Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government

Contents

• Location
• About the job
• Benefits
• Things you need to know
• Apply and further information

Bristol, Leeds, London, Manchester, Wolverhampton

About the job

Job summary

Here at the Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG), we work on things that make a real difference to people’s lives. 

The Elections Directorate is a welcoming and inclusive team. We are responsible for a challenging and dynamic portfolio, always in the public eye, covering electoral policy and law and development and delivery of a suite of digital services, including Register to Vote. 

We are at the start of an exciting new programme of work to implement key manifesto commitments set out by the new Government, through primary and secondary legislation, and digital and operational delivery. The commitments include: 

• Increasing engagement of young people by enfranchising 16- and 17-year-olds. 
• Improving voter registration to increase the number of people correctly registered to vote. 
• Reforming voter identification rules to improve accessibility for all electors. 

As our new Head of User Centred Design, you will develop and grow the User Centred Design function in the Elections Directorate focusing on using research and design to improve electoral registration, deliver manifesto commitments and improve services for our users. You’ll help ensure that user centred design approaches can have an impact in our digital and policy teams and find pragmatic ways of influencing teams operating at pace in ambiguous environments to incorporate UCD into their work and decision making. You’ll be an expert at advocating for user-centred design and choosing the right techniques and approaches for the environment you’ll develop and lead. 

You’ll champion the context and experience of the users of our services and communicating the user perspective to senior stakeholders, so users needs are considered within the formulation of policy, and the design of services. You’ll coach teams across the directorate to develop design concepts, embed good practice and ensure that decisions are being taken based on research and evidence. This role will work with a range of disciplines, including a growing number of Civil Servants from the UCD profession and individuals from third-party suppliers. This is a leadership and management role – you may support UCD activities in the team, but your primary focus will be on leading your team and their delivery and influencing the wider directorate. 

Job description

As the Head of User Centred Design, you'll:

• be a visible leader in the Elections Directorate advocating for the importance of designing intelligent user centred services and improved policy design, including with senior stakeholders and Ministers
• spearhead user research, conduct testing, rapid prototyping and generating insights to inform product development
• support the User Centred Design community, helping members feel involved and supported in their professions, help them to identify improvements in their ways of working and use their insights to influence Product and Digital strategies
• advise and coach teams in complex policy and operational areas on UCD, providing design thinking and expertise to specific projects so they can embed user centred improvements and changes; guiding the directorate to adopt inclusive practices to deliver accessible services that work for all users
• establish and lead a new UCD focused team within our Digital division and build the team to ensure that we have the right capacity and capability to deliver
• be an excellent people manager who can develop and empower a high performing team
• play a leadership role in the Elections Digital Team and the wider Elections Directorate

Person specification

We will use the essential criteria below to evaluate you during the recruitment process. Make sure your CV and cover letter details how you meet the criteria.

As the Head of User Centred Design, you'll have:

• experience in growing and mentoring a high-performing UCD team, establishing processes and methodologies to ensure user-centred design principles are integrated into product development activities
• ability to lead teams to design services that meet user needs, including analysis of pain points within existing services, identifying root causes and creating recommendations to address that failure, mapping current service journeys and creating blueprints for improved and/or new services
• experience of championing continuous service design in a multidisciplinary team
• experience of building effective relationships and working closely with policy stakeholders to embed design principles at the very earliest stages of policy and design thinking
• strategic thinking skills and ability, including being able to quickly understand the political, social and technological context of designing services, identifying opportunities for user-centred design to add value, and communicating those opportunities clearly to stakeholders and decision makers
• knowledge of how to ensure collaborative working practices between service designers, content designers, product managers and developers, turning designs into stories and actions that lead to valuable service improvements and solutions
• experience in leading teams through ambiguity, uncertainty, challenge, or change; setting expectations to meet evolving needs, and excellent people management and team leadership skills

Behaviours

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

• Communicating and Influencing
• Leadership
• Working Together

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £70,644, Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government contributes £20,465 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Digital Data Jobs Recruitment Team
• Email : digitaldatajobs@communities.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : digitaldatajobs@communities.gov.uk