Senior Service Designer at Government Commercial Agency, UK Office/Remote, 10 Weeks, £Contract Rate

Government Commercial Agency (GCA) is the largest public procurement organisation in the UK.

As a trading fund and executive agency of the Cabinet Office, we implement procurement policy on behalf of the government.

We use the collective buying power of our customers and our commercial expertise to help public sector organisations achieve value for money and provide great outcomes for taxpayers.

We are looking for an experienced Senior Service Designer to play a key role in designing and improving digital services that meet the needs of users, businesses and government. Working within multidisciplinary agile teams, you will help shape end-to-end services, ensuring they are user-centred, accessible, inclusive and aligned with government standards.

You will collaborate closely with user researchers, product managers, delivery managers, policy teams, business stakeholders and technical specialists to understand complex problems and turn insights into practical service improvements.

This is an excellent opportunity for a service design professional who thrives in complex environments and can balance user needs, organisational objectives and technical constraints to deliver meaningful outcomes.

As a Senior Service Designer, your main responsibilities will be:

• Lead service design activities across complex digital transformation programmes.
• Design and improve end-to-end services using evidence, research and user insights.
• Facilitate workshops, design sessions and stakeholder engagement activities.
• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to identify opportunities for service improvement.
• Develop and test multiple service solutions, validating ideas through prototyping and user feedback.
• Champion user-centred design principles and promote best practice across teams.
• Support agile delivery by helping teams understand and apply service design methodologies.
• Identify service constraints, challenge assumptions and ensure compliance with relevant standards.
• Contribute to strategic planning, service roadmaps and future service vision development.
• Influence senior stakeholders and help build consensus across diverse groups.
• Ensure services align with government functional standards, accessibility requirements and digital service standards.

Essential:

• Demonstrable experience working within agile, multidisciplinary teams, applying agile principles, methods and tools to deliver user-centred services.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to facilitate workshops, influence senior stakeholders and translate complex technical and business information for diverse audiences.
• Strong expertise in service design and user-centred design, using research, data and evidence to design and improve end-to-end services that meet user and organisational needs.
• Proven ability to analyse, synthesise and simplify complex information, transforming insights into practical service solutions and improvements.
• Experience contributing to strategic service design, influencing decision-making, shaping service direction and driving continuous improvement across organisational boundaries.
• Skilled in prototyping and service modelling, with experience testing concepts, iterating designs, establishing design patterns and creating simple coded prototypes using HTML.
• Strong leadership and collaboration skills, with experience promoting best practice, building effective cross-functional relationships, influencing without authority, and supporting the delivery of high-quality digital services within government or public sector environments.

Desirable:

• Experience working within Central Government or wider public sector organisations.
• Knowledge of Government Digital Service (GDS) standards and Government Functional Standards.
• Experience presenting service design decisions to senior stakeholders and governance forums.
• Familiarity with accessibility standards and inclusive design principles

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.

At GCA, we actively support, promote, and celebrate our differences for the benefit of our employees, suppliers, and customers. GCA is proud to be an equal opportunities employer. GCA believes that diversity and inclusion is critical to our success, and we seek to recruit, develop, and retain the most talented people. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

Disability Confident 

As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, GCA guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.

Armed Forces Covenant 

Government Commercial Agency guarantees to interview veterans or spouses / partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates / military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group.

In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different.