Job detail for Senior Service Designer

Job Title – Senior Service Designer

Business Area/Directorate – Education Scotland

Location - Glasgow / Livingston / Dundee

Working Arrangement – Hybrid working with 1 day/week in-person in an office.

Grade - B3

Advert type -Lateral move and temporary promotion

Duration - 6 months initially, with a possibility of a further 12 months

Eligibility - Expressions of interest are invited from substantive colleagues on level transfer or temporary promotion.

Sponsorship:

Skilled Worker sponsorship is not available for this role. As a result, we are unable to appoint candidates who require Skilled Worker sponsorship now or in the future. Applicants must have an existing and ongoing right to work in the UK.

Overview

We have an opportunity for a B3 Senior Service Designer to join the Glow team in Digital Services, Education Scotland on a temporary basis to support delivery of the Future of Glow programme.

This is an exciting time to join us as we continue to evolve our services, and increase our ability to put learners at the centre of education.

Education Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government and is the national improvement agency for education. Our role is to progress Scottish Government’s ambitious vision for education. One where educators, learners and parents can take full advantage of the potential offered by technologies in order to raise attainment, ambition and opportunities for all.

Glow is the national online platform for education in Scotland, which regularly has over 350,000 users each month. As Senior Service Designer you will use user-centred service design practice and follow the Scottish Approach to Service Design to evolve and improve Glow. You will work with the Service Design Lead and Senior User Researcher to complete design which will support the future vision for a nationally provisioned service of digital education.

**Key **

• Work within agile teams to shape, prioritise and deliver user-centred services, defining scope, outcomes and minimum viable products.
• Apply strategic thinking to design, evaluate and improve services that meet user and organisational needs.
• Manage stakeholder relationships and expectations, facilitating discussions and building consensus across teams and senior stakeholders.
• Championing inclusive, user-centred design and ensuring services work effectively across multiple channels.
• Collaborate across disciplines, creating networks and partnerships that inform better service design.
• Foster collaborative, high-performing teams and support effective ways of working and decision-making.
• Understand the wider digital and policy landscape, applying this knowledge within a government context.
• Design and improve inclusive end-to-end services, identifying simple and effective solutions across multiple services and channels.
• Use evidence, research, prototyping and testing to inform design decisions and continuous improvement.
• Make and support decisions appropriate to the level of risk and complexity, applying proportionate risk management approaches.
• Lead and influence design decisions, providing constructive feedback, coaching and support to others.
• Select and apply appropriate service design methods, tools and techniques, maintaining design artefacts and documentation.
• Share best practice, develop capability and champion service design standards.
• Identify, communicate and challenge constraints where appropriate to improve service outcomes and to ensure services meet relevant standards and governance requirements.

Success Profile

Success profiles are specific to each job and they include the mix of behaviours, experience and technical criteria (if applicable) that candidates will be assessed on.

Technical / Professional Skills:

This role is aligned to the Senior Service Designer job role in the User-centred design job family within the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework.

Please review the following to understand the skill expectations: Senior Service Designer

Experience:

1. Your experience of working in an agile team, using agile tools allows you to use an iterative and flexible approach to agile delivery to rapidly design.

2. Your experience of service design projects allows you to absorb large amounts of conflicting information and use it to generate and test designs, making evidence-based decisions for a team.

3. Your experience of meeting the needs of users in the design of inclusive services and evidencing the success or need for further improvements to a service, allows you to advocate in your team for solutions that are most suitable.

4. Your experience of making and recommending decisions while balancing levels of risks, business and user needs allows you to bring people together to form effective teams and projects.

Behaviours:

• Communicating and influencing – Level 3
• Making effective decisions – Level 3
• Delivering at pace – Level 3

You can find out more about Success Profiles Behaviours, here: Behaviour levels - Success profiles: candidate guide

Working Pattern

This post is a full-time role, but we welcome applications from staff with different working patterns, proposed working patterns will be assessed against the business requirements for this post.

Our standard hours are 35 hours per week and we offer a range of flexible working options depending on the needs of the role, including Flexi-leave. If you have specific questions about the role you are applying for, please contact us.

Further Information

Further information about this opportunity is available from Emma Pollock, emma.pollock@educationscot;and.gov.scot

How to Apply

Please submit an Expression of Interest (maximum 500 words) outlining your suitability for the role, relevant skills and experience, and what you would bring to the team. Please align this to how you meet the behaviours, experience and technical skills listed in the Success Profile above.

Vacancies close at 23:59pm on Wednesday 23rd September.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools can be used to support your application, but all statements and examples provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, and presented as your own) applications will be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action.

Please see our candidate guidance for more information on acceptable and unacceptable uses of AI in recruitment.

If invited for further assessment, this will consist of an informal discussion.

Discussions are scheduled for w/c 12 October, however this may be subject to change.

For any questions relating to your expression of interest please contact Emma Pollock, emma.pollock@educationscot;and.gov.scot

Temporary Promotion (If Applicable)

Please click the link to access further guidance and information on overview and eligibility Temporary promotion

Recruitment Principles

As a government organisation, we adhere to the Civil Service Commission Recruitment Principles and we investigate any complaints received in relation to recruitment cases.

About us

Education Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government and is the national improvement agency for education.

The Scottish Government is the devolved government for Scotland. We have responsibility for a wide range of key policy areas including: education, health, the economy, justice, housing and transport. We offer rewarding careers and employ people across Scotland in a wide range of professions and roles.

Our staff are part of the UK Civil Service observing the Civil Service Code and working for Ministers and senior stakeholders to deliver vital public services which improve the lives of the people of Scotland.

We offer a supportive and inclusive working environment along with a wide range of employee benefits. Find out more about what we offer.

As part of the UK Civil Service, we uphold the Civil Service Nationality Rules.

Security checks

Successful candidates must complete the Baseline Personnel Security Standard (BPSS), before they can be appointed. BPSS is comprised of four main pre-employment checks – Identity, Right to work, Employment History and a Criminal Record check (unspent convictions).

You can find out more about BPSS on the UK Government website, or read about the different levels of security checks in our Candidate Guide.

Equality statement

We are committed to equality and inclusion and we aim to recruit a diverse workforce that reflects the population of our nation.

Find out more about our commitment to diversity and how we offer and support recruitment adjustments for anyone who needs them.

Further information

Find out more about our organisation, what we offer staff members and how to apply on our Careers Website.

Read our Candidate Guide for further information on our recruitment and application processes.

Apply before: 23/09/2026 (23:59). This role is open to internal colleagues and common citizenship organisations only.