Lead Service Designer

Massachusetts-Bay-Transportation-Authority; Boston (MA); On-site; USD 110,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority is seeking a Lead Service Designer to provide structure across a complex program environment—balancing product workstreams, operations, policy constraints, and frontline experience to guide outcomes.

You will map dependencies, facilitate alignment across departments, and translate insights into actionable plans that support program success and customer-centered service improvements.

Qualifications

• Experience designing services with complex workflows, data flows, policies, or business rules.
• Experience designing products/services for diverse populations including older adults and non-English speakers.
• Ability to translate research and performance data into clear frameworks and recommendations.
• Experience mentoring or guiding cross-functional teams in service design.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain service blueprints, journey maps, capability maps, and strategic artifacts for shared understanding across teams.
• Facilitate cross-functional workshops to build alignment around service goals and priorities.
• Partner with leadership, product, operations, and policy to define future-state service visions and translate into actionable plans.
• Identify risks, dependencies, gaps, and competing priorities; communicate recommendations for informed decision-making.
• Synthesize research, insights, and performance data to guide strategy and service improvements.
• Ensure alignment of product delivery, processes, policy changes, and organizational readiness with outcomes.
• Develop planning artifacts to improve program clarity and enable prioritization.
• Provide subject matter expertise through design critiques and mentorship.

Skills

Service design

Workshop facilitation

Cross-functional collaboration

Mentorship

Data-driven decisions

Education

Bachelor's degree required

High school diploma + 7 years related experience

Associate's degree + 3 years related experience

Master’s degree substitutes for 2 years experience

Job description

The Lead Service Designer works to provide structure and clarity across a complex, multi-variable program environment. This role maintains a coherent program-level view across product workstreams, operational realities, policy constraints, and frontline experience, identifying and mapping dependencies and helping the program stay oriented toward outcomes. This role creates the frameworks, maps, and shared understanding that allow diverse partners to move together effectively.

• Develop and maintain service blueprints, journey maps, capability maps, and other strategic artifacts that create a shared understanding of complex services across product, operations, policy, and frontline teams.
• Facilitate cross-functional workshops and collaborative working sessions that build alignment around service goals, customer needs, operational constraints, priorities, and future direction.
• Partner with program leadership, product teams, operational stakeholders, and policy partners to define future-state service visions and translate them into actionable plans and priorities.
• Identify risks, dependencies, gaps, and competing priorities across product, operational, policy, and organizational workstreams, and communicate recommendations that support informed decision-making.
• Synthesize research, operational insights, stakeholder input, and service performance data into clear frameworks and recommendations that guide program strategy and service improvements.
• Ensure product delivery, operational processes, policy changes, and organizational readiness remain aligned to achieve intended customer, business, and program outcomes.
• Develop models, documentation, and planning artifacts that improve program clarity, support prioritization, and enable teams to navigate complex, evolving service environments.
• Provide subject matter expertise through design critiques, mentorship, and collaboration, contributing to service design practices and continuous improvement across the organization.
• Protect data security, privacy, accessibility, and regulatory compliance by following MBTA policies, standards, and industry best practices throughout research, design, documentation, and service delivery.
• Perform all other duties and projects that may be assigned.

Additional responsibilities may include focus on one or more departments or locations. See applicable addendum for department or location specific functions.

Supervision

• No direct reports.

Substitutions

• A high school diploma or GED with an additional seven (7) years of directly related experience substitutes for the bachelor’s degree requirement.
• An associate’s degree from an accredited institution and an additional three (3) years of directly related experience substitutes for the bachelor’s degree requirement.
• A master’s degree in a related subject substitutes for two (2) years of general experience.
• A nationally recognized certification, or statewide/professional certification in a related field substitutes for one (1) year of experience.

• Experience in public-sector, transportation, mobility, or civic technology, including knowledge of transit operations or mobility systems.
• Experience designing products or services that involve complex workflows, operational processes, data flows, policies, or business rules. Experience conducting research with diverse populations, including older adults, people with disabilities, non-English speakers.
• Experience using qualitative research, analytics, operational data, or performance metrics to inform design decisions.
• Experience mentoring or coaching other designers or providing design guidance to cross-functional teams.