Staff Product Designer

Open Government Products; Singapore; Hybrid; SGD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Open Government Products is seeking a Staff Product Designer to advance design across a fast-paced, government-facing org. You will lead through craft, systems thinking, and influence, shaping design practice and strategy while mentoring designers.

You’ll spend two-thirds on hands-on product design and one-third on strategy, governance, and跨-functional leadership to drive public-facing digital services with real impact. This senior IC role emphasizes craft over management.

Qualifications

• 10+ years of digital product design experience.
• Strong portfolio of impactful products.
• Experience with user research methodologies.

Responsibilities

• High autonomy: set the design direction for the organisation and ensure it is executed effectively.
• Elevate the design practice: set high standards for craft and influence practices across agencies.
• Mentorship: guide and mentor lead and senior designers.
• Navigate complex ecosystems: address systemic issues across agencies and policy spaces.
• Ambiguity: solve large, open-ended problems with clear leadership.
• Counsel: provide strategic thinking and judgement to leadership.
• Glue work: lead cross-functional coordination across departments and agencies.

Skills

Product design

User research

Mobile-first design

Visual design

Communication

Proactive mindset

Government sector experience

Tools

Figma

Adobe Creative Suite

HTML/CSS/JS

Job description

Who We Are

Open Government Products (OGP) operates like a startup within the government; We are a fast-paced, dynamic team of engineers, designers, and product managers dedicated to public good. We autonomously identify opportunities to solve public problems using tech, rapidly prototype, and launch solutions-from citizen apps to automating public agency operations. Embracing an open-sourced and flat hierarchy, we cut through bureaucracy to focus on real-world, user-centric innovations that drive change.

The Role

Staff Product Designers at OGP are masters of their craft and act as a force multiplier for design across the organisation. As a Staff Designer, you'll not only design impactful products-you'll shape how design itself is practiced, taught, and scaled at OGP.

Roughly two-thirds of your time will be hands-on, leading design for our most complex, ambiguous problems. You'll drive discovery and experimentation, translating fuzzy challenges into user-centred solutions with real-world impact. The rest of your time will focus on design strategy, mentorship, and cross-functional leadership-pushing the organisation towards more consistent, innovative and effective design practices.

Your influence will extend well beyond individual products. You'll help define and evolve OGP's design practice, processes, and strategic direction-working closely with organisational leadership to scale high-quality design across teams and ministries. You'll be a champion of user-centred thinking, an advocate for excellence, and a trusted advisor to product leaders and policymakers alike.

This is a senior individual contributor (IC) role-not a management track position. Your primary responsibility is to lead through craft, systems thinking, and influence rather than formal authority. That said, there may be opportunities to manage 1-2 designers depending on team structure and organisational needs. This is optional and situational, not an expectation of the role.

Key Responsibilities

• High autonomy: Operate with a high degree of autonomy, setting the design direction for the organisation and ensuring it is executed effectively.
• Elevate the design practice: Champion design excellence across the organisation by setting high standards for craft. Your presence helps to raise the bar within OGP, and influences design practices across the agencies we work with.
• Mentorship: Provide guidance and mentorship to lead and senior designers, helping them grow and succeed in their roles.
• Navigate complex ecosystems: Use your expertise, personal network or domain knowledge of the ecosystem to address systemic issues within the problem space, such as disconnected services across agencies, inadequate digital platforms, and complex policy considerations. By focusing on user needs and service integration, you create more coherent and effective digital public services.
• Ambiguity: Solve large, difficult and open-ended problems, where even the high-level nature of the solution may be unclear to the leaders who presented the problem.
• Counsel: Leaders rely on your strategic thinking, judgement and wisdom. Your advice will result in key decisions that bring about meaningful improvements in the problem space.
• Glue work: Take the lead for cross-functional coordination and alignment across multiple departments in multiple agencies, or across Whole-of-Government, to achieve a meaningful outcome for members of the public.

Who We're Looking For

• Proven experience in product design: We value practical experience and a portfolio that demonstrates your ability to design impactful products and experiences. While specific degrees are less important, we seek candidates with more than 10 years of experience in digital product design.
• Excellence in craft with an eye for details: You possess an exceptional eye for detail and a keen sense of visual design. Your portfolio should highlight your past work and your ability to clearly articulate the reasoning behind your design decisions.
• Passion for user-centred design: You are deeply committed to designing with the user in mind. You bring hands-on experience with user research methodologies and have a strong understanding of mobile-first and responsive design principles.
• Proficiency with design tools: You are highly skilled in Figma and Adobe Creative Suite. Experience with web technologies such as HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is a valuable plus.
• Effective communication: You are adept at bridging the gap between users and engineers, incorporating feedback from non-technical stakeholders and communicating design details clearly to technical teams for seamless implementation.
• Proactive mindset: You are not content with the status quo and are eager to drive change. You take initiative to make things happen, particularly when it comes to pushing for improvements and innovation in government services.
• Commitment to public good: You are motivated by a desire to make a meaningful impact on society. As a public servant, you are willing to challenge political pressures and policies when they do not align with the best interests of the public. Experience within the government sector is a bonus.

Working at OGP

Ownership and Autonomy - Beyond technical tasks, this means having autonomy to voice opinions and suggest future directions. Building what you believe in drives the creation of great solutions.

Rapid Prototyping - We prioritize testing ideas over debating them, allowing us to identify problems quickly and convey possibilities to others. This fail-fast approach accelerates innovation.

Flexibility - We provide flexible work arrangements based on what works best for our team and its members, fostering a productive and supportive environment.

Continuous Learning - Drive professional growth by exploring new architectures, frameworks, and technologies. With dedicated yearly learning months and hackathons, continuous learning is essential as we tackle innovative ideas and challenges.

Mission-Driven - Our work is dedicated to the public good, aiming to improve the lives of Singapore citizens. We focus on creating impactful solutions that enhance the community and the place we call home.

Projects OGP Has Worked On Include

ScamShield - iOS and Android mobile apps, enhanced in August 2024, help users check and report suspicious communications. The apps automatically filter known scams using an AI-powered machine learning classifier. An Admin Dashboard also allows police to verify reported scams.

ParkingSG - A mobile app alternative to parking coupons. It lets users pay, extend, and refund their parking sessions just using their phones.

RedeemSG - Helps the Singapore Government to create, send and track redemptions of digital vouchers easily.

COVID-19 Vaccination - A suite of systems built to enable Singapore's national vaccination campaign for COVID-19. This includes informational sites, appointment booking systems, and records management systems.

data.gov.sg - An open repository of all the Singapore Government's public data. It helps people understand the data using visualizations and articles, and provides real-time APIs for developers to use.

Isomer - Provides government agencies with an easy-to-deploy static website building and hosting service to create usable, secure and faster informational websites quickly.

FormSG - A form builder tool for agencies to self-service and create online forms that capture classified data, with the goal of replacing paper forms.

PaySG - Was developed to enable digital payments for government services, and was initially used for payments for COVID-19 swab tests and Stay-Home Notices for incoming travellers to Singapore.

An overview of other OGP products can be found on our website https://open.gov.sg