About the job

Job summary

In the cloud and platform services division, our mission is to design, build, and operate a Scottish Government platform for Public Sector bodies across Scotland, providing Cloud Computing, Digital Payments, and Digital Identity.

By establishing common platforms, we support wider transformation, allowing bodies to deliver their services more efficiently, more quickly, and at scale.

 

The Service Designer role is an integral part of the team that is developing,  operating and enabling an improved and accelerated adoption of cloud services and digital innovation within the Scottish public sector.

Collaborating with a variety of customers and stakeholders including Cloud Platform engineering, technical and service professionals you will help develop end-to-end designs based on evidence of user needs and the Cloud Platform Service outcomes.

We anticipate you will grow to be a fundamental part of the team and service with your skills helping deliver the most value for users and for the service to be as efficient as possible.

This is an exciting opportunity to enable and advocate for best practice use of AWS and Azure across the public sector in Scotland, with opportunities for career development as part of a rapidly growing team.

 

“I’ve worked in the Cloud team for a number of years now and really enjoy it. It’s a really nice, small but collaborative team who work hard and try to do the right things, in the right way. 

This means the team is a really supportive environment for user centred design. where you will be given freedom to explore your ideas and test your practice as you see fit.” 

Mark Daniels, User Researcher 

Job description

As a Service Designer, you will be a confident and competent designer who can develop designs based on evidence of user needs and organisational outcomes.

 

Having a relevant degree and experience in a role titled ‘service designer’ is not a requirement. What’s important is understanding how a service works to meet people’s needs.

 

Collaborating with multidisciplinary colleagues you’ll be trusted to make good decisions and also recognise when to ask for further guidance and support. Interpreting evidence-based research, you’ll incorporate this into your work and raise awareness of how to make service accessible and inclusive. Engaging with and contributing to the Scottish Government service design community of practice

 

YOUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITIES: 

 

Communicating between the technical and non-technical:  

• Listen to the needs of technical and non-technical stakeholders and interpret them.
• Effectively manage and communicate stakeholder expectations.
• Support or host difficult discussions within the team or with diverse senior stakeholders. 

Community collaboration: 

• Work collaboratively in a group, actively networking with others.
• Create connections that help inform better service design.
• Adapt feedback to ensure its effective and lasting.
• Use your initiative to identify problems or issues in the team dynamic and resolve them.

Digital perspective: 

• Respond to changes in technology, adapting your approach accordingly.
• Make decisions to meet user needs in the government context.
• Design services to meet user needs and understand the importance of designing inclusive services for a diverse range of users.

Evidence- and context-based design: 

• Absorb large amounts of conflicting information and use it to generate and test designs.
• Create and document iterations based on evidence.

Prototyping: 

• Approach prototyping as a team activity, actively soliciting prototypes, and testing with others.
• Establish design patterns and iterate them. Use a variety of prototyping methods and choose the most appropriate.

User focus: 

• Collaborate with subject matter experts and users to collate user needs evidence. Explain the difference between user needs and the desires of the user.
• Champion user research to focus on all users, including those who have barriers to using digital tools.
• Prioritise and define approaches to understand the user story, guiding others in doing so.
• Offer recommendations on the best tools and methods to use. 

Working within constraints: 

• Identify, communicate, and work within constraints.
• Challenge the validity of constraints.
• Ensure standards are being met.

Person specification

No specific qualifications are required for this post.   

Essential Criteria

1. Your experience of working in an agile team and using agile tools allows you to use an iterative and flexible approach to rapidly design.
2. Your experience of the design process helps you to absorb large amounts of conflicting information and use it to generate and test designs.
3. Your experience of service design allows you to contribute to best practice guidelines, while managing levels of risk and complexity within teams and projects.
4. Your experience of prototyping and design research methods allows you to demonstrate the value of designs to your team, gain feedback early and iterate with others.
5. Your experience of working with user research and other user-centred design practitioners, allows you to make inclusive design decisions that meet the needs of a large range of users.
6. Your experience with changes in technology enables you to have an adaptive approach, meeting user needs in the government context.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £36,585, Scottish Government contributes £10,573 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

How To Apply

Panels sift applications based on evidence provided against the essential criteria. We recommend considering how your skills, qualities and experience, skills and  relates to these and tailoring your both your CV and Personal statement to provide this evidence.

 

To apply for this post, you will need to provide the information requested below via the online application process.

• A CV (no longer than two A4 pages) setting out your career history, with key responsibilities and achievements.
• Personal Statement (no longer than 750 words)

The closing date for applications is Monday 27 May (11:55pm)

Interview/Assessment Information 

If you are invited to attend an interview this will include a DDaT Technical Skill Assessment and the following competencies:-

• Self-Awareness
• Communications and Engagement
• Analysis and Use of Evidence
• Improving Performance

More detail on these competencies can be found in the https://clicks.icims.eu/f/a/O65DYoLcd6FUrdCEvdFh_w~~/AAAfxgA~/RgRmychIP0R0aHR0cHM6Ly9zY290dGlzaGdvdmVybm1lbnQuaWNpbXMuY29tL2ljaW1zMi9zZXJ2bGV0L2ljaW1zMj9tb2R1bGU9QXBwSW5lcnQmYWN0aW9uPWRvd25sb2FkJmlkPTMwODQwJmhhc2hlZD02ODY2NjIyNTBXBXNwY2V1Qgpk3EhD52TLrzavUhRzY290dC5sYWlyZEBnb3Yuc2NvdFgEAAAAbg~~

For additional information please visit

 

How to apply for Digital roles with Scottish Government  

Additional Information for applicants

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

Please note this Post is NOT regulated by the Civil Service Commission. 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.