Service Designer in Cowbridge

Location: Cardiff; Edinburgh

Salary: 44,640 - 48,221 per year

Employment: Flexible

Category: Applications Manager

Posted: 2026-11-05

Valid to: 2026-11-18

Employer: Companies House

Job summary

Are you an experienced Service Designer looking for a new opportunity? Do you enjoy working closely with stakeholders to identify the most user centred solution? Then we have the role for you! Companies House has a well-established User Centred Design team within our DDaT directorate which includes a team of interaction designers, content designers, user researchers and performance analysts. Our services are critical for the UK economy and as an organisation we are committed to making them as user friendly and inclusive as possible.

We are looking for an experienced Service Designer to join the team who will lead on mapping our service flows and working with stakeholders to identify the most user centred solutions. The User-Centred Design (UCD) team sits within the Product Design Directorate, alongside the Product Management and Business Analysis teams. The UCD team is a community of 6 teams: Service Design, Interaction Design, Content Design, Accessibility, User Research, and Performance Analytics. Each team supports each other to review insights from our performance analytics and user research to understand user needs and co-design user-centred services. Our core values are empathy, collaboration and making working together fun! Our strategic objective is to innovate and ensure the organisation delivers services that work for everyone.

Why choose Companies House?

At Companies House we take a proactive approach to wellbeing by promoting a welcoming culture, healthy work life balance and supporting colleagues to be their best in work because we know people are the key to our success. Our benefits include:

• Flexible working with no core hours (between 6am and 8pm)
• 30 days annual leave + Bank Holidays
• Enrolment into the Civil Service Pension scheme, with an average employer contribution of 28%

As our digital ambition is to move towards a service led organisation, we are currently in the process of mapping out the end-to-end user experience to move towards a simple and intuitive design that meets the needs of all our users and delivers the objectives of the Economic Crime Act. As a service designer, you’ll be an advocate of user needs and the GOV.UK Service Standard. This role will be critical in mapping the "as is" user experience, highlighting user pain points and exploring how we can solve the whole problem for users.

By bringing together key stakeholders, you’ll aim to ensure that there is a common understanding of our service design challenges for both digital and non-digital user journeys and engage with product, technical, policy, and communications teams to explore different solutions.

You will:

• Act as an advocate of user needs and service design, and influence the delivery of services to ensure that these user needs are met
• Work with a multi-disciplinary team, including service managers, product managers, content designers, interaction designers, user researchers, performance analysts, and technical, policy and operational colleagues
• Have responsibility for service design across complex services, ensuring services solve the whole problem for users and meet both user needs and policy intent
• Lead on the development of design concepts for services, making best use of common component design patterns from across government, and iterating based on research, analytics and user feedback
• Provide expertise to the team on accessibility requirements and inclusive design
• Help identify high level needs and epics to influence the product roadmap and how the backlog is prioritised
• Map the experience of users and highlight areas where it can be improved
• Explore ways of simplifying complex end-to-end processes for digital and non-digital journeys
• Identify design challenges and explore ways of solving them using best practice across government
• Understand and work within constraints to deliver the most user-friendly solution to users
• Promote the value of service design across the organisation

Person specification

We are looking for the following experience and skills which will be assessed at sift and interview. The successful candidate will be someone who has:

• Experience of working in an agile environment with multidisciplinary teams
• Experience of designing services for a wide range of users including novice users and users with assisted digital and accessibility needs
• Ability to understand technical limitations and work within constraints to deliver the most user-friendly solution to users
• Expert knowledge of the discipline of service design including mapping user experience and writing personas for multiple audiences
• Experience of using different methods of telling the user stories
• Experience of having difficult conversations with stakeholders and trying to influence their decision making based on user needs
• Experience of leading and developing others and growing a community of practice
• Ability to influence stakeholders and promote the value of user-centred design
• Familiarity with GOV.UK accessibility regulations and inclusive design
• Knowledge of the GOV.UK Service standard, GDS Design System, and the milestones of each delivery phase according to the Service Manual, or equivalent
• An awareness of the GOV.UK Design system and the GOV.UK Style guide

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Communicating and Influencing
• Changing and Improving
• Delivering at Pace
• Developing Self and Others

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Mapping of user needs and designing services to meet them

Benefits

Alongside your salary of 44,640, Companies House contributes 12,932 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. We believe that our success is driven by the well-being and satisfaction of our team members at all levels of the organisation. At Companies House we’re committed to providing a comprehensive benefits package that goes beyond the ordinary, ensuring your career journey with us is not only fulfilling, but also rewarding. We pride ourselves on offering a quality work-life balance with our employee wellbeing being central to our working practices.

We celebrate diversity... As an equal opportunity employer, we celebrate diversity, being committed to ensuring we’re representative of the citizens we serve and creating an inclusive environment. Everyone in Companies House brings something different, and so will you. To fulfil our commitment to recruiting and attracting diverse talent we welcome applications from underrepresented groups. We also welcome applications from Welsh speakers. We are proud to be a disability confident leader. Our recruitment process is fully inclusive and we can make adjustments as needed through our process.

Where will you be working?

You will be based at either our Cardiff or Edinburgh office and will be expected to attend your chosen location on a regular basis. As part of the application process, you will be asked to select your preferred location from those advertised. Any offer made will be for that specific office. Please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas. We are currently using a hybrid approach to the way we work which provides opportunities for you to be adaptable in the way you work so that you can achieve a healthy balance between your work and home life.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles, and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills. Closing date: 18th November 2026. Sifting: from 19th November 2026. Interview: from 3rd December 2026 onwards.

What will the process look like?

Stage 1 – Sift: An initial sift of applications will be carried out to create a shortlist. This will be based on the evidence provided for the Success Profile element 'Experience'. In your application form we’d like you to:

• Write a CV: tell us about your employment history, including key responsibilities and achievements.
• Write a Personal Statement of 750 words: tell us, using examples, how you demonstrate experience of designing services for a wide range of users including novice users and users with assisted digital and accessibility needs, experience of working in an agile environment with multidisciplinary teams, ability to understand technical limitations and work within constraints to deliver the most user-friendly solution to users.

We'd encourage you to use the full word count to give us clear examples and evidence of these 3 key criteria. We’re committed to being diverse and inclusive, so please make your application anonymous by removing all identifying personal information (such as your name and age) from your personal statement. Once the advert has closed, we will sift applications - this involves reading through them all, please bear with us as this can take some time.

Please note: In the case of a large number of applications, before conducting a full sift as described above, the panel may conduct a pre-sift. This means we will just review your answer to Experience: experience of designing services for a wide range of users including novice users and users with assisted digital and accessibility needs. If you pass this pre-sift, we will then read your full application. We may raise the score required if we receive a high number of applications. At sift we may choose to take through the highest performing candidates to the next stage. If, after the final stage is completed and roles are unfilled, we will proceed to invite lower scoring candidates to interview.

Stage 2- Interview: Companies House uses a blended interview technique, allowing us to find out more about you. We use the Success Profile framework and at interview we will use Success Profiles assessing the Behaviours and Technical skills listed in the advert and Strengths. Successful candidates from the sift stage will be invited to a virtual interview, which will be conducted using Microsoft Teams. There will be an activity as part of the interview process. This will be a presentation which will assess the Technical skill: mapping of user needs and designing services to meet them. Candidates who are invited to interview will be provided with further details.

A reserve list may be held for up to 12 months from which further appointments may be made for the same or similar roles. If after the interview you are not found appointable at the advertised grade, you may be offered the lower grade role if you are considered to meet the skills, experience and behaviours for the lower level. The benchmark for appointing to the lower grade is set at the start of each campaign. All offers will be made in merit order.

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of recruitment based on fair and open competition with decisions made on the basis of merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.

Sponsorship: Companies House cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. Companies House holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles, and this campaign does not qualify. Should you apply for this role and require sponsorship, your application may be rejected, and any provisional offers of employment withdrawn.

Pre-Employment Checking: In line with Government guidance, successfully appointed candidates will need to provide documents for our Right to Work checks. From June 2026, applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). Your personal details (name, National Insurance number, and date of birth) will be checked against the Civil Service Resourcing Extract 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. If your details appear on this database, you will not be offered employment unless you can demonstrate exceptional circumstances. Companies House, acting on behalf of the vacancy holder, will inform you if your application is refused for this reason.

Please note: You are 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. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security: Successful candidates must undergo a basic (or equivalent) criminal record check. People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard 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), 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 can be found on the Civil Service website.

Working for the Civil Service: The Civil Service Code 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. 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.

Diversity and Inclusion: The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found.

Apply and further information: This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative. The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction.