Principal / Lead Designer, GovTech Consulting / Product Development Office (PDO)

Government Technology Agency; Singapore; On-site; SGD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

A public sector technology agency in Singapore is seeking a Principal / Lead Designer to lead the design of transformative public services. You will leverage your extensive experience to guide teams, ensuring solutions are both user-friendly and implementable. The ideal candidate will have strong strategic and design skills, with a passion for building impactful digital products for the public good.

Benefits

Flexible work arrangements

Continuous learning opportunities

Inclusive workplace culture

Qualifications

• 10+ years designing and shipping digital solutions end-to-end.
• Experience leading design in complex, multi-stakeholder environments.
• Comfortable working at the edge of tech and design.

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery work to uncover root causes and user needs.
• Partner with engineers and product managers to bridge user needs.
• Build design capability across GovTech.

Skills

Strategic thinking

Hands-on design skills

User advocacy

Product knowhow

Communication skills

Tools

APIs

Prototyping tools

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. Learn more about GovTech at tech.gov.sg.

What you will be working on

GovTech Consulting partners with government agencies to accelerate their development of in‑house product, design, engineering and data capabilities. By embedding technical teams and working side‑by‑side on modernisation and innovation initiatives, we help deliver world‑class solutions and help catalyse broader transformation.

At GovTech Consulting, we bring together exceptional technical talent, programme managers & change specialists. Each team member is a recognised leader in their practice area and relishes the challenge of addressing agencies’ most critical technology challenges. You’ll also have the opportunity to be forward deployed into the Product Development Office, serving a Ministry Family, and play a leading role in building up agencies’ product capabilities, identifying the right problems to solve, hiring technical talent and shaping ways of working to create lasting change.

We are looking for Principal / Lead Designers to join our team and help drive the evolution of public services that matter. You'll bring strategic thinking, hands‑on design skills, user advocacy and product knowhow to ensure we are solving the right problems, building the right solutions and building solutions right. This role is ideal for someone who loves building new digital products or services, catalysing change and is excited to operate at the intersection of technology, policy and operations. You’ll apply strong product design and consulting acumen to shape solutions that are transformative for users and the agency organisation.

• Lead discovery work to uncover root causes, user needs, and systemic barriers, bringing a product mindset to clearly frame problems before exploring possible solutions
• Apply a breadth of design skills to help agencies understand and reimagine end‑to‑end user experiences across systems, processes, touchpoints, and stakeholders
• Partner with engineers, product managers, policymakers and operations to bridge user needs with technical and business realities, ensuring solutions are both meaningful to users and implementable at scale
• Partner with the Design Practice to refine and implement design‑led frameworks for discovery, problem definition, solutioning and experimentation
• Build design capability across GovTech and the wider public sector, embedding design as a strategic strength
• Define and track measures of success to show the impact of design across agency engagements and product development

What we are looking for

You’ll thrive here if you

• Enjoy making sense of complex, ambiguous challenges
• Relish in expanding your impact beyond individual products to entire service ecosystems
• Can shift fluidly between product focused work, capability building and agency transformation
• Are energized by embedding with a new team, in a new domain, and making things happen
• Focus on outcomes and long‑term value, bringing product thinking to government transformation
• Influence through building trust, clarity, and collaboration

Who we are looking for

• 10+ years designing and shipping digital solutions end‑to‑end — from insight, to product, to GTM and impact
• Experience leading design in complex, multi‑stakeholder, product building environments (B2B, enterprise, or platform products experience is particularly relevant)
• Proven leadership in growing design teams and culture — and getting hands‑on into design execution when the challenge demands it
• Mastery in problem framing, research, prototyping and storytelling — turning insight into action and inspiring others around it
• Comfort working at the edge of tech and design — fluent enough in APIs, system integrations, data‑driven interfaces, and permissions models to co‑create with engineers
• Commitment to accessibility and inclusive design (WCAG), ensuring services work for everyone
• Strong communicator and storyteller who builds trust quickly and brings people together
• Entrepreneurial mindset with a drive to create impact for public good

What will make you stand out

• Experience working in both startup and enterprise environments, and in both in‑house product teams and as an external consulting – big plus
• Proven success launching platform‑scale or low‑code/no‑code products that empower non‑technical users to create and adapt services
• Experience building design capabilities — from running training programmes to shaping communities of practice
• Work that shows real‑world impact — whether in civic tech, public sector, or other mission‑driven organisations

Why this role matter

• Design at GovTech is about more than interfaces. It’s about shaping services that people trust and rely on, and building the foundations of how the government works in an AI‑enabled society
• As Principal / Lead Designer, you’ll define what good looks like, push the boundaries of how we design for complexity, and help the government grow its capability to deliver products that are not only functional — but clear, inclusive, and human

Benefits

Our employee benefits are based on a total rewards approach, offering a holistic and market‑competitive suite of perks. We champion flexible work arrangements (subject to your job role) and trust you to manage your time to deliver your best. Learn more about life inside GovTech at go.gov.sg/GovTechCareers.

About GovTech

The Government Technology Agency (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. We empower our people to master their craft through continuous and robust learning and development opportunities all year round. Our GovTechies embody our Agile, Bold and Collaborative values to deliver impactful solutions. GovTech aims to transform the delivery of Government digital services by taking an "outside‑in" view, putting citizens and businesses at the heart of everything we do. 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! Learn more about GovTech at tech.gov.sg.

GovTech is an equal opportunity employer committed to fostering an inclusive workplace that values diverse voices and perspectives, as we believe it is key to innovation.