Service Designer / UX Designer (Public Sector)

We are seeking an experienced Service Designer / UX Designer to support the design and improvement of user-centred services within the public sector.

This role focuses on understanding user needs, conducting research, facilitating stakeholder engagement, and designing end-to-end services that improve outcomes for citizens, customers, and internal users. The successful candidate will work across discovery, design, testing, implementation, and continuous improvement activities.

This is a Service Designer first, UX Designer second role, with a strong emphasis on service redesign, user research, accessibility, stakeholder engagement, and public sector transformation.

Key Responsibilities

Service Design & Transformation

• Deliver end-to-end service design projects from discovery through to implementation and continuous improvement.
• Apply service design methodologies to understand current and future-state service experiences.
• Create service blueprints, customer journey maps, ecosystem maps, and service improvement recommendations.
• Translate user, business, and operational requirements into practical service design solutions.
• Support service transformation initiatives through human-centred design approaches.
• Identify opportunities to improve service effectiveness, efficiency, accessibility, and user satisfaction.

User Research & Customer Insight

• Plan and conduct qualitative and quantitative user research activities.
• Conduct user interviews, stakeholder interviews, field research, observation studies, surveys, and usability testing.
• Analyse and synthesise research findings into actionable insights and recommendations.
• Develop personas, user stories, customer journeys, and research reports.
• Translate user needs into clear requirements and service improvements.

Service Design & UX Design

• Create service blueprints, customer journey maps, personas, storyboards, and interaction models.
• Produce low-fidelity and high-fidelity wireframes and prototypes.
• Design user-centred services and experiences aligned with user, business, and operational needs.
• Contribute to design systems, standards, and style guides.
• Ensure consistency across products, services, and channels.
• Use tools such as Figma, Miro, and Canva to communicate and validate design solutions.

Stakeholder Engagement & Facilitation

• Facilitate workshops, co-creation sessions, design sprints, and stakeholder engagements.
• Collaborate with senior stakeholders, subject matter experts, business teams, and technical teams.
• Present research findings, concepts, and recommendations to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Support multidisciplinary teams in adopting user-centred design approaches.

Accessibility & Inclusive Design

• Apply Universal Design principles throughout the design process.
• Ensure services meet accessibility requirements and inclusive design standards.
• Incorporate accessibility testing and validation into project delivery.
• Promote accessible service design practices.

Continuous Improvement & Strategy

• Contribute to UX and Service Design strategies.
• Support the development of measures and monitoring approaches to assess service effectiveness.
• Use research findings, user feedback, and analytics to identify improvement opportunities.
• Demonstrate measurable service improvements through design interventions.

Knowledge Transfer & Capability Building

• Produce user guides, training materials, and research documentation.
• Support capability building within teams.
• Provide guidance and support to junior designers where appropriate.
• Contribute to the development of service design and UX practices.

AI in Service Design

• Use AI tools to support:

  • User research
  • Insight generation
  • Service design activities
  • Content synthesis
  • Design exploration and ideation

• Ensure AI usage aligns with organisational policies and governance standards.

Essential Requirements

• Minimum 4 years' experience in Service Design or a related discipline such as UX Design, Interaction Design, Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Organisation Design, Product Design, or User-Centred Design.
• Design-related qualification at NFQ Level 7 or above, or equivalent.
• Experience delivering end-to-end service design or UX projects.
• Experience working within structured project and delivery environments.
• Experience conducting user research and usability testing.
• Experience creating:
  • Customer journey maps
  • Service blueprints
  • Personas
  • User stories
  • Wireframes
  • Prototypes
• Experience using:
  • Figma
  • Miro
  • Canva
• Experience facilitating workshops and engaging with stakeholders.
• Understanding of:
  • Universal Design principles
  • Accessibility requirements
  • Inclusive design practices
• Strong written, verbal, and visual communication skills.
• Experience collaborating across multidisciplinary teams.

Desirable Requirements

• Experience working within the public sector or other large, complex, public-facing organisations.
• Experience supporting service transformation or digital transformation programmes.
• Experience contributing to service design or UX strategy development.
• Experience creating and maintaining design systems and style guides.
• Experience using AI-enabled tools within the design process.
• Experience supporting capability development within teams.
• Knowledge of accessibility legislation, digital inclusion, and service accessibility best practices.
• Familiarity with Agile, Design Thinking, Double Diamond, Service Design, or Lean UX methodologies.

What Will Strengthen an Application

We are particularly interested in candidates who can demonstrate:

• Public sector experience.
• Experience working on complex service transformation programmes.
• Strong user research credentials.
• Expertise in service blueprinting and customer journey mapping.
• Experience facilitating workshops with senior stakeholders.
• Strong Figma and Miro skills.
• Accessibility and inclusive design experience.
• Evidence of measurable service improvements and outcomes.
• Experience supporting knowledge sharing and capability development within teams.

At Version 1, we believe in providing our employees with a comprehensive benefits package that prioritises their wellbeing, professional growth, and financial stability.

• Salary Range: €45,000-€55,000

• Share in our success with our Quarterly Performance-Related Profit Share Scheme, where employees collectively benefit from a share of our company's profits

• Strong Career Progression & mentorship coaching through our Strength in Balance & Leadership schemes with a dedicated quarterly Pathways Career Development programme

• Flexible/remote working, Version 1 is tremendously understanding of life events and people’s individual circumstances and offer flexibility to help achieve a healthy work life balance

• Financial Wellbeing initiatives including; Version 1 Pension with a 5% employee-matched contribution, Private Healthcare Cover, Life Assurance, Financial advice and an Employee Discount scheme

• Employee Wellbeing schemes including Gym Discounts, Bike to Work, Fitness classes, Mindfulness Workshops, Employee Assistance Programme and much more.

• 24 days holiday allowance plus Public Holidays, enhanced maternity/paternity leave, marriage/civil partnership leave and special leave policies

• Educational assistance, incentivised certifications, and accreditations, including AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, and Red Hat

• Reward schemes including Version 1’s Annual Excellence Awards & quarterly Star Awards.

• Environment, Social and Community First initiatives allow you to get involved in local fundraising and development opportunities as part of fostering our diversity, inclusion and belonging schemes.

And many more exciting benefits… drop us a note to find out more.

Version 1 is an equal opportunities employer

We are committed to building a diverse, inclusive and respectful workplace where everyone feels valued and able to thrive. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, identities and lived experiences, and we value the different perspectives people bring including those shaped by disability and neurodiversity.

We want every candidate to have a positive and accessible recruitment experience. If you need reasonable adjustments at any stage of the process, please contact your recruiter at Version 1. We will consider all requests carefully, respectfully and confidentially.

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