Service Design Lead in Newtownabbey

Make the future real. Big Motive is a digital strategy and design consultancy. We combine human-centred design with AI to create measurable impact — using AI where it adds value, and human insight where it matters most. For over twenty years, we've helped healthcare organisations, government bodies, and ambitious businesses turn complex problems into exceptional digital experiences. Our work spans health, government, and social impact — from redesigning public services to launching digital products and modernising legacy systems. We're a group of designers, researchers, and strategists with a shared belief in the power of design to make people's lives better.

The Role

This is a senior service design leadership role for someone who is deeply invested in change — in health systems, public services, and the organisations that shape people's lives. You don't need to have worked exclusively in health or government; if you've come through an agency with significant public sector or health clients, or built broad service design experience across complex organisations, we want to hear from you. You'll lead complex transformation programmes for HSE, Irish Government, and cross-border clients, help grow our Dublin practice, and be the kind of practitioner your team looks up to and learns from. You'll sit at the heart of our service design practice — working across research, co-design, and multidisciplinary programme delivery — and report to a member of our executive team. You'll bring strategic depth and facilitation rigour to our most complex and high-stakes engagements.

What You'll Do

• Lead end-to-end service design programmes from discovery and research through to implementation — holding strategic direction across long-running, multi-stakeholder programmes.
• Move fluently between conversations — from patient journey and citizen experience to organisational design and digital transformation strategy.
• Own senior client relationships — comfortable presenting to senior civil servants, clinical leaders, and government executives.
• Apply systems thinking to complex public sector challenges — understanding the interdependencies between policy, operations, technology, and human experience.
• Bring a digital lens to service design — understanding how accessibility, digital inclusion, and modern technology platforms shape service delivery, and helping clients navigate digital transformation with rigour.
• Use AI to scale and accelerate service design work — applying AI-assisted research synthesis, journey intelligence tools, and qualitative analysis platforms to bring deeper insight to complex programmes at a pace that manual methods can't match.
• Facilitate co-design workshops and multi-stakeholder sessions where needed — always as a means to meaningful change, not an end in itself.
• Communicate the business impact of design clearly to clients — spotting growth opportunities, contributing to proposals, and supporting the development of the Dublin practice.
• Represent Big Motive at speaking events, contribute to thought leadership, and help build our profile as a leading service design practice in Ireland.
• Mentor and develop junior and mid-level designers in the Dublin practice.
• Collaborate with product design and strategy colleagues on cross-disciplinary programmes.
• Carry formal line management responsibility for designers in the Dublin practice — owning their development, supporting performance conversations, and contributing to hiring decisions.
• Act as escalation point for client issues on your accounts — maintaining client confidence and continuity when things get difficult.
• Set collaboration cadences and programme direction, bringing senior leadership into milestone moments and key client-facing work.

What You Bring

Essential

• 8+ years in service design, with significant experience in health and/or public sector — whether in-house, government, or agency-side with relevant clients.
• Deep expertise in service design methods — research planning, synthesis, journey mapping, co-design, service blueprinting, and systems mapping.
• A strong understanding of digital transformation — how modern organisations design and deliver services across digital and non-digital channels, and how accessibility and inclusion shape that work.
• Deep understanding of human-centred design (HCD) theory and practice — you can teach it, debate it, and apply it in complex real-world contexts.
• Practical curiosity about AI's role in service design — from automated transcription and synthesis to AI-assisted journey mapping, pattern recognition across large qualitative datasets, and scaling co-design outputs.
• Proven ability to lead strategic change and transformation programmes, managing complexity, politics, and ambiguity.
• Strong client leadership — you've managed senior stakeholder relationships and delivered under pressure.
• The ability to communicate the business impact of design — you're not carrying a sales target, but you can articulate value clearly and spot growth opportunities.
• A track record of mentoring and developing designers.
• Dublin-based or willing to relocate.

Desirable

• A formal qualification in service design, human-centred design, or a related discipline (MA, MSc, or equivalent) — or professional accreditation from the Service Design Network.
• Direct experience with HSE, Irish Government, or other Irish public sector bodies.
• Experience working across both Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland / UK contexts.
• Familiarity with public procurement processes in Ireland or the UK.

Who You Are

You've led programmes that actually changed things — not just delivered reports. You understand the complexity of public sector and health: the politics, the constraints, the competing stakeholders, and the very real human stakes. You move fluently between the strategic and the human — between senior leadership conversations and the lived experience of a patient navigating a fragmented system. You care about rigour. You know the difference between co-design done well and co-design done for show. You push back constructively when a brief is wrong, and you know how to bring clients on a journey. You're at your best when design meets consequence. You want to build something, not just deliver projects — and you want to do it somewhere that genuinely believes design can change the world.

How You'll Work

Dublin-based hybrid role — typically 2 days in our Dublin office, with flexibility around client and project needs. You'll report to a member of our executive team, working closely with senior leadership across Belfast and Dublin. You'll collaborate across disciplines — with product designers, strategists, researchers, and project managers. You'll be a key voice in account leadership and business development conversations in the Irish market.

What Success Looks Like

Within your first 6–12 months:

• You've taken full ownership of one or more major public sector or health programmes, with strong client relationships and clear design direction.
• You're actively contributing to proposals and helping grow the Dublin account base.
• Junior and mid-level designers in the Dublin practice are visibly developing under your mentorship.
• You've introduced or embedded at least one new facilitation or co-design approach that raises the bar across the team.
• You're a trusted voice in senior client rooms — navigating politics, building confidence, and delivering outcomes.
• You've contributed meaningfully to Big Motive's profile as a leading strategic design partner for health and public sector in Ireland.

Why This Role Is Interesting

This is a rare opportunity to:

• Lead a growing Dublin practice at a consultancy with over twenty years of earned reputation in health and public sector design.
• Work on programmes that have genuine consequences — redesigning services that affect thousands of people's lives.
• Be part of a senior team that takes craft seriously, moves with pace, and genuinely cares about the work.
• Help shape how a leading consultancy approaches the next generation of service design practice.
• Help grow a business with real ambition — and share in that success.

Why Big Motive

One of Ireland's leading human-centred design consultancies — Certified B Corporation® and member of the Institute of Designers in Ireland. Clients include HSE, HSCNI, Kingsbridge Healthcare Group, Adidas, Dublin City Council, Arts Council, Cabinet Office, and more. Growing Dublin practice with real ambition and senior support. For over twenty years, a senior team that takes craft seriously and moves at pace. Real autonomy, real accountability, real impact. United by a shared motive to use design for good.

What We Offer

£55,000 – £65,000 (Belfast) / €65,000 – €75,000 (Dublin), depending on experience. A MacBook Pro and all the software and tools you need. Flexible, hybrid working — up to 3 days a week from home. 24 days annual leave + public holidays. Enhanced maternity/paternity/adoption leave. Company pension + bonus scheme. Employee assistance programme. Regular 1:1 development support. Cycle to Work / Bike to Work scheme.

Apply directly here. Please submit:

• Your CV.
• Examples of service design programmes you've led — a portfolio, case study, or brief description of the work and your role in it.
• A short note on your approach to service design leadership and why this role interests you.

We're not looking for someone who ticks every box. We're looking for a service design leader with real depth, genuine craft, and the drive to build something meaningful. If that sounds like you, we want to hear from you!