Service Designer

We appreciate this is a reasonably new role in the industry, and are looking for experienced individuals who can support our current design team. If you think this is something you’d be good at please let us know. We’re not currently recruiting for junior roles but if you think your future is in design we still like to make connections. We also sometimes open applications for our job with no title which is an opportunity for those new to the industry to join our team.

Paper is now 5 years old, and our core team of 9 need someone who can support our service design work. We're based in Sheffield but do a considerable amount of work in Manchester and have members of the team who commute from Manchester.

What the job is

You’ll be working with Paper’s research and design teams on projects across multiple economic sectors designing services which deliver on user needs. This role is more than just being a designer at Paper, it’s an opportunity to work with the team to continue shaping Paper’s services. You’ll also take part in mentoring colleagues to introduce new thinking. We’re looking for someone with existing experience in the role to work independently alongside support from the leadership team.

Typically your day will involve leading a service delivery team on design, making strategic decisions with clients while considering the overall needs of the people who use their service.

Our most recent example of a large service design project was working with the DfE to design their Claim additional payments for teaching service. It required our service design team to complete some of the following tasks:

• work with the product manager to set a 12 month scope for the service
• direct our research team to prioritise their recruitment and analysis
• make strategic decisions and recommendations on how the service would be managed by DfE
• design high level journey’s throughout the entire service
• encourage crossfunctional design with various teams (policy, digital, tech etc)
• design and implement a user support process and help build the team

Core skills of any designer at Paper:

You’ll be expected to be a competent and confident designer who makes good evidence based decisions while being trusted to manage these decisions and ask for help when needed.

• Able to prototype comfortably
• User focused view on challenges
• Design decisions based on evidence
• A focus on outcomes not deliverables
• A background with some level of interaction design
• Able to facilitate comfortably
• Communicating design decisions to other team members
• Experience with Agile ways of working

Nice to have skills:

• Coding skills (any level)
• A background in research or interaction design
• Experience in civil service
• Working on large services
• Experience of working with policy, governance and processes

Additional skills expected of more senior designers:

Senior designers will work with minimal support, and will work with senior stakeholders to set direction while mentoring less senior members of the team. You’ll be expected to champion good practice and influence your team and the design of the service you’re working on.

• Leadership, mentoring and guidance for clients and colleagues on service design
• Transparent and collaborative way of working
• Ability to guide and improve Paper’s design service
• Strategic design thinking and ability to scope well
• Working with large multi disciplinary teams
• Understanding how dev, design, research co-exist
• Comfortable guiding and aiding product managers/owners
• Taking an active role in responding to sales opportunities

Salary and benefits

We offer 25 days of holidays minimum (plus extra time off over XMAS). Salaries for the role start at £30k and increase to £65k depending on experience. You also get a £1200 training budget. We do believe we have a unique proposition too in addition to salary:

You get time to work on research and development, and third sector

In your contract you’ll be given protected time to work on things which aren’t billable (typically 1 day per week depending on projects). Our R&D pipeline has a wealth of opportunities to learn and experiment (and you can bring your own, and contractually you own those ideas), while our principles (2 and 3) encourage Paper to work on third sector projects too (which we invest in heavily, to diversify our opportunity to learn).

We encourage a flat structure and are self organised

We have 3 directors, who guide and represent Paper, but we don’t like to think of them as bosses. We don’t have a management team and everyone who works at Paper has shared responsibilities, a shared backlog (sales, tasks, marketing, ways of working etc) and is self organised.

We value how we treat people

One of our R&D projects developed a code of conduct to share how we expect to treat people, and how we expect to be treated. We created this to encourage diversity and inclusivity at Paper and with our clients.

We do sensible things

We’re a flexible employer, who understands life is more than just work. If you need to start work late that’s cool. If you need to work from home, that’s cool too. What, there’s one day you need to work around Christmas because the bank holidays fall weird? We might as well just have the day off (unless you really do want something to do!).

We’re proud of our flexible working

We’ve created a collaborative work space in Kollider in Sheffield which has a variety of facilities (and it’s sooooo close to the 🚈 train station). From various spots to perch (sofa’s, high tops, hot desks or plug in to a monitor) to quiet spaces to work or hip places to eat (we’re right above Kommune you know!? 🤤 AND we get 10% off, wut). We also have music on in the studio.

Paper is designed to be a happy place to work, we’re not perfect but we work hard to improve things every day.

In addition to the studio our flexible working policy allows you to work where you are best placed. Whether that’s on a client site, at home, or from the studio, we encourage a healthy mix of environments.

Paper also does a lot of work with government organisations which require us to perform DBS checks for everyone who works for and with us. We often work with vulnerable people, children and schools and will perform an enhanced DBS check as a condition of any job offer we make you. If you have any concerns you can speak to us confidentially and without judgement.

How to apply

We don’t ask for CV’s, cover letters or portfolios, we ask that you send us whatever best represents you. To apply for this role please complete the application form.

What's it like to work at Paper?

We work hard to make Paper a great place to work. We’re an honest and transparent group of people and are guided by our principles. We’re not here to be a bum on a seat, we’re here to make a difference. We’re not “yes people”. We’re realists and we work hard to make things the best they can be.

This is not an easy role, and that’s why it’s a great opportunity. You’ll be joining an experienced team who have crafted this business. We want you to challenge our approach to give us an extra insight into how we run our business.

Diversity and opportunity

We are an equal opportunity employer and diversity is very important to us as a business both in the work we do and the people we work with. We encourage you to get in touch no matter what.