impact for public good.

Working arrangements

The role is based in Singapore and operates on a hybrid basis, with up to three work-from-home days per week depending on the role.