Lead Service Designer

The Opportunity

We’re looking for a Lead Service Designer to join our London studio and play a central role in shaping how services are designed and delivered for our clients.

This is a hands-on, senior role that spans the full service design lifecycle — from understanding the problem space and mapping service ecosystems, through to designing future-state experiences and supporting implementation. You’ll work across multidisciplinary teams and directly with client stakeholders to drive real, measurable outcomes.

Services today are increasingly shaped by the interplay between human and automated touchpoints — including AI-enabled pathways. At this level, you’ll be expected to design for that complexity, bringing systems thinking and a user-centred lens to services that span digital and physical channels.

At this level, you’ll move beyond execution to:

• Shape service strategy and define opportunities for transformation
• Drive quality and consistency across service design deliverables
• Influence client thinking and contribute to relationship and opportunity development

Key Responsibilities

• Lead Strategic Service Design Projects: Scope, plan, and lead complex service design initiatives, providing strategic consultancy to clients and ensuring high-quality delivery across all phases—from discovery to implementation.
• Drive Business Transformation: Translate user insights and identified opportunities into differentiating concepts, services, and solutions that create real impact for clients and customers.
• Systems Thinking & Ecosystem Mapping: Apply systems thinking to design optimised service ecosystems, balancing user, business, and technology priorities.
• Evidence-Based Decision Making: Ground recommendations in robust research and evidence, synthesising field and desk research data to inform service concepts and business decisions.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Facilitate and develop workshops, co-creation sessions, and presentations to ensure stakeholder buy-in and alignment.
• Team Leadership & Development: Inspire, mentor, and support a multidisciplinary team of designers, fostering a culture of creativity, collaboration, and continuous learning.
• Client Relationship Management: Build trusted partnerships with client teams, working closely to push the boundaries of what’s possible while balancing feasibility and business objectives.
• Pitch & Business Development: Participate in pitch activities and contribute to business development efforts, locally and internationally.
• Champion Designit Values: Embody and promote Designit’s values—Inspiring, Curious, Daring, Thoughtful, Inclusive—in all aspects of your work and leadership.

Experience & skills

• Minimum 6 years of experience in service design, ideally within a consultancy, agency, or complex product environment
• Strong expertise in core service design methods — including service blueprinting, journey mapping, ecosystem mapping, and stakeholder mapping
• Proven ability to synthesise research and complex information into clear, actionable insights and service concepts
• Experience designing across multi-channel services spanning digital, physical, and human touchpoints
• Comfortable facilitating workshops and co-creation sessions with diverse groups — from frontline teams to senior leadership
• Ability to connect service design decisions to business strategy and measurable outcomes
• Confident presenting to and influencing senior stakeholders, making the case for design-led approaches
• Strong understanding of accessibility and inclusive design as core service quality attributes, not afterthoughts
• Familiarity with modern design and collaboration tools (e.g., Figma, FigJam, Miro) and an openness to AI-augmented design workflows
• Experience working in agile, cross-functional delivery environments
• Excellent visual communication, storytelling, and facilitation skills

Educational background in one or more of the following is valued but not essential:

• Service Design, Interaction Design, or a related design discipline
• Business, Strategy, or Management
• Psychology, Sociology, Anthropology, or Human-Computer Interaction