Job Description

On behalf of the Met Office, we are looking for a Senior Service Designer (Inside IR35) for a 12 Month contract based Hybrid in Exeter.



The Met Office is seeking a Senior Service Designer to join the Space Weather team within the Hazards & Resilience tribe. This team works to reduce the impact of space weather on key sectors, supporting the UK's Severe Space Weather Preparedness Strategy, while delivering both public value and profitable revenue.



This is a key role in shaping the end-to-end design of space weather services. You'll work with minimal support, mentor others, and help embed user-centred design (UCD) in a multidisciplinary team. Your focus will be on designing services that enable users to make evidence-based decisions in response to space weather events.



You'll contribute to the creation or improvement of products, data, and content, and play an active role in the Met Office's dedicated UCD team -- championing best practice and helping to build a strong, user-focused culture.



As a Senior Service Designer, your main responsibilities will be:

Collaborate across teams - work with Senior Product Managers, Programme Managers, and multidisciplinary teams to align on design concepts, and clearly document and communicate design decisions. Design service journeys - Create detailed 'as-is' and 'to be' service blueprints for space weather and Hazards & Resilience services, ensuring they are inclusive and accessible. Facilitate design activities - Plan and lead design sessions with teams, users, and stakeholders to generate insights and drive useful outcomes. Use evidence and prototyping - Analyse complex data, prototype ideas, and use research to test and refine design hypotheses. Lead and align design strategy - Coordinate design work across the Hazards & Resilience tribe, ensuring services meet business needs and deliver measurable impact. Champion UCD culture - Gather stakeholder needs, manage expectations, embed user-centred design practices within teams, mentor colleagues, and advocate for UCD across the Met Office.

Essential:

Strong service design experience, with the ability to create detailed service blueprints and map end-to-end user journeys across complex systems. Proven ability to in apply user-centred design (UCD) principles in a multidisciplinary environment, particularly in areas new to UCD. Experience working to Government Digital Service (GDS) standards, with a solid understanding of designing accessible, inclusive services in the public sector. Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work closely with product managers, researchers, developers, and stakeholders to align on design decisions. Ability to lead and mentor others, supporting teams in adopting a service-led, systems-thinking approach and embedding good design practices. A systems-thinking mindset, with the ability to connect individual projects into a cohesive, joined-up service experience. SC Clearance is an essential requirement for this role, as a minimum you must be willing & eligible to undergo checks. Please note, due to the exceptional requirements of this position (short-term nature of this role and speed at which we require a postholder in situ) preference may be given to candidates who meet all of the essential criteria and hold active security clearance.

Please be aware that this role can only be worked within the UK and not Overseas.



Disability Confident



As a member of the Disability Confident Scheme, the Met Office guarantees to interview all candidates who have a disability and who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of candidates who have a disability who meet all the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. This scheme encourages candidates with a disability and/or neurodivergence to apply. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.



Armed Forces Commitment



The Met Office guarantees to interview veterans or spouses / partners of military personnel who meet all the essential criteria for the vacancy. In cases where we have a high volume of ex-military candidates / military spouses or partners, who meet all of the essential criteria, we will interview the best candidates from within that group. In exceptional circumstances, we may also need to apply the desirable criteria in our shortlisting process which may include holding active security clearance.



In applying for this role, you acknowledge the following "this role falls in scope of the Off Payroll Working in the Public Sector legislation. Any rates of payment quoted will reflect the gross rate per day for the assignment and will be subject to appropriate taxes and statutory costs. As such the payment to the intermediary and your income resulting from this contract will be different".