Senior Service Designer

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

New recruits to the Civil Service joining MoJ are expected to join at the band minimum. This position is available for external applicants as well as existing civil servants on level transfer or promotion. Secondments and loans will be considered on an individual basis. This appointment will be made on a fixed term appointment, due to the time limited nature of the Reform Programme. For existing civil servants, whilst the role itself is time limited, successful appointment on promotion will secure this grade on a substantive basis.

Background:
Her Majesty’s Court and Tribunals Service is an Executive Agency of the MoJ and provides the supporting administration for the judiciary across England and Wales. The courts and tribunals in England and Wales have been allocated unprecedented funding of almost £1billlion to deliver the reform of the Courts and Tribunal Service. This will enable HM Courts & Tribunals Service, working in partnership with the judiciary, to create a system that is proportionate and accessible and that better meets the needs of the people it serves. This is the most ambitious programme of its kind anywhere in the world. Opportunities within the Reform Programme offer a unique chance to be at the forefront of leading and implementing a significant change across the organisation.

An effective courts and tribunals service are fundamental to our democracy, underpinning the rule of law. This is a unique opportunity to work at the heart of HMCTS as it undergoes a major transformation, designed not just to give our courts and tribunals a sustainable and affordable future, but to further improve how we deliver justice.

People who use courts and tribunals are often experiencing a challenging time in their personal lives. Our user-centred design team puts our users at the heart of the design process to make sure our services are:
• built for the needs of those who use them
• accessible and easy to use across all channels

About You:
You focus on the user and, based on evidence, design simple, clear content to support citizens. You understand the impact of poorly designed content and can articulate the benefits of content design to others.

Key Responsibilities:
As a senior content designer, you’ll be part of the user-centred design team and HMCTS’ growing design community of practice. You’ll be working on new and improved courts and tribunals services that anyone can use to get access to the justice they need.

You’ll be expected to:
• work in an agile, cross-functional team to understand user needs, write and map user stories, design content plans and realise design concepts at pace for complex, fast-moving projects
• scope, create and improve user-centred content based on user feedback, research and data
• help colleagues and stakeholders understand what content design is, why it’s important and how to work with content designers
• actively participate in user research and help translate research findings into actionable insight
• work within and support the government service design manual and GOV.UK standards
• support, coach, mentor and train other designers, helping set and communicate good practice to improve quality and consistency across HMCTS’ transformation programmes
• play an active role in HMCTS’ growing design community of practice as well as wider cross-government communities of practice
• create content strategies to help services meet user needs and business objectives

Other duties:
You’ll need to work in a flexible way and undertake any other duties reasonably requested by the head of profession which are commensurate with the grade and level of responsibility of this post.

Essential Skills, Knowledge and Criteria:
The role aligns to the user-centred design job family within the UK government’s Digital, Data and Technology (DDaT) Profession. We are looking for candidates with a proven track record in the following:

You’ll need to be able to demonstrate your experience of:
• User focus. You collaborate with user researchers and performance analysts to advocate effectively for users. You use research insights and other evidence when planning and carrying out your work, clearly explaining how and why decisions have been made. You write content that is accessible; putting accessibility at the heart of your work and encouraging others to do the same.
• User-centred content design. You have a deep understanding of end-to-end journeys and how content is affected within these journeys. You can identify where journey fixes or content improvements need to be made. You have responsibility for assuring the quality of content from less experienced colleagues and can coach and guide them to improve. You make sure content is regularly reviewed and evaluated, contributing to continuous improvements and iteration. You encourage a continuous improvement mindset in teams and in less experienced content designers.
• Agile working. You understand the role of content in multidisciplinary teams and can articulate this and advocate for it. You work collaboratively with colleagues from other disciplines in multidisciplinary teams as well as legal, policy and communications teams.
• Stakeholder relationship management. You can negotiate with stakeholders and manage relationships effectively, allowing you to influence decisions, deal with challenging situations and remove blockers. You can build long-term strategic relationships and communicate clearly and regularly with stakeholders, supporting mutual needs and commitments while focusing on user needs.
• Strategic thinking. You can help lead the design and implementation of strategies, evaluating their impact and progress to make sure business objectives and the needs of users are being met. You lead and direct strategic content improvement projects, focussing effort in the areas of greatest priority and make sure goals and objectives are met.

Desirable Skills & Criteria
• Experience using GOV.UK Whitehall publishing platform
• Prototyping in code using the GOV.UK prototype kit, Heroku and Github
• Being an active member of a design community, actively networking with others and contributing to ways of working and community activities such as content critiques
• Experience of UK government service standard assessments, either taking services for assessments or assessing services against the standard