Principal / Lead Designer, Design Practice

GOVERNMENT TECHNOLOGY AGENCY; Singapore; On-site; SGD 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading government agency in Singapore seeks a Principal Designer to influence design direction and ensure effective integration of design processes across product development. This role involves working closely with senior stakeholders, driving strategic initiatives, and cultivating a strong design culture. The ideal candidate will have 12-15 years of design experience, showcasing leadership and strong communication skills while advocating for user-centered design practices.

Qualifications

• 12 – 15 years of experience in design across various industries, with 6 years in leadership.
• Passion for addressing complex and ambiguous challenges.
• Proven ability to influence and collaborate with senior leaders.

Responsibilities

• Lead design direction at the highest level within the organization.
• Collaborate with senior leaders to ensure the integration of design across product phases.
• Develop and implement standards to improve GovTech’s design quality.

Skills

Empathy

Strategic thinking

Communication skills

Cross-functional collaboration

Design methodology expertise

Education

Diploma or bachelor’s degree in design-related fields

Job description

What the role is

GovTech is the lead agency driving Singapore’s Smart Nation initiatives and public sector digital transformation. As the Centre of Excellence for Infocomm Technology and Smart Systems (ICT & SS), GovTech develops the Singapore Government’s capabilities in Data Science & Artificial Intelligence, Application Development, Smart City Technology, Digital Infrastructure, and Cybersecurity.

At GovTech, we offer you a purposeful career to make lives better where we empower our people to master their craft through robust learning and development opportunities all year round.

Play a part in Singapore’s vision to build a Smart Nation and embark on your meaningful journey to build tech for public good. Join us to advance our mission and shape your future with us today!

What you will be working on

About the Design Practice at GovTech

The Design Practice is on a mission to make lives better for citizens, businesses, and the public sector by activating human-centred design as a core organisational capability in GovTech. We believe that technology can be a force for public good by putting people at the heart of what we do.

We set high design standards, promote best practices, and support GovTech teams in applying human-centred design across the product development lifecycle. Our focus is not just on doing design well, but on making sure design actively shapes what gets built—and why.

To achieve this, we invest in our designers’ growth, equipping them with the tools, guidance, and community they need to thrive. We are building more hands‑on support systems, whether by training and/or hiring design managers or by ensuring our team structures enable better oversight. We also cultivate a strong learning culture that encourages experimentation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

We work to build deep partnerships with product managers, engineers, and senior leadership—ensuring that design is not an afterthought, but a strategic input from the start.

By embedding design from the core of decision‑making to development, we aim to deliver better public services—and to grow a practice that shapes not only what government builds, but how it builds it. If you’re passionate about using design to drive systemic change, this is where your work will matter.

What you will do as a Principal Designer, Design Practice

You work to influence and lead design direction at the highest level in the organisation. You work with program leadership and cross‑functionally with peers to help achieve the overall objectives of the Design Practice.

• Work with senior leaders, program leaders, agency leaders, and agency product owners on the complex problem of introducing or ensuring the continuous and valuable presence of design across product phases, from discovery through delivery, and into measurement and iteration.
• Contribute to a body of work on measuring design impact by writing white papers, developing frameworks for measurement, testing and implementing methods and metrics, and building case studies that highlight how design impact metrics differ from traditional product metrics.
• Interface with peers in engineering and product practices as well as with teams on the ground to build and integrate best practices for collaboration in product development.
• Work with consulting and/or product teams to help deconstruct and re‑design system complexity into usable, inclusive and coherent experiences that align with policy, tech and operational realities.
• Lead work in setting standards for design processes, methodology and outputs, and develop successful strategies for implementing these standards and processes to improve the quality of GovTech’s design work.
• Evangelise and lead in systems thinking and design‑led problem‑solving in GovTech to expand the sphere of influence of design across GovTech and across the WoG.
• Coach and mentor designers.
• Actively investigate new tools, methods and processes to improve designer engagement and output.

What we are looking for

Required qualifications, skills and mindset

• Diploma, bachelor’s degree or higher in industrial design, interaction design, Human Computer Interaction (HCI), visual arts or similar.
• 12 – 15 years experience working in design across multiple industries, 6 of which in a position of influence or leadership.
• Strong empathy for people and a desire to advocate for their needs.
• Passion for making sense of complex, ambiguous challenges.
• Strong initiative and follow through for positive outcomes and long‑term value.
• Strategic thinker with proven ability to drive strategic initiatives in your work.
• Proven ability to work seamlessly with senior leaders and influence through trust, clarity, and collaboration.
• Experience leading cross‑functional discovery and shaping product direction based on insight and iteration.
• Strong evidence of partnership with fellow functional leaders and/or stakeholders in driving products towards common goals.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to present findings clearly and persuasively.
• Initiative to help designers learn, adapt and grow in the UX field. Expert in design methodology and a keen eye for detail.
• Deep understanding of methods to elicit insights from users.
• Deep understanding of how people engage with digital systems.

Learn more

Learn more about GovTech at tech.gov.sg.