About the job

Job summary

Defra is the UK government department responsible for safeguarding our natural environment, supporting our world-leading food and farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people's day-to-day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink.

Digital, Data and Technology Services (DDTS) is the trusted team for digital across the entire Defra Group.

We have around 1,200 colleagues across DDTS and our ambition is to make it easier and faster than ever for people to interact with Defra. If you are ready to drive innovation and push boundaries, we want to hear from you. Join us and together we will create a great place for living, and a green and healthy future for all.

Find out more about DDTS:

Defra digital, data and techology blog

LinkedIn 

Defra Jobs 

Job description

Defra is the UK government department accountable for safeguarding our natural environment, helping our world-leading food & farming industry, and sustaining a thriving rural economy. Our broad remit means we play a major role in people's day-to-day life, from the food we eat, and the air we breathe, to the water we drink.

Our approach puts user needs at the heart of digital development. We design and build user centred public services that help our superb food, farming and fisheries industries, enhance our beautiful rural environment, and better protect against flooding, disease and other natural threats.

Defra’s design team is part of a wider user-centred design group as well as the wider community of over 800 designers working in the UK government.

As a Senior Service Designer, your job will be to design accessible public and internal services that are simple for everyone to use. You will be excited by the challenge of understanding user needs and policy goals to support strategy and decision making, and experienced at visualising whole services – both end-to-end and front-to-back, across business areas and government departments, to reduce or remove issues and problems.

You will work in a multidisciplinary team, alongside user researchers, interaction designers, business analysts, content designers, product owners, delivery managers and developers to deliver world-class, user-centred services that help the government transform the way it delivers services so they are more efficient, simpler, faster and easier to use.

If you would like to know more about the role, join us virtually for a question and answer session on 26th February 2024, from midday to 12:30pm:

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Person specification

Responsibilities

• Align communication with service managers, product owners and policy colleagues to define user journeys and articulate the vision for products and services
• Identify opportunities for service improvement and cost reduction and improvement within existing services
• Understand user needs and track interactions across departmental and organisational boundaries
• Create as is user journeys, highlighting pain points, dependencies, areas for improvements and hypothesis to test
• Design the interactions and building blocks that make up the service
• Create service prototypes to test ideas and assumptions
• Influence performance reporting so we measure and target improvements to things that matter to users
• Ensure that interactions and user journeys across a service are rational and consistent
• Act as an authority on service design, training and mentoring other service designers and actively contributing to the design community within Defra and across government

Skills and experience

• Experience of understanding user needs and designing services that support those needs
• Experience of analysing pain points within services and communicating and sharing design solutions that fulfil user needs and business outcomes
• Experience of working with user research and business analysis to inform design decisions
• Experience of leading workshops and collaborating with senior stakeholders
• Evidence of driving awareness of service performance and improvement needs which have resulted in successful service outcomes
• Working at times from minimal evidence and responding positively to changing requirements

Selection process

The Civil Service marks each element of the selection process on a merit basis. You can visit the gov.uk website for further information on the Civil Service rating scale.

Ensure you have tailored your CV and Personal Statement to the 'skills and experience' section of the job advert by providing examples on how you are suitable for the role using the STAR method. Please ensure you demonstrate clearly, within your personal statement, how you meet these requirements, as the information you provide will form a key part when the panel is scoring your application.

For further information on STAR, you can check out our Hints and Tips document.

Application process

As part of the application process, you will be assessed on your Experience and will be asked to complete:

• A CV
• A 750-word Personal Statement: "Referring to the 'skills and experience' sections of the job advert, please demonstrate how you are suitable for the role by providing relevant examples."

Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form

Sift

Sift will begin shortly after the advert closes.

Should there be a large number of applications, an initial sift will be conducted using your personal statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment or interview.

Interview

If successful at sift stage, you will be invited to interview where you will be assessed on the Behaviours and Technical Skills listed below.

As part of the interview process, you will be asked to do a presentation in any format you choose, where you talk us through a project you have worked on in the past. What was the problem you were trying to solve? How did you solve it? What was the outcome? Why it was important to users and stakeholders.

The technical skills are aligned to the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability framework for the Senior Service Designer profession. To find out more about them, please visit the website.

Interview dates are to be confirmed. Please note that these may be subject to change.

Interviews will be held virtually on Microsoft Teams.

For further information on Success Profiles, you visit the links below and watch our videos on DefraJobs.

Behaviours

Experience

Technical

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £52,120, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs contributes £14,072 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Things you need to know

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Experience and Technical skills.

For further information on the selection process for this role, please refer to the person specification section of the job advert.

Location

As part of the pre-employment process for this post, successful candidate(s) will be able to agree a contractual workplace from those locations listed in this advert. The agreed contractual workplace is then the substantive and permanent place of work for the successful candidate(s)

Where the location is ‘National’ the successful appointee should discuss and agree an appropriate contractual location in line with both Defra’s location policy and site capacity, prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

Successful applicants currently employed by the hiring Defra organisation for this post may choose to remain in their current contractual location or may choose to change contractual location to one of those listed above. This should be discussed and agreed prior to proceeding with pre-employment processes.

The agreed amount of time spent at a workplace for this post will reflect the requirement for Civil Servants to spend at least 60% of their working time in an organisation workplace with the option to work the remaining time flexibly from home. Working time spent at a workplace may include time spent at other organisational locations including field-based operational locations, together with supplier, customer or partner locations. This is a non-contractual agreement which is consistent with common Civil Service expectations.

Travel costs to non-contractual workplaces will be subject to departmental travel and subsistence policies. Travel costs to contractual workplaces are the responsibility of the employee.

The successful candidate is required to carry out all their duties from a UK location, and cannot do so from an overseas location at any time.

Defra includes the core department, APHA, RPA, Cefas and VMD.

Reserve list

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Near miss

Candidates who are judged to be a near miss at interview may be considered for other positions in Defra which may be at a lower grade, but have a potential skills match.

Salary

New entrants to the Civil Service are expected to start on the minimum of the pay band. The internal roles rules apply to existing Civil Servants, i.e. level transfers move on current salary or the pay range minimum, transfers on promotion move to new pay range minimum or receive 10% increase. Either case is determined by whichever is the highest.

This post offers successful candidates the opportunity to be considered for an additional Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework Skills Supplement. The level of the awarded supplement is determined following a separate skills assessment process, the outcome of which has no impact on the decision to make a job offer. This digital capability supplement ranges from £0 to £17,880 and you may be awarded a pay supplement within this range based on results of your additional skills assessment.

Visa Sponsorship Statement

Please take note that Defra does not hold a UK Visa & Immigration (UKVI) Skilled Worker License sponsor and are unable to sponsor any individuals for Skilled Worker Sponsorship.

Reasonable adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

• Contact Government Recruitment Service via defrarecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs
• Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional

Accessibility

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Criminal Record Check

If successful and transferring from another government department, a criminal record check maybe carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstance some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-Employment.Checks@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Internal fraud database check

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening subject to a check on the internal fraud database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

Childcare vouchers

Any move to Defra from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility on the Childcare Choices website.

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window). The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria. The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.