Senior Service Designer - Public Sector - Government Digital Service (GDS) Required

IBM; Boston (MA); Hybrid; USD 79,000 - 119,000; Full time

Job summary

IBM Consulting seeks a Senior Service Designer for the Public Sector to lead complex service design engagements across the full lifecycle, from discovery through live operations. You’ll apply GDS principles and GOV.UK standards, ensuring accessible, secure, and effective services.

Collaboration with Agile teams and mentoring junior designers are key components of the role. You will work in IBM’s delivery centers, delivering value to public-sector clients while advancing your career through

Qualifications

• Extensive experience as a Senior Service Designer.
• Delivery of complex services across Discovery to Live.
• Strong Agile, multidisciplinary and stakeholder management experience.
• Experience in government, public-sector or regulated environments.
• Expertise in service design, journey mapping, service blueprinting and systems thinking.
• Experience using research, data, prototyping and evidence to improve services.
• GDS principles, GOV.UK Service Standard and accessibility knowledge.
• Experience with Figma, Miro, FigJam or equivalent.
• Excellent communication, facilitation and mentoring skills.

Responsibilities

• Lead end-to-end service design across Discovery, Alpha, Beta and Live.
• Design complex, user-centred services using research, data and evidence.
• Create journeys, blueprints and service maps to improve services.
• Apply GDS principles and GOV.UK Service Standard.
• Ensure services are accessible, inclusive, secure and effective.
• Facilitate workshops and influence senior stakeholders.
• Collaborate across multidisciplinary Agile teams.
• Mentor designers and promote service design best practice.

Skills

Service design

Journey mapping

GDS principles

Agile

Stakeholder management

Public sector experience

Figma

Miro

FigJam

Communication

Mentoring

Accessibility

Education

Bachelor's Degree

Tools

GOV.UK Design System

Job description

At IBM Consulting UK FutureNow, you’ll build a career at the forefront of hybrid cloud and AI, working with leading clients across the public and private sectors.

You’ll collaborate with top industry professionals, gain hands on experience with cutting edge technologies, and deliver solutions that create real business impact. From day one, you’ll work on meaningful, high profile programmes that stretch your skills and accelerate your growth.

We invest heavily in you—supporting continuous learning, in demand skills development, and long term career progression. You’ll thrive in a flexible, inclusive environment that values curiosity, encourages reinvention, and recognises what makes you unique.

We offer:

• Tools and policies to support your work-life balance from flexible working approaches, sabbatical programs, paid paternity leave, maternity leave and an innovative maternity returners scheme
• More traditional benefits, such as 25 days holiday (in addition to public holidays), private medical, dental & optical cover, online shopping discounts, an Employee Assistance Program, life assurance and a group pension plan through salary sacrifice.

In this role, you'll work in one of our IBM Consulting Client Innovation Centers (Delivery Centers), where we deliver deep technical and industry expertise to a wide range of public and private sector clients around the world. Our delivery centers offer our clients locally based skills and technical expertise to drive innovation and adoption of new technology.

Your role and responsibilities

IBM FutureNow is seeking an experienced Senior Service Designer to lead the design and continuous improvement of complex, user-centred public sector clients.

The successful candidate will work across multidisciplinary teams to understand user needs, organisational objectives, policy intent, technology constraints and operational realities, translating these into coherent end-to-end services.

The role requires a strong understanding of Government Digital Service (GDS) principles, service standards, user-centred design, accessibility, agile delivery and evidence-based design. You will be expected to operate confidently with senior stakeholders while remaining focused on the needs and experiences of citizens and service users.

You will help teams move beyond designing individual digital products or interfaces to understand and improve the whole service ecosystem, including people, processes, technology, policy, channels and supporting operations.

The role is suited to a senior practitioner who can lead complex service design engagements, facilitate strategic conversations, challenge assumptions constructively, communicate design decisions through evidence and mentor other designers.

KeyResponsibilities

• Lead end-to-end service design across Discovery, Alpha, Beta and Live.
• Design complex, user-centred services using research, data and evidence.
• Create journeys, blueprints and service maps to improve services.
• Apply GDS principles and GOV.UK Service Standard.
• Ensure services are accessible, inclusive, secure and effective.
• Facilitate workshops and influence senior stakeholders.
• Collaborate across multidisciplinary Agile teams.
• Mentor designers and promote service design best practice.

Required education

None

Preferred education

Bachelor's Degree

Required technical and professional expertise

• Extensive experience working as a Senior Service Designer.
• Proven delivery of complex services across Discovery to Live.
• Strong Agile, multidisciplinary and stakeholder management experience.
• Experience working in government, public-sector or regulated environments.
• Strong expertise in service design, journey mapping, service blueprinting and systems thinking.
• Experience using research, data, prototyping and evidence to improve services.
• Knowledge of GDS principles, GOV.UK Service Standard and accessibility.
• Experience with Figma, Miro, FigJam or equivalent.
• Strong communication, facilitation and mentoring skills.

This role is subject to pre-employment screening in line with the UK Government’s Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS). An additional range of Personal Security Controls referred to as National Security Vetting (NVS) may apply, this could include meeting the eligibility requirements for The Security Check (SC) or Developed Vetting (DV).

Preferred technical and professional experience

Preferred Professional & Technical Expertise

• GDS Discovery, Alpha, Beta and Live experience.
• GOV.UK Design System and Service Assessment experience.
• Experience in service transformation, systems thinking and organisational change.
• Strong knowledge of accessibility, inclusive design and WCAG.
• Experience with data, AI, automation or emerging technologies.
• Experience developing service strategies, governance and design standards.

Desirable Certifications

• Service Design Network Accreditation
• ITIL 4 Foundation
• Professional Scrum Master I (PSM I)
• BCS Foundation Certificate in Business Analysis
• IAAP CPACC – Accessibility Core Competencies

ABOUT BUSINESS UNIT

IBM Consulting is IBM’s consulting and global professional services business, with market leading capabilities in business and technology transformation. With deep expertise in many industries, we offer strategy, experience, technology, and operations services to many of the most innovative and valuable companies in the world. Our people are focused on accelerating our clients’ businesses through the power of collaboration. We believe in the power of technology responsibly used to help people, partners and the planet.

YOUR LIFE @ IBM

In a world where technology never stands still, we understand that, dedication to our clients success, innovation that matters, and trust and personal responsibility in all our relationships, lives in what we do as IBMers as we strive to be the catalyst that makes the world work better.

Being an IBMer means you’ll be able to learn and develop yourself and your career, you’ll be encouraged to be courageous and experiment everyday, all whilst having continuous trust and support in an environment where everyone can thrive whatever their personal or professional background.

Our IBMers are growth minded, always staying curious, open to feedback and learning new information and skills to constantly transform themselves and our company. They are trusted to provide on-going feedback to help other IBMers grow, as well as collaborate with colleagues keeping in mind a team focused approach to include different perspectives to drive exceptional outcomes for our customers. The courage our IBMers have to make critical decisions everyday is essential to IBM becoming the catalyst for progress, always embracing challenges with resources they have to hand, a can-do attitude and always striving for an outcome focused approach within everything that they do.

Are you ready to be an IBMer?

ABOUT IBM

IBM’s greatest invention is the IBMer. We believe that through the application of intelligence, reason and science, we can improve business, society and the human condition, bringing the power of an open hybrid cloud and AI strategy to life for our clients and partners around the world.

Restlessly reinventing since 1911, we are not only one of the largest corporate organizations in the world, we’re also one of the biggest technology and consulting employers, with many of the Fortune 500 companies relying on the IBM Cloud to run their business.

At IBM, we pride ourselves on being an early adopter of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and blockchain. Now it’s time for you to join us on our journey to being a responsible technology innovator and a force for good in the world.

IBM is proud to be an equal‑opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, national origin, genetics, pregnancy, disability, neurodivergence, age, or other characteristics protected by the applicable law. IBM is also committed to compliance with all fair employment practices regarding citizenship and immigration status.

OTHER RELEVANT JOB DETAILS

IBM wants you to bring your whole self to work and for you this might mean the ability to work flexibly. If you are interested in a flexible working pattern, please talk to our recruitment team to find out if this is possible in the current working environment.

Job Title

Senior Service Designer - Public Sector - Government Digital Service (GDS) Required

Job ID

133743

City / Township / Village

State / Province

Hampshire, London, City of, Manchester, Leicester

Country

United Kingdom

Work arrangement

Hybrid

Area of work

Design & UX

Employment type

Regular

Position type

Professional

Up to 80% or 4 days a week (home on weekends - based on project requirements)

Company

Shift

General (daytime)

Is this role a commissionable/sales incentive based position?