Head of Design

Head of Design

Permanent, Full Time

£76,600 to £90,117 per annum

Location: Chelmsford

Working Style: Anywhere worker*

Interviews will be held in person at County Hall, Chelmsford on 24^th October 2025.

*Experience the best of both worlds with our flexible hybrid working arrangements. Enjoy the freedom to work from home while still benefiting from in-person collaboration at our Chelmsford office, typically around 2 to 3 days per month dependent on business need. 

Join a Council Shaping the Future of Public Services

Essex County Council (ECC) is on a bold journey to become one of the most effective, forward-thinking, and financially sustainable councils in the UK by 2030. At the heart of this transformation is a bold commitment to digital innovation and world-class customer service.

In this pivotal role, you’ll lead and inspire ECC’s multi-disciplinary Design team. Bringing together architects, designers, and researchers to shape services that truly meet user needs. With a strong focus on user-centred design and customer experience, your leadership will ensure ECC delivers services that are intuitive, inclusive, and aligned with organisational goals.

You’ll champion design thinking across the council, using business and user insights to make a compelling case for scalable service models and standardised patterns. Your expertise will help embed design excellence into every stage of service development, driving innovation and impact for Essex residents.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead a multi-disciplinary team of architects, designers, and researchers to deliver user-centred, business-aligned services that work for both residents and staff.
• Champion a consultancy mindset, encouraging curiosity, challenge, and creative problem-solving to design impactful service solutions.
• Build trusted relationships with senior stakeholders, using data, evidence, and storytelling to influence strategic decisions and highlight the value of design.
• Establish and lead Design Communities of Practice, fostering collaboration, innovation, and the sharing of best practice across the council.
• Oversee all research and design activities, ensuring services are inclusive, accessible, and responsive to diverse user needs.
• Collaborate with the Head of Architecture to develop scalable service patterns and business models that align with ECC’s strategic goals.
• Drive consistency in user experience and service delivery by prioritising common components and reusable design patterns across the organisation.
• Identify and manage strategic design risks, safeguarding ECC’s reputation and digital assets.
• Coach and develop the team to become multi-skilled professionals, enabling flexible, high-performing design capability across projects.

The Experience You Will Bring:

• Proven leadership in service design, with experience managing multi-disciplinary teams in complex environments.
• Educated to degree level (or equivalent by experience), ideally in interaction design, HCI, UX, or a related field.
• Strong understanding of digital-era business models, technologies, and service design principles, with a focus on user-centred and inclusive design.
• Excellent communication and influencing skills, with the ability to engage senior stakeholders and drive strategic change.
• Experience designing services and leading transformation initiatives at scale, ideally within the public sector.
• Committed to professional development, with membership of a recognised body such as the British Computing Society (BCS) preferred.

What’s in it for you?

• Generous Time Off: Starting with 27 days of holiday, which increases with your length of service, plus 8 bank holidays and up to 4 paid volunteer days each year to give back to your community.
• Secure Your Future: Benefit from enrolment in the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), ensuring your financial security for the future.
• Health and Wellbeing: We know that your wellbeing is essential. We are committed to providing an inclusive and supportive working environment for all employees. You will have access to our wellbeing portal, employee networks and more.
  
• Professional Growth: We cover the payment of professional fees for approved professions, supporting your career development.
• Work-Life Balance: Enjoy the flexibility of hybrid working arrangements, allowing you to balance work with your personal life.

To read more please visit our Pay & Reward page on our careers site.

Why Join ECC?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost.

Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working, excellent development opportunities, and the chance to work with a supportive team that’s passionate about what they do, Essex is the ideal place for you.

Ready to help shape the future of public services in Essex?
Apply now and become a key player in ECC’s digital transformation journey.

What else do you need to know?

In February 2025, Greater Essex was accepted onto the Government’s devolution priority programme, which will see local authorities in Essex work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority by May 2026. You can read more about devolution and local government reorganisation (LGR) on our careers site.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service.  The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate.  This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained.  For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries on this role or require anything further, please email Abbie.Mollison@essex.gov.uk.

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