Senior Service Designer

At Social Finance, we take an iterative, participatory approach to systems change and design. Our work is incredibly varied – we design digital products and services, organisational ways of working and business models, and instil complex systemic change. We value curiosity, collaboration, pragmatism and comfort with ambiguity. We aim to invest and grow human-centred design and research capabilities in our organisation, and you’ll be joining at a time when you have a genuine opportunity to shape the direction of our research and design community. That means you’ll have lots of autonomy, and the opportunity to experiment and build our culture of learning through practice. 

As a Service Designer at Social Finance, you will:

• Lead the design of digital and non-digital services and products operating within complex systems
• Work closely with researchers to ensure services, products, systems and policies meet the needs of both end users and service providers
• Be comfortable using a range of service design tools to explore and map complex systems, visualise user journeys, and identify opportunities for improvement 
• Visualise service concepts and design low to medium fidelity prototypes of key service touchpoints (e.g. wireframes, mockups)
• Champion inclusive and accessible design, ensuring everyone can use products and services
• Facilitate collaborative workshops, co-design and co-production sessions with stakeholders, partners and end users to ideate and refine services
• Build and maintain strong relationships with clients and partners
• Define key performance indicators and frameworks for evaluating the effectiveness and social impact of designed services
• Advocate internally and externally for the use and value of user-centred design approaches
• Contribute to building the Social Finance approach to design and research — supporting the development of training or coaching materials, standard outputs, and providing design guidance for teams across the organisation

We’re looking for a service designer who is passionate about solving complex social problems through design and research. You’ll enjoy working on projects in the public sector and are motivated by creating social impact. You are comfortable leading design work, but you’re also hands-on and can adapt your role based on project needs. 

We welcome diverse experience in research and design for social impact – whether from digital, policy, academia, or service delivery backgrounds. Non-traditional career paths are valued; we prioritise your curiosity, passion and proven ability to delivery social change. You should thrive in collaborative, multidisciplinary environments and when working independently. 

Essential requirements:

• First-hand experience designing complex digital services, especially in Discovery and Alpha phases
• Ability to understand and map complex service ecosystems, or design for multiple user groups and touchpoints
• Comfort operating under ambiguity, or in situations with complex business, stakeholder, policy and user needs
• Strong visual design and communication skills, including data visualisations, service maps, wireframes and digital prototypes 
• Ability to incorporate user research insights into service design, with willingness to conduct rapid design research when needed
• Experience working in multi-disciplinary teams — enabling collaboration between policy consultants, user researchers, data scientists and software engineers
• Familiarity and comfort navigating the technical constraints and opportunities associated with data-driven services 
• Experience working with agile teams and collaborating in an open, iterative and agile manner 
• Experience working with/​within the NHS, central or local government
• Familiarity with digital service standards and assessments for the public sector
• Ability to develop strong, proactive and highly trusted relationships with senior public and third sector stakeholders and their teams
• Ability to communicate design decisions to technical and non-technical audiences 
• Proven ability to mentor junior designers and researchers
• Experience building design capability in non-design teams, and a track record advocating for the value of research and design approaches

Desirable but not essential skills include:

• Practical understanding of good practice in accessible and inclusive design
• Experience designing with and for vulnerable users, including seldom heard groups
• Practical skills in user experience and interaction design, generating user interfaces, interaction patterns, wireframes and prototypes
• Understanding of data ethics and privacy considerations
• Experience planning and conducting design research, from user interviews to data analysis
• Background in consulting or agency environments, working across multiple client projects 

The fixed salary for this position is £60,000 per annum. Working for a mission driven organisation is more than just what we pay though, it’s about our culture, our approach and what else we offer. Read more about working at Social Finance.

We are an ambitious not for profit organisation that helps to design, fund and scale better solutions to complex social problems. Our vision is a fairer world where together we unleash the potential of people and communities. We do this by working in partnership with local and national governments, funders, communities and the social sector to tackle complex and enduring social problems in the UK and across the world. 

Our skills include financial analysis, data and digital insight, outcomes-focused partnerships, strategy, research and design. We combine these specialisms in different ways to address specific social challenges. We create effective solutions that blend the expertise of communities and professionals to deliver better outcomes in issues such as homelessness, domestic abuse, children’s services, health, employment and skills. 

Ready to make your own impact on these issues? Then come and join us. Our multi-skilled team of over 120 people come from diverse backgrounds in the public, private and charity sectors, all sharing a passion for making change happen. We provide a high-quality training and development programme in-house with great opportunities for career progression. We’re a friendly and intellectually curious bunch, always up for a debate. 

Our unique method combines financial analysis, data science, service design, and social issues research. We focus this expertise on understanding the needs of service users and working with communities to create new responses to challenging social problems. 

We develop models, products and services that are pragmatic and have the scope to drive systemic change to improve people’s lives. In the UK, we focus on issues such as homelessness, domestic abuse, mental health, learning difficulties, loneliness and vulnerable children on the edge of the care system. We also look to improve equity for marginalised communities in social services. Internationally, we design outcomes-based models for issues such as maternal and neonatal health, education and employment. 

Everyone at Social Finance believes that change for communities is possible. To help us achieve it, we have three core values that guide everything we do. We are curious, empathetic and pioneering.

We actively encourage applications from under-represented and minoritised groups, including those with lived experience of the social issues we are working to address. We are an equal opportunities employer.

We support a range of flexible working options and welcome UK based applications from outside of London/​the Southeast so far as they can meet the in-person meeting requirements for the role. We can also accommodate secondments and part-time working. Read more about our approach to equity, diversity and inclusion here.

We work on some projects where our clients may require different levels of DBS checking for our employees. Candidates deemed suitable for a role after interview will be asked to declare any unspent convictions to ensure that we are able to resource them to projects appropriately.

To apply for this position, please submit your application through our recruitment partner, Propel. They will guide you through the process and provide all necessary information.

For further details and to submit your application, please contact Megan Wilcox, Megan.Wilcox@propellondon.com or Ollie Cole, Ollie.Cole@propellondon.com

Tel: 07595943334

If you would like more information about the role, please email bethan.obrien@socialfinance.org.uk or our Practice Lead; Billie Andersen-Waine, Billie.andersen.waine@socialfinance.org.uk