Senior Service Designer (SC Cleared)

Job Description

The Company

At Amber Labs, we are a cutting-edge UK and European technology consultancy that prioritises autonomy, experimentation, and rapid learning to deliver exceptional value to our clients. Our company culture is highly collaborative - whether you're a consultant or part of our internal team, everyone contributes to reducing risk and accelerating delivery.

We work extensively within the UK public sector, supporting Central Government departments through digital transformation and user-centred design practices.

Role Overview

We are seeking a Service Designer with active SC Clearance to join a multidisciplinary team on a Central Government engagement. In this role, you'll help map end-to-end services, uncover user pain points, and redesign public-facing and internal journeys that are inclusive, accessible, and aligned to user needs. You'll collaborate closely with researchers, policy experts, interaction designers, and developers to ensure the right outcomes are achieved across entire services—not just at the interface level.

This is a high-impact opportunity where your work will directly improve how citizens and civil servants interact with vital government services.

Key Responsibilities

• Service Mapping: Understand and document complex service journeys, systems, and user touchpoints to inform redesign opportunities.
• User-Centred Design: Advocate for user needs through every phase of design and delivery, embedding human-centred principles.
• Stakeholder Engagement: Facilitate workshops, playback sessions, and co-design activities with stakeholders from diverse backgrounds—including senior leaders.
• Prototyping & Iteration: Collaborate on developing and testing service prototypes, aligning business, technical, and user needs.
• Evidence-Based Delivery: Work closely with user researchers and analysts to ensure decisions are driven by qualitative and quantitative insights.
• Policy to Delivery Translation: Bridge the gap between policy intent and practical service implementation by designing viable service operating models.
• Service Standards: Ensure all work aligns with GDS Service Standards and adheres to accessibility and inclusion best practices.
• End-to-End Thinking: Consider entire service ecosystems—including digital, offline, operational, and third-party components.

Requirements

• Security Clearance: Must hold active SC clearance.
• Experience designing services within central government or public sector contexts.
• A strong portfolio showcasing evidence-based service design work across complex systems.
• Experience working with multidisciplinary teams in agile environments.
• Skilled in journey mapping, service blueprints, and identifying pain points across user flows.
• Understanding of how to align policy, user needs, and technology constraints into deliverable services.
• Ability to work closely with user researchers, content designers, interaction designers, and developers.

Key Competencies

• Strong workshop facilitation and stakeholder engagement skills.
• Comfortable working with ambiguity and shaping strategy from discovery through to delivery.
• Knowledge of accessibility, inclusion, and GDS Service Standards.
• Familiarity with tools such as Miro, Lucidchart, Figma (for collaborative prototyping), and Jira/Confluence.

Benefits

• Join a rapidly expanding consultancy where personal growth is part of our DNA.
• Flexible hybrid working focused on deliverable outcomes.
• Private medical insurance (Aviva) and pension plan (Nest).
• 25 days of annual leave plus UK bank holidays.
• Access to Perkbox, our employee rewards platform offering discounts, perks, and wellbeing resources.
• Generous employee referral programme.