Lead Service Designer

Lead Service Designer / SC Cleared / DV Cleared / Inside IR35 / £580 / 6 Months / Contract / Milton Keynes

A Service Designer is required to lead the coordination of Service Design activity across the Technology and Operations portfolio within a Public Sector organisation as well provide leadership and management of the Service Design function, guiding teams and stakeholders to deliver secure, scalable, and supportable services that meet user and business needs.
Essential:

• Degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science or Information Technology.
• Holds professional level certifications such as ITIL (Foundation or higher), BCS Certificate in Service Design, ISO/IEC 20000 Practitioner (Service Management Standard), Service Integration and Management (SIAM), Lean Six Sigma, TOGAF, AgilePM, or equivalent experience.
• Translate business, user, and operational requirements into coherent, efficient, and cost-effective service designs. Creating end to end Service Design Packages (SDPs).
• Understand Agile and user-centred design approaches, and how they integrate with service delivery.
• Experience leading and line managing Service Designers, providing direction, coaching, and professional development to build capability and excellence across functions.
• Track record of deputising for senior technology leaders, engaging with senior stakeholders and governance forums to provide clear, evidence-based service advice.
• Experience designing secure or air-gapped platforms within the government sector.
• Knowledge of NCSC, GDS, and UK government security frameworks, including Secure by Design, Cloud Security Principles, Government Functional Standards, and the Technology Code of Practice.
• Demonstrate in-depth understanding of service design principles, IT service management frameworks (e.g. ITIL), and end-to-end service lifecycle management.
• Understand enterprise and technical architecture concepts, ensuring service designs align with strategic and operational objectives.
• Lead co-design workshops and apply human-centred design methods to solve strategic problems.
• Awareness of accessibility, inclusion, and usability standards within digital and operational service design.
• Led or managed teams, providing direction and professional development.
• Proven experience leading service design, delivery, and governance of large-scale IT or digital services.
• Have experience producing and maintaining service blueprints, operating models, SLAs, and OLAs that enable effective service delivery.
• Demonstrate success in building relationships with senior stakeholders, influencing technical and business decisions through credible advice.
• Work collaboratively with Technical Architects, Service Owners, Product Owners, and delivery teams to translate requirements into practical and supportable service models.
• Developed service design options and advised on time, cost, quality, and trade-offs.
• Experience designing business continuity, disaster recovery, and resilience solutions.
• Influenced senior stakeholders through credible, evidence-based recommendations.
• Used operational data and metrics to identify and deliver optimisation opportunities.
• Maintained continuous professional development and awareness of emerging tools.

Desirable:

• You will hold membership of a recognised professional body such as BCS or IET.
• Experience of designing for government security classification OFFICIAL and above.
• Awareness of AI technologies to enable operational efficiency and data-driven decisions.

Ideally the successful candidate will currently hold DV clearance but we can consider SC cleared or eligible for SC Clearance.