Essex County Council is shaping a new programme of transformation with renewed energy, ambition, and focus. In the last few years, we have been able to build the foundations of financial stability and create the breathing space to think big. And without doubt, ‘big’ is the challenge ahead of us.

As many of our residents’ lives have become more complex and uncertain, they need us to deliver greater, improved support. With increasing demand on our services and finances post-pandemic, it’s never been more critical to take a user-centred approach to change.

In the two years since its launch, we’ve made good progress towards our Everyone’s Essex goals. As we look ahead to 2030, our ambition continues with vital plans for building the resilient, efficient, and effective council that our residents deserve.

Service Transformation will play an important role in grounding this change in the needs of Essex residents, and ensuring our next steps are focused in the areas where we can deliver meaningful change for both residents and staff.

The Senior Service Designer role

You will help others to understand the value of user centred approaches, stretch their ambition, and build effective cases for modernising services. Together, we will build digital and design maturity in our team and with colleagues and stakeholders from the wider organisation, helping pave the way for success. You will:

• work strategically on end-to-end services to deliver improved service outcomes that meet user needs
• explain and communicate ideas to senior stakeholders to build consensus and support decision making
• lead project teams using Agile practices
• help drive the continuous development of design patterns and standards
• share skills, knowledge and working practices
• help grow the user-centred design community of practice across ECC

On a day-to-day basis you will

• advocate for user-centred design across the council and work in the open to upskill others and promote awareness and understanding
• work with service areas to scope new service design projects that meet ECC’s Strategic aims and financial considerations
• work strategically on end-to-end services to deliver improved service outcomes and costed savings with minimal support
• work collaboratively with user researchers, designers, product and content specialists and other change colleagues across the organisation
• compile user research into actionable insights and lead design activities that build on your findings
• use quantitative and qualitative data to produce designs that meet user needs and provide a persuasive case to influence senior stakeholders
• develop ideas and design concepts using sketching, prototyping and iterative design
• make the case for design decisions, explaining and communicating ideas to senior stakeholders to build consensus
• identify service patterns and help drive the continuous development of design patterns and standards

Skills and Experience

• can form motivated teams and identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and rectify them
• have experience of balancing the needs of users with organisation priorities to make the right decisions and help teams and stakeholders to act upon them
• know how to manage stakeholder expectations and how to build consensus between service owners and stakeholders
• understand technical complexity, risk and how to communicate this in simple and accessible language
• can identify constraints and assist your team to work within them
• are experienced in developing ideas using sketching, prototyping, iterative design and using testing tools
• know how the internet works and have experience of creating digital services that work across multiple channels, devices, browsers, and platforms
• understand and can apply the Government Service Standards, Government Accessibility Regulations, and Information Governance principles

This role is not for you if

• You’re a project manager or commissioning manager. We are looking for a designer
• Your experience is predominantly in IT. We are looking for people whose experience is grounded in user-centred practice

Benefits of working for us

This is a great role in a vibrant and growing team with opportunities at a range of levels across different disciplines. You’ll find an inclusive culture and a place where your opinion is valued.

We have a strong ethos for learning and development. You’ll be encouraged to take on new opportunities for development and as a team we want to share skills and support each other.

We’re a sociable bunch. We regularly get together for team lunches and to celebrate our successes.

You can find out more about us and the work we do on Service Transformation blog.

The Council has developed a package of benefits that we hope resonates with you. You can find out more about our pay and reward offer on our Working for Essex website

It’s important to us that we represent the communities that we serve, and we want a diverse workforce and an inclusive working environment. You can find out more about our commitment to equality and diversity on our Equality and Diversity page

What next

If you are interested in finding out more about this role, we would love to hear from you. Just email Nicholas.Ward@essex.gov.uk.

Please include a covering letter in your application. This should present demonstrable experience for all the bullet points listed under “Skills and Experience”. Please try to use real examples and tell us what the situation was, what you did and what the result was.

If your application is shortlisted, you’ll be invited to attend a remote interview on an agreed date.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process.

We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.