Service Designer - GDS
Posted Today by Sanderson Government & Defence
£450 Per day
Inside
Remote
London, UK
Summary: The Senior Service Designer role focuses on leading the design and delivery of user-centered public services for a central government client, specifically requiring strong GDS experience. The position involves collaborating with a multidisciplinary team to ensure services align with GDS standards from discovery to live phases. The role emphasizes practical improvements across complex systems while mentoring junior designers. This is a remote position with an initial contract of six months.
Key Responsibilities:
- Lead service design activity across Discovery, Alpha, Beta, and Live phases
- Create and iterate service blueprints and artefacts (service maps, user journeys, ecosystem maps)
- Champion user-centred design principles across senior stakeholders
- Support and collaborate with User Research to translate insight into actionable design decisions
- Identify pain points across complex systems and design practical, scalable improvements
- Ensure services meet GDS standards and are assessment-ready
- Facilitate workshops and co-design sessions with business and technical teams
- Contribute to design community practice and mentor junior designers where required
Key Skills:
- Proven experience working on government digital services
- Strong understanding of GDS Service Standards and assessment processes
- Demonstrable experience delivering in multidisciplinary agile teams
- Expertise in mapping complex services across multiple channels
- Confident stakeholder engagement at senior level
- Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on delivery
- Experience working within Inside IR35 contracts
Salary (Rate): £450 per day
City: undetermined
Country: undetermined
Working Arrangements: remote
IR35 Status: inside IR35
Seniority Level: undetermined
Industry: IT
Senior Service Designer (GDS Experience)
Rate: £450 per day (Inside IR35)
Location: Remote
Contract: 6 months initial
We're supporting a central government client seeking an experienced Senior Service Designer with strong GDS (Government Digital Service) experience to lead the design and delivery of complex, user-centred public services.
This role sits within a multidisciplinary digital team and will play a key part in shaping services from discovery through to live, ensuring alignment with GDS Service Standards and best practice across government.
The RoleYou'll be responsible for designing end-to-end services that meet user needs while balancing policy, operational, and technical constraints. Working closely with Product Managers, User Researchers, Content Designers, Interaction Designers, and Technical Architects, you'll help define and improve services used at scale.
You will:
Lead service design activity across Discovery, Alpha, Beta, and Live phases
Create and iterate service blueprints and artefacts (service maps, user journeys, ecosystem maps)
Champion user-centred design principles across senior stakeholders
Support and collaborate with User Research to translate insight into actionable design decisions
Identify pain points across complex systems and design practical, scalable improvements
Ensure services meet GDS standards and are assessment-ready
Facilitate workshops and co-design sessions with business and technical teams
Contribute to design community practice and mentor junior designers where required
Essential Experience
Proven experience working on government digital services
Strong understanding of GDS Service Standards and assessment processes
Demonstrable experience delivering in multidisciplinary agile teams
Expertise in mapping complex services across multiple channels
Confident stakeholder engagement at senior level
Ability to balance strategic thinking with hands-on delivery
Experience working within Inside IR35 contracts
Desirable
Experience working with Legacy transformation programmes
Familiarity with accessibility and inclusive design standards
Previous central government department experience
Reasonable Adjustments:
Respect and equality are core values to us. We are proud of the diverse and inclusive community we have built, and we welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and perspectives. Our success is driven by our people, united by the spirit of partnership to deliver the best resourcing solutions for our clients.
If you need any help or adjustments during the recruitment process for any reason, please let us know when you apply or talk to the recruiters directly so we can support you.