Research & Design Lead - Service Design Focused

Zebra People are exclusively working with Westminster Council on the hiring of a Service Design focussed Research and Design Lead

The client

Westminster Council is a mission-driven organisation currently at the start of a very exciting huge digital and innovation initiative.

This is a leadership role with management responsibility for Senior UX, Senior UR & Senior SD.

They’re changing things for the better, whether that involves an improved focus on openness and transparency, or fixing current fragmented services to ensure a seamless experience across all channels.

They’ve just hired a Head of Product who comes with extensive experience within Gov. so it’s a particularly exciting time to join and really put your mark on things. They’re at the beginning of their journey, designing from the ground up and looking at what problems really need solving.

The role

As their Research & Design Lead, you’d be an integral part of a team whose mission is genuinely to put residents first. They’re changing things for the better, whether that involves an improved focus on openness and transparency, or fixing current fragmented services to ensure a seamless experience across all channels.

You will be responsible for developing and leading the service design, user research and user experience practices and community across Westminster, setting service design standards; taking responsibility for professional development of the service

design, user research and user experience teams, managing performance robustly

Directly leading the service design of our most complex, risky and interdependent new digital services, working in the open with the user at the centre of all you do, including working across multiple teams.  

Acting as ambassador for service design, user research and user experience across the council; championing service design as key to transformation; building relationships with leaders to explain the benefits of service design and user research –

Working closely with large, complex service areas to help them build their digital transformation plans, helping them to map and see opportunities to transform their areas, coaching them to build ambitious plans

Lead the planning and allocation of service design and user research team members

The candidate

• Deep understanding of service design, user experience, user research principles, practices and methods
• Understanding of product development methodology, frameworks and principles
• Significant experience leading service design or wider UX teams to help an organisation understand and solve large, complex problems
• Experience working in multidisciplinary teams to design and build services and improve existing service delivery
• Experience delivering prototype interactions and wireframes against time constraints to help unlock creative thinking in a team
• Experience of managing complex service design projects and programmes in large organisations
• Experience of facilitating cross-organisational work, helping disparate parts of an organisation to map and understand its interdependencies

What’s in it for you??

You’d be joining somewhere that has a culture of openness, transparency and integrity – where you’ll really have the opportunity to thrive and develop your career.

Everyone is valued and they truly embrace what makes people different from one another

The opportunity to be at the infancy of a transformation that can really have an impact on people’s lives

Base salary: Up to £73,000 + generous pension

WFH Policy: 1 day a week in their London office

If this sounds like an opportunity you’d like to be part of, then APPLY below!