Working within the User Centred Design team, alongside the Head of User Centred Design and a multidisciplinary group of Service Designers, User Researchers and Content Designers, the UCD Lead plays a critical role in shaping end-to-end services across Homes England.

You will join a skilled and collaborative team, committed to designing services that meet real user needs while delivering meaningful societal outcomes. This role sits within a wider digital leadership community, with the opportunity to influence how services are designed and delivered across the organisation, embedding user-centred practices at the heart of our work.

This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of Homes England’s services within a fast-growing organisation with a strong social purpose. Working closely with service owners, policy colleagues, and stakeholders across the agency, the UCD Lead will drive the design and continual improvement of services that make a tangible difference.

You will lead and support delivery across multiple agile, multidisciplinary teams, balancing hands-on design work with team leadership. You will manage, develop and lead your team – continually improving the quality, impact and efficiency of the design function. Alongside this, you will contribute to mapping the organisation’s service landscape, helping to align services and ensure a coherent, user-focused experience across the agency.

A bit about you…

You are an experienced User Centred Design professional, confident leading teams to deliver complex end-to-end services and working across diverse organisational environments. You are committed to continuously improving services, using research, insight and iteration to reduce complexity and create better outcomes for users and the organisation.

Delivering on a mission as bold as ours isn’t always easy. You are resilient and comfortable working with senior stakeholders, using evidence and user insight to challenge assumptions, influence decisions and drive alignment. You bring strong communication and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to explain complex design concepts clearly and practically.

You thrive in collaborative, multidisciplinary environments and enjoy working in agile teams to design and improve services. You are equally confident taking a strategic view across services as you are getting hands-on to support delivery. You effectively manage competing priorities, ensuring the most impactful work is delivered while maintaining a high standard of quality and consistency.

As a leader, you are supportive and inclusive, guiding and mentoring others to grow while fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement.

Who are we?

Homes England: The Housing and Regeneration Agency

We believe that affordable, quality homes in well-designed places are key to improving people’s lives. As the government’s housing and regeneration agency, we create thriving new places and transform urban areas, combining the full breadth of our powers, expertise, land, capital and influence to bring investment to communities and get more homes built.

How? We form long-term partnerships that bridge the gap between the public and private sector to meet local needs and aspirations. We use our influence to champion the creation of sustainable homes, communities and places that are brilliantly designed for the people that live there now, and in the future. And we use our funding and support to build a more resilient, diverse and innovative housing sector, helping new entrants in the market, encouraging modern methods of construction and design, and promoting the utmost attention to building safety.

Together with our partners, we’re accelerating the pace of house building, remediation and regeneration across the country, as we seek to deliver ever more affordable homes in places people are proud to call home for generations to come.

What we offer...

As well as a competitive salary and 33 days annual leave, we are committed to 50/50 hybrid working. We’ll support you, wherever possible, so that you don’t miss out on what matters to you.

Membership of the Homes and Communities Agency Pension Scheme, which is a contributory defined benefit scheme with the amount you receive on retirement based on your salary and years worked at the Agency.

Internal applicants: please note that if you are successful, the salary you are offered will be in accordance with our pay policy. You can find details on the HR Hub SharePoint site.

If you ever need a bit of extra help, we have a great employee assistance programme, a wide range of healthcare plans, financial wellbeing support and access to many great discounts with leading high street names.

Our range of network groups are also there to support you to be yourself at work and play a key role in helping shape our future.

If you are a member of a professional body, we’ll pay for your membership and once you get your digital kit, you’ll be good to go.

Homes England are a geographically diverse community. We work to a 50/50 office/ home based model. Moving back into our office environments has enabled us to utilise our space and time together in the most collaborative way.

We would encourage all applicants to apply as soon as possible as we may close vacancies early should we receive a high number of applications.

We also encourage you to apply using the full application option as opposed to quick apply, this is especially important if you would like to indicate to us that you would like to be considered under the disability confident scheme.

We’re a diverse team of more than 1,000 professionals spanning 17 professions, helping Homes England to be effective, efficient and deliver for communities.

Our people remain at the heart of everything we do, and we’re committed to building an Agency that not only reflects the diverse communities we serve, but also champions inclusion in how we shape homes and places across the country. For more information about our EDI strategy please see our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Report 2024 to 2025 — Second Edition - GOV.UK

You will be required to have the Right to Work in the UK and Homes England do not offer visa sponsorship. If your application is shortlisted to interview we will require you to provide proof of your Right to Work in the UK at this stage.

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements 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, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Head of Project Delivery

Cambridgeshire

Permanent

More Info

Lead - User Centred Design

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