JOB SUMMARY

Defra is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people’s day-to-day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink.
Digital, Data, Technology and Security (DDTS) is the trusted team for digital across the entire Defra Group.
We have around 1,000 colleagues across DDTS and our ambition is to make it easier and faster than ever for people to interact with Defra. If you are ready to drive innovation and push boundaries, we want to hear from you. Join us and together we will create a great place for living, and a green and healthy future for all.

JOB DESCRIPTION

As a Principal Service Designer in the Chief Digital Office (CDO), your job will enable design to be embedded at a strategy level, informing decisions that support Defra group becoming more service orientated.
The CDO is responsible for significant service transformation across the Defra group. Our Digital and Data Transformation strategy is an integral part of change which goes beyond just using the latest technologies, it’s about how we think and work, adopting agile principles as we continue to focus on user needs.
We’re seeking a dynamic, pragmatic and future-focused individual to take on this exciting new role. The role will sit within a small, but growing multi-disciplinary team focused on progressing our service transformation work by understanding how Defra can become more service and outcome orientated.
You will be excited by the challenge of understanding user needs and policy goals to support strategy and decision making. You will be experienced at acting on whole service areas – both end-to-end and front-to-back, across organisational boundaries and government departments – to identify issues and opportunities. You will be the service design profession expert in our team, using your knowledge and skills to develop our service taxonomy and influence overall design approaches in a complex service landscape.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

• Experience of working with senior stakeholders and multidisciplinary teams to lead strategic design decisions
• Experience of understanding user needs and designing services that support those needs
• Evidence of driving awareness of service performance and improvement which have resulted in successful service outcomes
• Experience of mentoring others and leading workshops, collaborating with senior stakeholders
• Working at times from minimal evidence and responding positively to ambiguity and changing requirements

TECHNICAL SKILLS

We’ll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Iterative Design
• Designing for Everyone

NATIONALITY REQUIREMENTS

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements

RESPONSIBILITIES

Work with us to help shape how organisational decisions about investment and prioritisation are based on evidence and intentional design

• Influence senior leadership and help teams across Defra group understand how what they’re delivering is part of a whole service area and the outcomes and goals this supports – pushing Defra group to become a more service and outcome-oriented organisation
• Enable design to add value to how leadership teams shape strategy and priorities to meet goals and deliver a future Defra
• Work with us to help teams and leadership manage uncertainty by learning by doing, to ‘test and learn’, to deliver the right outcomes

• Influence performance reporting so we measure and target improvements to things that matter to users

• • Act as an authority on service design and connect with the wider community