Hybrid working. Offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh. While many team activities, community events, and co-design sessions will take place in-person, we expect a flexible hybrid approach, with time spent in either office based on business needs., We're looking for a Senior Service Designer to take an end-to-end view of our service journeys, ensuring they flow seamlessly. This will help us deliver effortless digital experiences, build on customer satisfaction, and advance the practice of Service Design across Registers of Scotland.
You are an excellent communicator and storyteller, able to simplify complex ideas, visualise solutions, and adapt to uncertainty while working within organisational constraints.
In this role, you'll lead design concepts, take ownership of shaping complex services, embed best practices within multi-disciplinary teams, and make informed decisions grounded in research. This is an opportunity for an experienced service designer to create meaningful impact, drive positive change, and influence how our services are shaped and delivered.
On a typical day you will…
+ Visualise end to end services with front and backstage processes in line with user needs and business requirements
+ Facilitate workshops to validate and refine the journeys with key customers, colleagues and stakeholders
+ Gather data to inform journey mapping, ensuring we understand the experience and pain points for the customer
+ Redesign services and embed new services focussing on what matters to the customer
+ Share understanding of approach to service design and maturity and how this supports the Scottish Government service design and digital service standards
+ Support the Service Design community of practice with other internal and external colleagues.
+ Be confident in engaging stakeholders and working with established governance forums such as the Service Alignment Team
+ Facilitate co-design with colleagues to produce improvements for services.
+ Implement improvements across small groups, monitoring and assessing risk or impact before implementing on a larger scale.
+ Support secondary activities as requested by the Principal Designer or Service Design Lead, + Listen to the needs of the technical and business stakeholders and interpret between them, managing expectations
+ Advise others how to effectively plan and run design sessions with a team, users or stakeholders
+ Adapt a design session to ensure you achieve outcomes
Leading and Communicating/Building Capability for All
+ Lead, mentor, and role-model good design decisions, guiding teams across projects and disciplines
+ Collaborate with stakeholders, translating needs, managing expectations, and facilitating challenging discussions
+ Advise on and deliver inclusive, accessible, ethical, and sustainable services and content that reflect user context
+ Share best practices in design, project delivery, and risk management, ensuring standards such as accessibility are met
Thinking Wider
+ Understand and communicate business and service constraints, challenging them where needed to meet standards
+ Guide teams on tools, methods, and user-centred design to achieve outcomes across multiple channels
+ Help teams align their work with organisational goals and vision
+ Use insights from risks, opportunities, technology, systems, and policy to shape effective design
Analysis and Making Effective Decisions/ Delivering a Quality Service (cluster)
+ Make informed decisions in complex or high-risk situations, building consensus across teams and stakeholders
+ Identify and resolve team dynamics or workflow issues
+ Provide timely, appropriate feedback and ensure actions are taken
+ Use qualitative and quantitative data to inform service design and set customer-focused metrics
+ Analyse customer feedback and data to measure and improve service effectiveness
+ Visualise and implement end-to-end service design, applying risk methodologies proportionate to the situation and integrating digital and assisted-digital solutions
+ Help teams manage outcomes, prioritise work, and track progress effectively
+ Iterate and refine complex designs based on research and feedback
+ Adapt designs quickly in response to changing requirements, priorities, or user needs, + Responses explaining how you meet the required competency aspects of the role (maximum 300 words per answer in the spaces provided).
Please note:
+ If we receive a high volume of applications, we may complete an initial sift on Technical/Experience Criteria
+ We reserve the right to invite candidates to participate in a telephone interview prior to being further assessed
+ Applications that are not accompanied by CVs or responses exceeding 300 words per competency will not be considered
+ We would strongly recommend that your statement is written in the STAR format (Situation, Task, Action & Result) and preparing your answers using software such as MS Word or Google Docs, and then uploading the file
+ We strongly advise you review our policy on responsible use of AI in the application process. RoS may check answers with an AI detection tool and will contact you for a pre-screening call to verify your responses
+ Applications and appointments are subject to a strict merit-based assessment process, in line with the Civil Service Recruitment Principles
Stage two - assessment
If successful at application stage, you will be invited to an in-person assessment which will include the following:
+ Pre-prepared presentation
+ Applied case study
Information on the Competency Framework
For further information on the competencies, visit our Competency Framework., Feedback will only be provided if you progress to interview stage.
Reserve List
In the event that further posts are required, a reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for up to 12 months.
Nationality and immigration status
In general, only nationals from the following countries (and associations of countries) are eligible for employment in the Civil Service: the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, and the Commonwealth. EU nationals (with settled or pre-settled status), certain EEA nationals, Swiss and Turkish nationals are also eligible for employment. Detailed provisions on determining eligibility on the grounds of nationality and, where relevant, immigration status can be reviewed here.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a Basic Disclosure Scotland check.
Individuals working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard checks.
Equality, diversity and inclusion
As a proud member of the Disability Confident Scheme, we welcome applications from disabled candidates. RoS is a diverse and inclusive workplace, and we want to help you demonstrate your full potential whatever type of selection process is used. To learn more about diversity at RoS please see our EDI strategy.
As part of the application process, we would like to invite you to please complete our diversity monitoring form. This information is not shared with recruitment panels.
If you require any adjustments to our recruitment process, please let us know via Please see this page for more information on adjustments.
DDaT supplement
This post is part of the Digital, Data and Technology profession (DDAT) and attracts a pay supplement. This is a tool which RoS uses to benchmark our salaries against current market rates. A review of the benchmark is undertaken every two years, this means that the supplement may go up or down depending on market activity. Advance notice will be given of any changes.
Further information
For further information relating to RoS, including:
Additional details on pay & benefits
The Civil Service Code
Complaints process
Use of AI in the application/recruitment process,
Please view our additional information page online.
If you have any questions, please contact talent@ros.gov.uk
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.
People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
+ UK nationals
+ nationals of the Republic of Ireland
+ nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
+ nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
+ individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
+ Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service
Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)
We will assess you against the following Experience and Technical skills during the application and assessment process:
+ Evidenced experience delivering end-to-end service design across digital and offline channels
+ Proven track record of influencing teams, mentoring others, and embedding good design practices
+ Experience making informed design decisions based on research, user insights, and organisational goals
Competencies
At application stage, you will be scored against the bolded Behaviours at application and against all for the assessment
Join an award-winning organisation recognised for its technology and innovation. Registers of Scotland is a world-leading pioneer in land and property registration. Our full-stack teams design, architect, and build all our registration products in-house. We work to create digital solutions for the people of Scotland. You will get an opportunity to nurture your creativity and develop with us through access to the latest data, software engineering and product delivery techniques., o Work with purpose: working for the people of Scotland to set the bar for land and property registration worldwide.
o Flexible and hybrid working: depending on the role and team requirements, work when and where it's best for you and your stakeholders.
o Benefits: enjoy pay progression, pension contributions of up to 28.97%, up to a year's parental leave, and 38 days annual holiday, increasing to 42 days with length of service.
o Investment in professional development: we invest in all our people so that they have the right skills to be productive and confident in their job.
o Diversity and Inclusion: We are an 'Investor in People' and a 'Disability Confident' employer. We are inclusive, stronger together, and committed to putting our people first.
o Positive work culture: RoS is an agile, digital organisation using leading-edge technology. Colleagues understand their role in achieving our strategy and have the autonomy to deliver
To learn more about RoS and what we offer visit our careers pages or watch this short video.
Hear from our colleagues about their experience of working within our Digital, Data and Technology teams on our website.
Alongside your salary of £54,145, Registers of Scotland contributes £15,685 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.