Job Location: Milton Keynes, Remote/Hybrid
Department: Service Design
Closing Date: 19 March 2026
Weekly Working Hours: 37
Contract Type: Permanent
Fixed Term Contract: End Date: Not Applicable
Welsh Language: Not Applicable
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About the Role
As a Service Designer, you will take responsibility for defined workstreams, leading design for less complex services and escalating exceptions where appropriate. You’ll translate problems into clear, measurable service outcomes, working closely with Product Managers to align on baselines, targets and organisational goals. Through hands on practice, coaching and collaboration, you’ll apply and refine your skills in blueprinting, journey mapping, prototyping and user testing.
You’ll build a strong understanding of how services operate end-to-end, connecting frontstage user touchpoints with the backstage systems, processes and policies that support them. You’ll contribute to organisational insight by tagging and curating your work so it can be easily found and reused. As an active member of the Design community, you’ll share work early, participate in shared sessions and contribute to a culture of openness, learning and continuous improvement.
Key Responsibilities
* Design user-centred services collaboratively within multi-disciplinary product teams, engaging the whole team in the design process and working from discovery through to live.
* Create clear service maps, journey maps and blueprints that show end-to-end experiences, exposing pain points, handoffs and opportunities for improvement.
* Work with user researchers to understand user needs and use evidence, research and analytics to inform design decisions and validate assumptions.
* Prototype and test service interactions at appropriate fidelities (from sketches to interactive prototypes) to validate ideas and learn quickly.
* Apply service design standards and principles, particularly the GOV.UK Service Standard and The School of Good Services principles, to ensure quality and accessibility.
* Design and facilitate workshops using a variety of techniques to bring teams together, surface insights and drive outcomes.
* Champion accessibility and inclusion, ensuring designs meet WCAG 2.2 AA standards and work for users with diverse needs and lowest digital skills.
* Work effectively within Agile product teams, contributing to ceremonies, planning and delivery while balancing design rigour with speed.
* Communicate designs and decisions clearly to team members and stakeholders at all levels, adapting your approach for different audiences.
* Support and learn from colleagues, contributing to knowledge sharing within the Design community of practice.
* Keep up to date with developments in service design, sharing learning with the team and applying emerging practices appropriately.
About You
* Education: A degree in Design, Service Design, Interaction Design or related field, or equivalent professional experience demonstrating service design capability.
* Professional experience: Some experience in service design, UX or related disciplines, with demonstrable understanding of user-centred design principles and service design fundamentals.
* Service design skills: Experience creating journey maps and service blueprints; ability to scope and design services based on user needs; competence with prototyping at different fidelities.
* Research & evidence: Ability to work with user researchers to understand needs; experience using research insights, data and analytics to inform design decisions.
* Collaboration: Strong collaborative approach, working effectively with Product, Engineering, Content, Research and Operations colleagues in multidisciplinary teams.
* Communication: Excellent communication skills with ability to explain ideas clearly to diverse audiences through presentations, diagrams, and workshops.
* Workshop facilitation: Experience designing and facilitating workshops using participatory techniques to drive outcomes and build alignment.
* Agile experience: Understanding of Agile delivery methodologies (Discovery → Alpha → Beta → Live) and ability to work iteratively within product teams.
* Standards: Understanding of accessibility principles (WCAG 2.2 AA) and commitment to designing inclusive services for all users.
* Technical awareness: Ability to design for digital channels; understanding of technical constraints as design inputs.
* Learning mindset: Curiosity about how services work and why; willingness to ask questions, challenge assumptions and learn from colleagues and from delivery.
Support with your application
If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.
What's in it for you?
At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window).
We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.
It is anticipated that a hybrid working pattern can be adopted for this role, where the successful candidate can work from home and the office. However, as this role is contractually aligned to our Milton Keynes office it is expected that some attendance in the office will be required when necessary and in response to business needs. We’d expect this to be on average 2 times per month.
Next steps in the Recruitment process
We anticipate that interviews for this role will be taking place online via Microsoft Teams in either late March or early April 2026.
Early closing date notification
While most roles will remain open until the advertised closing date, applications may be reviewed on an ongoing basis. In some cases, vacancies may close earlier if a sufficient number of suitable applications has been received and equality impacts have been appropriately considered. All roles will remain advertised for a minimum of one week before any early closure is implemented. If you have started an application or were in the process of applying when the advert closed, we encourage you to get in touch. We are committed to understanding individual circumstances and can offer further support where needed, including reasonable adjustments for applicants with protected characteristics.
How to apply
To apply for this role please submit the following documents:
* CV
* A personal statement of up to 1000 words. You should set out in your statement why you are interested in the role and provide examples of where your skills and experience meet the essential requirments for this role as detailed in the job description.
You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system. Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.
If you have any queries or questions about the recruitment process, or regarding your application,please contact:Careers@open.ac.uk .
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The Open University is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion which is reflected in our mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas. We aim to foster a diverse and inclusive environment so that all in our OU community can reach their potential. We recognise that different people bring different perspectives, ideas, knowledge, and culture, and that this difference brings great strength.We strive to recruit, retain and develop the careers of a diverse pool of students and staff, and particularly encourage applications from all underrepresented groups. We also aspire to make The Open University a supportive workplace for all through our policies, services and staff networks.
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