Senior Service Designer

Permanent, Full Time

Up to £52,040 per annum

Location: Chelmsford*

Closing Date: 11th April 2021

Essex County Council is one of the county's largest employers, with over 7,500 staff who are responsible for services across adults and children's social care, environment and waste, transport, education, planning and benefits. This role will support the front line of local service delivery across a diverse range of public services. You will help to understand and articulate the needs of real people and will see the impact that your work has on people's lives.

If you are a Service Designer who thrives in a creative and collaborative environment, we want to hear from you.

The role:

• work strategically on end to end services to deliver improved service outcomes that meet user needs
• explain and communicate ideas to senior stakeholders to build consensus and support decision making
• lead project teams using Agile practices
• help drive the continuous development of design patterns and standards
• share skills, knowledge and working practices
• help grow the service design community of practice across ECC

On a day-to-day basis

You will:

• advocate for user-centred design across the council and work in the open to upskill others and promote awareness and understanding.
• work with service areas to scope new service design projects that meet ECC's Strategic aims and financial considerations.
• work strategically on end to end services to deliver improved service outcomes and costed savings with minimal support.
• work collaboratively with user researchers, designers, product and content specialists and other change colleagues across the organisation.
• compile user research into actionable insights and lead design activities that build on your findings.
• use quantitative and qualitative data to produce designs that meet user needs and provide a persuasive case to influence senior stakeholders.
• develop ideas and design concepts using sketching, prototyping and iterative design.
• make the case for design decisions, explaining and communicating ideas to senior stakeholders to build consensus.
• identify service patterns and help drive the continuous development of design patterns and standards.

You'll do great here if you

• can form motivated teams and identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them
• have experience of balancing the needs of users with organisation priorities to make the right decisions and helping teams to act upon them
• know how to manage stakeholder expectations and can build consensus between services or stakeholders
• understand technical complexity, risks and how to communicate this in simple and accessible language and recommend decisions
• can identify constraints and assist your team to work within them
• are experienced in developing ideas using sketching, prototyping, iterative design and using testing tools to make sure prototypes and services meet user needs
• know how the internet works and have experience of creating digital services that work across multiple channels, devices, browsers and platforms
• apply the Government Service Standards, Government Accessibility Regulations and Information Governance principles

It's not for you if

• You're a project manager or commissioning manager. We are looking for a designer.
• Your experience is predominantly in IT. We are looking for people whose experience is grounded in user-centred practice.

Benefits of working for us

This is a great role in a vibrant and growing team. You'll find an inclusive culture and a place where your opinion is valued.

The Council has developed a package of benefits that we hope resonates with you. You can find out more about our pay and reward offer on our Working for Essex website .

What you should do next

Please apply via the Working for Essex website. We'd also like to hear about you so please include a cover letter when prompted.

Your cover letter should present demonstrable experience of all the competencies listed under "You'll do great here if you". Please try to use real examples and tell us what the situation was, what you did and what the result was.

We are planning to hold interviews on the week beginning 19th April 2021.

*This position will initially, in line with current government guidance be based from home, with an expectation of being home based for the foreseeable future. However, if / when government guidelines change the role may then revert to being office based, whilst retaining some flexible working options.

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

We seek the best talent from the widest pool of people as diversity is key to our success.