Lead Service Designer GDS

Lead Service Designer GDS
Service Design / Service Strategy / Blueprinting / Design Leadership / GDS
Hybrid - 2 days in office p/w - choice of UK wide offices including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow
£80,000 - £85,000 DOE + Training and Benefits

Are you the service designer senior stakeholders turn to when a transformation gets complex? This Lead Service Designer role combines strategic leadership with hands-on craft, shaping end-to-end future state services that are human-centred, data-informed and AI-ready.

You'll join a growing Experience Design team within a large global technology consultancy, reporting to the Head of Experience Design as their close partner in driving the practice forward and positioning design as a business lever with clients.

Our client, a global consultancy, has offices UK wide to choose from, so there will be one close to you. You'll need to be willing to undergo SC clearance.

What You'll Be Doing

• Leading complex service and product design engagements end to end, defining service strategies and future state architectures
• Leading multidisciplinary teams to research, prototype, test and launch new services
• Facilitating design sprints and co-creation sessions, and creating service blueprints, journeys and propositions that scale
• Guiding senior client stakeholders through complex decisions and helping grow engagements
• Mentoring and developing service designers across grades, including performance management and career progression
• Shaping design methods, tools and quality standards, supporting GDS assessment preparation, hiring and proposals

What You'll Bring

• Proven GDS experience, including the GDS Service Standard and service assessments
• Experience leading service design through the full lifecycle, including pilot and live operation, and influencing senior stakeholders in complex or regulated environments
• Evidence of building design capability, such as setting standards, mentoring designers or standing up new practices
• Fluency in blueprinting, journey mapping, systems mapping and proposition development, with strong workshop and sprint facilitation skills
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams in agile or hybrid delivery, and the confidence to manage upwards and challenge constructively

Desirable: accessibility and regulatory knowledge, multi-sector experience, quantitative survey design, service measurement, designing AI-enabled services

What's On Offer

• Hybrid working, with 2 days a week in the office
• Training and development, including external certifications
• Core and flexible benefits package

Please note: candidates must be willing and eligible to undergo SC security clearance, and need to have been UK resident for a minimum of 5 years.

Apply today with your CV for this Lead Service Designer role and we'll be in touch.

This role may suit candidates who have held roles including: Senior Service Designer, Principal Service Designer, Head of Service Design, Service Design Lead, Design Lead, CX Transformation Lead

Keywords: Lead Service Designer, Service Design, Service Strategy, Service Blueprinting, Journey Mapping, Systems Mapping, Proposition Development, Design Leadership, Design Sprints, GDS Service Standard, GDS Assessment, Agile, Principal Service Designer, Head of Service Design, SC Clearance

Deerfoot Recruitment Solutions Ltd is a leading independent tech recruitment consultancy in the UK. For every CV sent to clients, we donate £1 to The Born Free Foundation. We are a Climate Action Workforce in partnership with Ecologi. If this role isn't right for you, explore our referral reward program with payouts at interview and placement milestones. Visit our website for details. Deerfoot Recruitment Solutions Ltd is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.