Lead Service Designer GDS

Service Design / Service Strategy / Blueprinting / Design Leadership / GDS Hybrid - 2 days in office p/w - choice of UK wide offices including London, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow. £80,000 - £85,000 DOE + Training and Benefits.

Are you the service designer senior stakeholders turn to when a transformation gets complex? This Lead Service Designer role combines strategic leadership with hands‑on craft, shaping end-to-end future state services that are human‑centred, data-informed and AI‑ready. You’ll join a growing Experience Design team within a large global technology consultancy, reporting to the Head of Experience Design as their close partner in driving the practice forward and positioning design as a business lever with clients. Our client, a global consultancy, has offices UK wide to choose from, so there will be one close to you. You’ll need to be willing to undergo SC clearance.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Leading complex service and product design engagements end to end, defining service strategies and future state architectures.
• Leading multidisciplinary teams to research, prototype, test and launch new services.
• Facilitating design sprints and co‑creation sessions, and creating service blueprints, journeys and propositions that scale.
• Guiding senior client stakeholders through complex decisions and helping grow engagements.
• Mentoring and developing service designers across grades, including performance management and career progression.
• Shaping design methods, tools and quality standards, supporting GDS assessment preparation, hiring and proposals.

What You’ll Bring:

• Proven GDS experience, including the GDS Service Standard and service assessments.
• Experience leading service design through the full lifecycle, including pilot and live operation, and influencing senior stakeholders in complex or regulated environments.
• Evidence of building design capability, such as setting standards, mentoring designers or standing up new practices.
• Fluency in blueprinting, journey mapping, systems mapping and proposition development, with strong workshop and sprint facilitation skills.
• Experience leading multidisciplinary teams in agile or hybrid delivery, and the confidence to manage upwards and challenge constructively.
• Desirable: accessibility and regulatory knowledge, multi-sector experience, quantitative survey design, service measurement, designing AI‑enabled services.

What’s On Offer:

• Hybrid working, with 2 days a week in the office.
• Training and development, including external certifications.
• Core and flexible benefits package.

Please note: candidates must be willing and eligible to undergo SC security clearance, and need to have been UK resident for a minimum of 5 years.

This role may suit candidates who have held roles including: Senior Service Designer, Principal Service Designer, Head of Service Design, Service Design Lead, Design Lead, CX Transformation Lead.